Burqa [Me]

Last night, Cherish wore a burqa for the first time in front of her Master. We've borrowed the burqa, and the abaya to wear under it, from friends to wear to an upcoming event.

The burqa is an Islamic form of dress, basically a bag over the head with openings or mesh for vision and breathing, with loose fabric flowing down from it all the way to the ankles. The front is open a bit, so under it is worn an abaya, essentially a plain black dress that covers everything also. The burqa I've borrowed is a pretty fancy one - the eyes are covered by a fine embroidered mesh, and there's more embroidery also. The mesh over the mouth is quite a bit denser, and it's hard to breathe. The fabric is a bit noisy, which discourages movement. And the head-part is a bit tight above my ears. To see anything, the whole body has to be turned to look; there is no peripheral vision. And it's warm in there.

When I put on the burqa, I was talking to the boyfriend at the time. As soon as it was all settled, Cherish switched in - and I don't know what he saw as a change in this nearly amorphous form in front of him, but he saw the change immediately. He asked Cherish several things about the fit and how well she could see. What he could not observe was the huge smile I could feel on our face. Whenever she is out, I watch Cherish minimize the outward expression of any emotions. Her smiles are tiny and strained. Her yes and no are small nods and shakes of the head. Under the burqa, she actually had a full-out smile on our face. I could see her make an effort to nod more vigorously to answer her Master's questions, knowing that he couldn't see her face. He praised her and how nice it looked on her; that did help, of course.

So next weekend we'll be wearing the burqa in public to an event at the club. The person that loaned it to me said that she felt completely invisible the time that she wore it there, and hated it. Cherish would love to be invisible; she seems to be looking forward to it.