Comments on The Patrick Family: Banning Muslim Women from Appearing in Public in V...

Our facial expressions are an extremely important ...

2010-01-28T00:22:23.452Z

Our facial expressions are an extremely important way in which we communicate with each other. Covering them completely or partially creates divisions and does nothing for social harmony.

These outfits also serve to oppress women - stopping them from expressing themselves in the clothes they may choose to wear or in how they relate to people.

I think there is an inherent contradiction between...

2010-01-27T12:14:24.421Z

I think there is an inherent contradiction between allowing individual freedoms (the right to wear a burka/bikini) and public offence (ref burka/bikini again).

My own feeling is that the existing laws prohibiting offensive language and dress as well as public decency are probably sufficient to discourage and prohibit the worse offences of indecency and public offence.

The issue for me is much more about getting liberals to dress conservatively than getting conservatives to dress liberally.

I have been playing table tennis in Llansilin this...

2010-01-26T22:01:59.964Z

I have been playing table tennis in Llansilin this evening, it would be impossible to play in a burka.

I believe we should look at dress generally rather...

2010-01-26T21:54:50.941Z

I believe we should look at dress generally rather than the burka. Western women's dress is often designed to sexually attract men, the burka is the opposite. Which is better? Or is it a cultural issue\/ Why can't women dress as they want to. Hastings Banda forbade trousers for women, and skirts in Pakistan suggested sexual attraction to men.Let the burka be.. Mum

I have the same issues as you with the niqab and t...

2010-01-26T12:29:30.866Z

I have the same issues as you with the niqab and the burka. The question for me is how to deal with it - by discouraging it or banning it outright.

I don't buy the counter terrorist argument that men can disguise themselves as women wearing a veil. They can also disguise themselves wearing red jackets, blue trousers, baseball caps - indeed anything to change their appearance. No need to hide behind a veil. Explosives can be hidden under a burka - but they can also be hidden in bags. Should bags be banned in public too.

Every restriction of our freedoms to cater to anti-terrorist laws and rules is another victory for terrorists.

My problem with the niqab and the burka (which cau...

2010-01-26T12:20:26.701Z

My problem with the niqab and the burka (which caused me irritation in my job in Karachi) is that they impede face-to-face communication. I was tempted in retaliation to put my hand in front of my face when I was speaking to a woman so attired.

What happens when such a woman approaches the immigration officer checking passports at an airport? Did not one of the men eventually convicted of a London terrorist attack originally escape from the scene disguised as a woman wearing a niqab?