Just because someone is an underdog doesn't mean he's a good guy. The rebels are led by former Gaddafi enforcers. The demonstrations that sparked off the rebellion were organized by relatives of Islamists who were killed during a prison revolt where they killed 200 prison guards in 1996. They were in prison because they had organized an assassination attempt against Gaddafi that same year. Gaddafi is a secular guy like Saddam. However, if you look at news accounts over the past decade, you'll see that the vast majority of Libyan women have taken to wearing a truncated version of the burka. Now, if 9/11 hadn't happened, I'd brush this off as just another eccentric religious affectation. But 9/11 did happen, and this kind of display really sets off the klaxons.
Not to quarrel unnecessarily, but I don't think Arab women wear burka/burqa styles -- isn't that Pathan/Pashtun dress?
I search for Moslem women's apparel terms and return a host of similar terms -- abaya, jilbab, hijab, disdasha, kurti, chador -- but it would take a seminar course to explain in detail.
For example: http://www.eastessence.com/
Check out "sporty" versus "formal" versus "casual". Quickly, what's the difference?
Of course, it would require a thick encyclopedia to record all the kaleidoscopic array of apparel worn by Western women, the full catalog known only to gay Hollywood costumers.