The Muslim 'right' to keep the burkha is wearing thin

A short article that puts the wearing of the burka in Western societies into perspective.

FROM DAILYEXPRESS.CO.UK:
The Muslim 'right' to keep the burkha is wearing thin

Sunday July 25,2010
By Julia Hartley-Brewer

IT CAME as news to me to learn last week that one of the key rights British women have is the right to choose what they wear every morning.

I have never thought that fashion was a fundamental human right but this means that the rest of us, two-thirds of the British people according to the latest poll, have no right to tell Muslim women whether they can or can’t cover their faces with a burkha or niqab.

Which is strange, given that the rest of us are constantly being told what we can and cannot wear with no apparent affront to our civil liberties. Women are told not to go topless on the beach. Men are told they must wear a shirt to be served in pubs and are barred from smart restaurants if they’re not wearing a jacket and tie.

Teens in hooded tops are refused entry to shopping centres, while trainers won’t get you into many nightclubs, football shirts are banned in some pubs on match days and I doubt very much whether any of us would get served in a shop or restaurant if we were wearing a balaclava.

So why the great outcry from our mealy-mouthed politicians over the demand for a ban on women wearing the burkha in such public places as airports, trains and buses, classrooms, hospitals, council buildings and courtrooms?

I have long thought the burkha to be a deeply disturbing garment yet shied away from calling for a total ban because it feels, as the Immigration Minister Damian Green argued, decidedly “un-British” to tell people what to wear. If we really are the liberal, tolerant, multicultural society we claim to be, doesn’t an acceptance of the burkha mean we must also, out of respect for Muslim culture, tolerate other aspects of Islam that thousands of Muslims living in Britain believe to be key to their religious beliefs?

What about allowing men to have more than one wife or supporting forced marriages? Why do we not back female circumcision, honour killings, the imposition of Sharia law or even stoning women to death for adultery? Aren’t these things just as much a part of “Muslim culture”, for the people who believe in them, as a woman wearing a veil?

We are also told that the burkha is a religious symbol and therefore afforded greater protection than other forms of dress. Most Muslim women don’t cover their faces. The burkha is an import from 7th-century Arabia and has no basis in the Koran. It is no more a religious symbol than the string bikini. Indeed, the burkha is not a religious statement at all. It is a political statement that speaks not of modesty or piety but of a hatred of Western values, of equality, of freedom and of religious tolerance.

The burkha doesn’t empower women. It doesn’t empower anyone except the extremist mullahs. The real issue is not the right to wear the burkha but the right of British Muslim women not to wear a garment that dehumanises and degrades women by rendering them faceless, voiceless and powerless.

A ban on the burkha isn’t about being anti-Muslim, it’s about being pro-Britain and pro-British values. The right to cover your face in public is not a fundamental human right. The right to equality is.

No sane, free person would choose to wear a burka

Interesting and informative reaction of a western non-Muslim woman upon donning a burka.

FROM CALGARYHERALD.COM:

No sane, free person would choose to wear a burka
By Licia Corbella, Calgary Herald June 27, 2009

A while back I was asked to give a talk at my kids' school about my December 2003 trip to Afghanistan.
As I waited to be introduced, I hid in an auditorium storage room wearing a burka I bought in that war-ravaged country, thinking I'd be out in a minute, maybe two. But the introduction took a lot longer than I had anticipated and by the time I came out to greet all those shining faces, I was very nearly hyperventilating from the oppression of it. I didn't time my self-imposed confinement to the burka, but I probably wore the suffocating tent-like garment with mesh over my eyes for no more than 10 minutes. I told the kids I felt like I was buried alive.

I also told them that while in Afghanistan, I asked all of the many women I met there whether they liked wearing a burka. Not one said yes. In fact, they all said they hated it almost as much as they hated the Taliban.

It's no wonder. The burka's toll on these women was harsh. Many had lost most of their teeth and hair as a result of not having enough vitamin D, which comes from the sun. During the time of Taliban rule--from September 1996 to November 2001 --no portion of their skin, save their hands, was ever allowed to be exposed to sunlight. Think about the horror of that. The Taliban insisted that homes with women in them had to blacken their windows, lest a man pollute his delicate sensibilities by gazing upon the uncovered face of a woman behind the glass.
READ IT ALL:

Too tolerant by half

This is quite an amazing report. I don't know weather to laugh or scream in disbelief. An enterprising reporter tested public reaction to wearing a "full body burka", including a veil, rode the D.C. subway holding a backpack and went through screening at Reagan National Airport. Her experiences are fascinating and chilling.
FROM NATIONALPOST.COM:
Too tolerant by half
Danielle Crittenden, National Post Published: Saturday, December 08, 2007

'I 'd like a one-way air fare to New York on the next available flight. I have no luggage. Could you make sure the ticket is refundable ? in case I change my mind?"
I was standing at the Delta shuttle counter at Washington's Reagan National Airport, dressed in my Saudi burka.
"Sure, no problem," the clerk replied brightly. "Do you have Skymiles?" "Uh, no."
"I'll need some form of identification."
I handed her my driver's licence, which showed the occupant of the black tent to be a blonde, blue-eyed resident of the District of Columbia.
"Thanks." Tap, tap, tap at the keyboard. Out popped my boarding pass. "Have a great flight. Next passenger please."
I scooped up a plain black canvas carry-on bag and headed over to the security line. I had no intention of flying to New York. This was an experiment. I'd become suspicious of the lack of suspicion I'd received during my week-long veiling. I'd encountered no fear, no hostility, hardly even any curiosity. If anything, my fellow Washingtonians showed unusual courtesy to a woman in a burka.
And so it continued at the airport. The ticket agent had registered zero reaction when I'd approached the counter, except to offer an extra cheerful greeting: "Hi! Where are you travelling?"
It had been the same the day before on the Washington subway. I entered the train at morning rush hour carrying a large black backpack, which I clutched to my chest in the centre of the train. With the exception of one elderly passenger who bolted up from his seat when I got on, scurrying to the most remote end of the carriage, everyone else aboard resolutely ignored my appearance. The woman closest to my mysterious backpack glanced up and then resumed her BlackBerrying.
I can't know what they were thinking, obviously. A few must have wondered whether I was about to explode. But evidently they'd rather be blown up than exhibit any behaviour that might be construed as intolerant.
READ IT ALL: