Greetings Karina =)
I wondered if (forgetting about political/racially prejudiced explanations) one of the reasons that many people are so uncomfortable with the covering of a human face is because of this 'innate' urge to identify others?
What do you think?
it really depends on the society and the mindset of that society you are in, i believe. if you live somewhere where the niqaab is not common, then maybe you will feel a fear (but even then i think it is subjective-see below). but if you live somewhere where it is, then i highly doubt you will fear anything because you are used to it, you know the women aren't scary and you have developed the mindset that women/people covering their faces isn't something bad. go to places like the Gulf, no one will have a fear towards a woman covering her face because everyone has the same type of mindset.
sometimes i'll meet people (non-Muslims) and straight away i can tell if they have lived in a Muslim society or not, based on the body language they express. sometimes they seem immediately very comfortable/talkative (means they have resided with Muslims) and sometimes they seem neutral/hesitancy/friendly, but not as friendly (means they haven't lived amongst Muslims). so what im getting at is that sometimes will depend on what type of experience you have encountered towards people to have developed a postive or negative reaction towards them.
also regarding the psychology behind it, did they mention anything about having a fear towards something that replaces the face. what i mean by this is that not seeing someones face, is different from seeing something that "replaces" the face. are there variables?
also, not being able to see someones face/recognize it, how much fear will actually build in :? is it just an anxiety or...? like sometimes initally when you see someone/something, then a little fear/anxiety will tend to develop, but after a while (i dont mean befriending that person, but just merely being around them for a few minutes) you see that the person is relaxed around you.
another thing to take into consideration is the amount of interaction you have had with a people. what i mean by this is that when i see a niqaabi, i dont fear her because i know-as my brethren in faith-she isnt scary. the fact that i know the reasons why she has chosen to wear it, and what motivates her to wear it (i.e her faith) isn't something alien to me for me to be scared of. in other words, im practically in the same shoes as her, so why would i fear her?
so there are alot of variables to take into consideration before rendering something as scary or not :)