A few weeks ago I was standing in the checkout line at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op when a woman in a burqa joined the adjacent queue. It was off-white in color, like raw linen. It covered her completely, from head to toe. (I could just see her toes peeking out. She was wearing leather sandals.) I was standing next to her. I could hear her breathing. Her eyes were invisible behind a blank strip of gauze. Incongruously, hideously, it reminded me of Robocop.
I felt appalled. I felt ill. It was like suddenly finding myself next to a man wearing SS insignia and armed with a machine gun. No, that’s not right. It was like being next to an SS prisoner, with a yellow badge on her jacket and a number tattooed on her arm.
I wanted to do something. I wanted to say: Who did this to you? Take me to him and I will tell him a thing or two. But I did nothing. And I haven’t seen her since. But I promise you, next time, I will do something. I don’t know what. But I cannot, must not stand there again, afraid to act, afraid to help. I have to do something. This abuse must not stand. Not if I can do anything about it.
YASHWATA 
Then we are agreed. I took it from your last paragraph that you would confront the poor woman in the burka. My entire premise was that her as target was the wrong way to direct your resolve.
Your psychology class has misled you. Yes, social norms are conventional and contextual. But that doesn’t mean that the burqa is ever a sensible solution to anything. There are limits. You might be interested in Sam Harris’s new TED talk, which is on this exact topic.
Another way to say this is to observe that there is no such thing as “a community of devout Muslims.”
I would never yell at a woman in a burqa. It’s not her fault that she’s been enslaved. As you say, we should be yelling at the company.
Well again, i’m afraid you are unable to pick and choose those who wear a burqa becuase they are forced to and those who choose to wear one because they choose to due to their religion. Saying it has health consequences is the same as saying, people shouldn’t use computers all day because the screens are bad for their eyes, or people shouldnt work as radiologists due to the small amount of extra radiation they receive.
If you take an abnrmal psych course, one of the very first lessons is about context. Sure, for someone in a community of redneck, it may be abnormal to wear a burka (or be a geek), but these people are in a community of devout muslims.
Yelling at the burka wearer is like yelling at the person who splits fish for a big company. You know that what they are doing is dangerous, the conditions are dangerous and unhealthy, but yelling at the fish splitter is the wrong person. That person is powerless. You should be yelling at the company.
The burqa means she never gets any sunlight. This has serious health consequences, though admittedly not as severe as her daily beatings.
No one would choose to wear a burqa who was not already mentally ill (though of course exceptions are conceivable.) If she goes out in public like that, the people who are supposed to be taking care of her are not doing it right.
You’re probably right that, as Dorothy Parker said, no good deed goes unpunished.
How about my choice to wear a propeller hat? Its just as damaging to me as a burka is to a woman. its not the burka that harms her.
My problem is that you are inflicting upon some random person some boundaries on what they chose to wear and you can not discern whether or not its their choice, or an edict from their mate or community.
I’m with you on the idea this type of dress is probably the result of something very evil, but I strongly suspect that whatever you do with regard to the next person you see in a burka…you will be the one looking like an ass.
Yes, I have. This would make it even more urgent that we identify the men responsible for her condition.
Have you considered the possibility that, by delusion or brainwashing, she may want to wear a burka?