The Ugliest Islamic Face Veil Of All- The Burghu

The burghu, not to be mixed up with the wheat product bulgur, is probably one of the ugliest forms of Islamic face coverings you will ever encounter. There's very little information out there other than references to it in an article in Gulf News regarding a recently published book by Dr. Reem El Mutwalli titled 'Sultani, Changes in Women's Traditional Dress in the UAE during the reign of Shaikh Zayid Bi Sultan Al Nahyan 1966-2004.'

The burqa, and niqab are ugly enough:

Afghan Blue Burqa

Niqab

But the burghu looks like a cross between something out of some  fetishist/S and M catalogue and some kind of muzzle you'd use on a vicious pet. It also disturbingly resembles a mustache, at least in the photos below, which are published in Mutwalli's book.

Mutwalli  actually has an uber cool website, and a Pinterest board where you can see other photos of traditional outfits worn during the period of time she writes about, some of which are actually quite beautiful. But this burghu... it's  just another symbol of the "muzzling" of Arab Muslim womenfolk. According to some info on one of the photos on her Pinterest board (although that one is called a Bandari costume), the younger generation no longer wears them, and it's usually married older women and rural dwellers in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Arabs of southern Iran and southeastern Turkey who still do.

Source: Gulf News