The former justice secretary, Ken Clarke, has said that the full face veil for Muslim women is a "most peculiar costume". He was speaking about the issue of Muslim females wearing the clothing when they give evidence in court. Mr Clarke told Radio 4's The World This Weekend that they should not be allowed to because it would be almost impossible to have a proper trial if someone is in, what he referred to, a "kind of bag". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24794809 I think Ken is right on this issue, how about you? I am posting this because there are some issues about Muslims that I think are wrong in our country.
I was at Manchester airport a couple of years ago and a gaggle of women ( I assume they were women ) went through security in front of me. Whilst I and others had their photo taken full face, the group of women in full face veil had theirs taken without first removing them. From a security point of view there was a definite irony there.
If anyone remembers, one of the of the would be London bombers, escaped capture by wearing his sister's burka.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-437327/Video-Moment-21-7-bomber-fled-burka.html Ant this is just one example. Just the security aspect of the debate should be enough to have full veils/burkas banned in public places. Besides, to me, like many other people, when talking to somebody, facial expression means a lot, truth, lies, indifference., etc.
I usually agree with Ken Clarke; if had been the leader of the Tories and not Cameron I would have voted Tory for the first time in my life. I definitely agree with him on this subject.
Staying on the subject of security, this is fresh from today........... One would think that the police would have learnt from the previous instances and done some planning ....
My view Is that the issue of ones face being seen in court so that facial expressions can be seen is fine and dandy but that outside of any other similar circumstance it is the choice of the individual. Private establishments might have their own rules regarding this ,shops for example (crash helmets in banks etc) but if I want to dress up as Godzillar and parade down the High St that is no ones business than my own. H & S insists on goggles and face masks for certain activeties for another.
All it takes is a few more people escaping CCTV by wearing a full face veil and they will go the way of the dodo.. Remember, guns got banned only because of a public outcry!
When I was a teenager my parents lived in Libya. I went there for school holidays. My friends tended to be the sons and daughters of my father's colleagues - Palestinians, Lebanese, Egyptians, both Moslem and Christian, plus a scattering of other Europeans and Americans. Then, as now, Libyan women dressed very conservatively and never showed their face in public. My first girlfriend, who was the Moslem daughter of an Egyptian university professor, treated such women in the street as if they were not really there, saying that if they didn't want to show their face to her, she didn't want to know them. I'm afraid the habit has stuck with me. (She dressed like any other teenager)
Some Christian sects required their women to wear veils; there was one such in the early days of the British settlement of North America. We retain the tradition of the bride being veiled at her wedding. Conversely the Tuareg, who are Moslem, require men to wear a veil whilst women are unveiled.
