Upd - Burkha Under My Lipstick

Most people assume that wearing a burkha means you have lost your identity. They look at a covered woman and see a blank space, a ghost, a victim. But they don't see the rebellion.

Choosing to cover in a world that wants you naked is an act of radical agency. Choosing to wear lipstick in a community that says beauty is only for your husband is also an act of radical agency.

Don't ask me to take off my burkha to fit into your office. And don't ask me to wipe off my lipstick to fit into your congregation. burkha under my lipstick

Living with the "burkha under my lipstick" means accepting that I will never fully fit into a neat box. I am too religious for the feminists and too liberated for the fundamentalists.

I was wrong. They aren’t enemies. They are roommates in a very cramped studio apartment called my soul. Most people assume that wearing a burkha means

Sometimes, I walk into the mosque for Friday prayers, and the aunties look at my manicured nails and tinted lips with suspicion. They whisper about how the West has corrupted me. They don’t realize that the Quran they are holding teaches that God looks at your heart, not the pigment on your mouth.

I wear the lipstick because I am allowed to be beautiful. I wear the burkha because I am more than just beauty. Choosing to cover in a world that wants

The hardest part isn't wearing both. The hardest part is the smudge.