CORONA DIARY - II

 

I will write about the books that I have been reading during the past few months in my review of the year at the end of December but for now let me turn to something that is exercising my mind at this time: face masks.

Those familiar with my writings (pp 365-367 of my book) will know that I am strongly anti veil, on the ground that “[it] constitutes a physical …. barrier to … inter-personal relations”.  More specifically, it is the all-enveloping loose-fitting garment with just a sleet for the eyes that I abhor.  I have no problem with the `hijab` or a headscarf of any kind that leaves the face uncovered. 

But by an extraordinary irony of our Covid fate, we are all now having to wear a face mask in public in an increasing number of settings!  We know that the rationale for this is to prevent airborne streaks of the virus from spreading across from person to person, but what it also does is to act as a screen or shield against face-to-face contacts and conversations between people.  This has become the `new normal`, with exceptions for those who are part of a social or familial `bubble` and in some other specific situations.  So how is this any different from face veils of the kind that I have been critical of? 

It may appear not much, but the fact is a mask is not as stark and forbidding as a face veil, because a large part of the face remains visible. Of course a lot depends on the size and shape of the mask and how it is worn. Under a typical Muslim niqab, however, what can be seen is only the eyes through the narrow opening below the forehead, while the rest of the face is hidden behind a shroud. 

That said, the overall effect of the face mask is nevertheless to mar or diminish the ordinary human experience of verbal communication. Like many people, I too have to often adjust the face mask, pulling it up or down over the nose, when speaking to someone. While for most of us in the west the face mask phenomenon has come about only in the wake of the Covid pandemic, it is not a novelty to people in East and South-East Asia where they are used to wearing face masks outdoors as a matter of routine. 

As for my fundamental objection to the complete veil, those who defend it on cultural and/or religious grounds could surely argue that environmental and health reasons also provide a sound basis for it as in those parts of Asia!  That is quite reasonable though, as it happens, ever since the Covid-19 crisis began, I have not seen any burqa clad women out and about, unlike those wearing just the headscarf, with or without face masks. 

Be that as it may, the sooner life can get back to as it used to be and we no longer have to put on face masks, the better. I am looking forward to the day when that happens.

RAMNIK SHAH

(c) 2020

Surrey, England