The tapadas: Latin America’s veil-clad women FEATURE 07/28/2010

The tapadas: Latin America’s veil-clad women FEATURE 07/28/2010 LIMA — Europe’s heated debate over the Islamic hijab has revived memories in Peru of its own tapadas, women from Lima who in centuries past wore long skirts and a face-covering veil. The saya, an overskirt worn tightly at the waist and raised slightly to show ankles, and the manto, a thick shawl that covered shoulders, head and much of the face, inspired painters and writers for three centuries. And they were once considered a distinctively national attire. A legacy of the Moors, or Muslims, who fled persecution in Spain, “las tapadas Limenas” were especially common among the Spanish elite when they first arrived in Peru after the Spanish colonization in the 16th century. The attire “was clearly intended to serve as a cover, to protect women’s virtue and ward off temptation,” explained Alicia del Aguila, a sociologist who has studied and written about the subject

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Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100728com3.html