Full face veil

[LONDONER]

There is a move in the UK at the moment to ban women from wearing the full face veil. A government Minister has said for example, that women working in the NHS should not be allowed to cover their faces since a patient has the right to be able to see the face of the person who is treating them. Another case is that women should not be allowed to cover their faces in a court of law since, if giving evidence, the judge and defence have a right to see the facial expressions.

Do you have an opinion?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/l...-them.html

[Spellbound]

Don't you have a thing where you can vote then, if this is a poll?

[LONDONER]

Don't you have a thing where you can vote then, if this is a poll?

Sorry, this is the first time that I have tried to use a poll and I thought there would be a sort of "vote" button automatically.

[davearoo]

According to most interpretations of Islam, a woman can be fully observant of the hijab without wearing a veil at all. A head covering that exposes the face (and nothing else) is fine.

[Spellbound]

I think it's as much a cultural thing as religious. It's naive to think that women 'choose' to wear a veil, it's mandated by the men in their lives - fathers, brothers, husbands. A sign of slavery of a kind, and should be banned, imho.

[Genersis]

I think banning them is a stupid idea.
Some are forced, but I suspect such cases to be a small minority.

I think it very rare a veil need be removed by law.
Mainly for passport and other identity checks, other than that, nothing else really seems appropriate to me.

[Spellbound]

I think the majority are forced, either by culture or more directly. Why would anyone choose to live inside a tent? Would you like to?

[MisterTinkles]

If you move to another country, and you plan to become a citizen, then you need to plan to give up everything you worship and honor and the ideals from that country, for the new country. Otherwise you are nothing but a fraud, cheat, liar, thief, and you show you have absolutely NO respect for that new country.

YOU change for the new country you move too, the country does not change for YOU!!!

[tavi]

Yes ban it! Its bloody awful

[Pix]

I think it's as much a cultural thing as religious. It's naive to think that women 'choose' to wear a veil, it's mandated by the men in their lives - fathers, brothers, husbands. A sign of slavery of a kind, and should be banned, imho.

When raised with it they can feel naked and exposed without one, much as if women were forced to go topless in our societies (whereas societies where female breasts are no big deal then no one there understands why it's a bid deal elsewhere just as we don't why the veil is a big deal to women raised with one). I read in National Geographic how a teen girl rebelliously removed her veil to talk with the NG reporters from the West and seemed all cosmopolitan and world wise but when her father walked in unexpectedly she covered her face and cried in shame.

That said, the 2 examples Londener gives seem reasonable (and I'm sure UK women working in medicine, even with Doctors Without Borders, would be forced to wear a veil to work in many places in the Middle East, or at least be sexually segregated) and while I see the desire to cover one's face and one's breasts as almost identical the face does reveal a lot.

OTOH, don't doctors and nurses sometimes wear masks to prevent the spread of infection, and make others wear them? If that's the case then wearing a veil doesn't seem like a big deal either.

Plus, it seems most people don't really care about public safety as much as dominion and putting those foreigners in their place so I can't help but be suspicious of this entire push (though not everyone is necessarily so obnoxious) and would try to make that slope as slippery as possible as they tried to expand into less reasonable situations...and that should be kept in mind.