To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle, wrote Orwell, and while there are those who, without a struggle, can see the manifest meaning of the burqa, others, as blinded as women and children stashed behind mesh, simply will not perceive it. Countries all over the mideast and Europe have banned it; every week, a new country or province bans it. These places have eyes to see what is in front of their nose. Self-regarding ideologues, on the other hand, see only themselves. They blind themselves to radical misogyny and female enslavement staring at them – through a little eye-slit – smack in the face.