In his write-up entitled ‘Is niqab a social custom?’ (February 16), Mukhtar Aziz, the director of Islamic World Studies Centre, wrote that a group of Maltese Muslim men claimed that “the burqa or the face-covering niqab is Islamic and that Muslim women must wear them”. Through the increasing influence of the Wahhabi or Salafi sect, women in Muslim countries are nowadays under pressure to wear hijabs, jilbas, niqabs, khimars and other medieval and Bedouin garb.

Some of them pretend to like having their face or their body wrapped up in cloth, even in hot weather.

They are conditioned to think like this through their upbringing or the cultural milieu they find themselves in. A typical example of this mindset is Umayma Elamin Amer who told the Times of Malta (August 20) that the burqa “is a sign of worship.

To deny them that is to deny them their freedom to believe”. She was proved wrong by the learned Mukhtar Aziz: “Those defending the burqa/niqab... often avoid revealing the fact that this attire is basically a socialtraditional wear of some societies in Afghanistan and in the Gulf. “These are typical costumes in specific geographic regions with no ties to the Islamic Shariah.

In fact, most Muslim scholars and theologians reject the Bedouin postulation that wearing the niqab is mandatory.” Not only Muslim scholars and theologians but some Muslim women too “reject the Bedouin postulation” that medieval attire is mandatory.

At a Sliema cafe, I sat next to two attractive, fashionably dressed women in their 20s. One of them was a brunette; the other was fair.

Both of them had gorgeous hair. I asked them what country they were from. I expected them to reply: “From Italy.”  To my surprise, they told me that they were from Saudi Arabia.

When I brought up the matter of the Muslim veil, the brunette told me: “When we’re in Saudi, we wear the veil. When we leave Saudi, we remove it.”