So I read the whole thread, and I don't know if I can add anything new to it
I could just give you all my personal experience being a niqabi living in the West (and visiting a Muslim country where niqab is the norm). Sorry in advance for it being incoherent or whatever, but I'm just gonna go ahead and type down whatever comes to mind.
When I started thinking about wearing the niqab, I was very young. It was even before I started wearing the hijab. Being a bit of a hard core Salafi from the get go, it appealed to me and I often chose the "stricter" interpretation during my early years as a Muslim. Once I started wearing the hijab, it didn't take more than a two months before I started donning the niqab. It was a mixture of reasons. First and foremost, there had been a build up surrounding the niqab; truly pious women wore the niqab because this was the closest to emulating the Prophet's wives. It was the most "Islamic", the "purest". There was also, in addition to this, quite the peer pressure, even though it was never officially stated. Once a sister began wearing the niqab, the other sisters around her didn't want to be any less devout or whatever. Me and my close friend had discussed wearing the niqab for a long time, so one night when she came over to me wearing it I thought "yeah, this is it".
It was always a hassle wearing the damn thing. In the beginning, you were so "in love" with it, that you didn't mind the hardships connected with it. For me it was a spiritual act and I did feel like I came closer to practicing Islam like Mo wanted me, and how allah commanded me. I always felt it was a personal choice, even though I today recognize the context and surrounding around me that affected my choice.
The niqab is truly an unnatural thing to wear. No matter the quality, no matter the fabric, no matter anything, it will always be in the way and it will always be a nuisance to wear it. Common side effects are dark rings under the eyes, constant head aches, feeling sick after being in the car for five minutes... Yeah, it's just isn't a very pleasant cloth to wear. I spent hours upon hours trying to find the right fabric and design. I ended up with a one piece velcro niqab with a high quality fabric from Sunnah Styles I ordered from Canada for 10 dollars/piece. They lasted for three or four months before the velcro stopped holding. I can honestly say that I was somewhat comfortable in those niqabs, even though I got nauseous and had minor head aches after a couple of hours with it. But they were heaven in comparison with the half face niqab, or the Saudi style (oh, the horror of the Saudi style niqab!!!). Too bad I only found them two years before I finally took it off. What a relief it would've been had I found then earlier when I really needed them!
It was because of the niqab, the actual side effects of wearing it and not people around me reacting or whatever, that made me not want to go to school for more than a couple of hours or that made it almost impossible to work in areas where I couldn't take it off after a while. As for reactions around me, from Muslims I was either treated either as "oh mashaallah sister" or "eehhh, sister why you be so extreme?". Actually, I was treated harsher and felt far more insulted and humiliated from a particular incident in a "ikhwani masjid" than I had ever been out in the infidel society.
From non-Muslims, personally, I was in general treated well. When people met me, talked to me, listened to me, they were always intrigued. They were interested in me, and in what I said because I have always been a good "talker". But being harassed and attacked wasn't something unusual either. I've had my share of scary moments, even though I was never physically beaten (though, I personally knew ladies who had been). I'm a person with a hard shell, it isn't breaking me. So the insults and attacks only strengthened my resolve to wear the niqab with pride. I didn't want anyone else dictating my choice following my religious beliefs.
To be honest, when you get close to a sister who wears the niqab, she will always admit that she in reality does not like wearing the niqab. Maybe she loves the niqab for what (she thinks) it stands for, or what it represents to her, or the fact that she feels she is being loved by allah for donning it. But to the actual piece of cloth, and the actual practical implications for wearing it... then everyone hated it.
The funny thing is that when I went to UAE, I still felt like an outsider. Even though a lot of women wore the niqab there, I just didn't like seeing the practical implications of being totally anonymous. Being in a non-Muslim country, you were never confronted with the picture of a anonymous dark mass that became the whole female population. And then you saw women around you not covering at all, and wondered why it was such a big thing. It was somewhat of a wake up call being there. All of a sudden the "special-ness" of the niqab seemed to silly and stupid, and you saw it for what it was. An enormous obstacle in being a normal person in a normal world.
Topic: Your experiences of the niqab/burka?