For people who don't know: What's being talked about here.

The western equivalent

Either Em or a commentator she quoted compared extreme Western "ideals" and the burka as representing two extreme ends of the same spectrum, I'd say they occupy exactly the *same* end of that spectrum, with extreme conformity to a rigid cultural ideal of how a woman 'aught' to look and why, and genuine non-conformity and individualistic self-expression on the other. The Western equivalent of the burka would be the prevailing trend for young Western women to coerce their flesh into lookeelikee blow up plastic sex dolls.
Though none of this discussion has so-far touched on the burka as a *political symbol* rather than a religious one - which is where the similarity ends.