Muslim veil issues?

This is not the same as Muslim women (or Christian nuns for that matter) who cover their heads (hair).

Jack Straw raised the issue not to bring about a ban on them. He was suggesting, I believe, that Muslim women who choose to wear such headwear can (under Muslim law) and should feel obliged to remove them to fit in, and make people they interact with more comfortable.

Masking one's face in most cultures suggests someone with bad or dangerous or criminal intent. Bank robbers and terrorists mask their faces, so it's understandable that people are uncomfortable when law-abiding citizens do it on the high street. (The highest number of complaints on Top of the pops was when James Dean Bradielf of the Manic Street Preachers wore an IRA-like mask.) A young teenager on Upper Street in north London wore a balaclava as he strided up the road one Friday night after dark. Sure, the fact he was male made him more menacing, but it didn't take more than two minutes before a female police officer stopped him and gave him a dressing down (literally!). I watched this and agreed that he needed telling off. The point is, if it had been his religion (or rather, he had claimed it had been his religion), the cop would not have been able to say anything, despite prompting the same feelings of fear and anxiety among the members of the public (including myself) that came near him.

I think the headscarf is perfectly acceptable both within our society and their religion. The only reasons for wearing a veil are personal and cultural. They should be reminded that they chose to come and live in our culture and if they wish to be part of it they should act accordingly. If they do not feel comfortable in our culture they should seek a society where their dress is widely acceptable.

Maybe the reason they don't is that they realise in those they don't have the same freedoms and opportunities that they do here.

I think the veil should be banned. Lets see how important it really is to those who insist on wearing it. I predict that not one will think it that important that they would leave this country and give up the freedoms they have here.

Doesn't really address the question as that's already been well answered but I was in Malaysia once and I saw this couple stand beside the Petronas Towers. He had the full Muslim dress on and she was head to toe black with only her eyes peering out of the little slot in her headgear.

She proceeds to stand in front of the building and he took a photograph!!!

I was standing there dumbfounded. What the fu*k did he do that for? What kind of holiday snap is that? How can she prove she was there? That could have been anyone in that photo.

Anyway....nothing to do with the question, but it was an amusing antidote about the headgear.

Carry on....

:-)

No problem whatsoever with scarfs....and the multi variety of them are a positive influence on society as it brightens the whole place up. Its the veil where onlyy the eyes can be seen is the problem.

Please no one be offended but from my cultural background the veil makes the wearer look l;ike something from halloween or a bandit...Sorry Not in this Britain.....compromise is the name of the game.

I am a Muslim ,there is some misunderstanding here between the Nakab and Veil "Hijab"

This Muslim state you speaking about Tunisia is not a Muslim country in fact since its independence and its former late dictator Borkabah , this man fought every single Islamic habit even fasting , he tried to cancel

you know it is strange , when you in the west speak day and night about democracy and freedom and at the same time you support a dictatorship in the middle east

do you know that there is a censorship on the Internet in Tunisia?Do you know how many journalists and people are arrested and tortured in Tunisia ??

I am sorry but these stupid policies are the ones that promote extremism , canceling freedom ,canceling religion from the lives of the people is not the way to fight extremism

fight extremism by freedom and by having the right kind of clerics who know their religion very well

Concering the misconceptation between Veil "Hijab" and "Nakab"

Veil"Hijab" is the Islamic head scarf covering the hair and neck

but doesn't cover the face

Nakab is the one that covers the faces, it is not a must in Islam , in fact Muslim clerics in Al-Azhar of Egypt "a real Islamic country" are now against it for security and moral issues

Please understand the difference from a Muslim woman

We can't ban it in this country, Britain may be a non-muslim state, but it also has laws on freedom of speech, and freedom to practise religion. If you ban headscarves, then what do you do about jewish, buddhist or hindu traditional clothes??

I was born in the UK, raised in a christian home, and converted to Islam in my late teens. I now wear a headscarf - didn't come from any other country, so you can't generalise about people who do wear them. We wear thembecause we aremuslim, end of story, not to put up barriers. Just as a christian would wear a crucifix a nun would wear their scarves, a jew would wear a hat, and they have every right to do so.

no issue with head covering but not to be able to see the person you are speaking to is impolite. There is the recent comment in the paper about the school asisstant who wore the whole thing and to me that would be an issue in as far as children work a lot on facial expressions as a form of communication.

When in Rome.....as they say. Not suggesting all cultural values have to gobut the there has to be give as well as take.

We should. I am very tired of the muslim 'outrage' whenever anyone deigns to make even the mildest criticism.

The veil is just a tool to suppress women (you don't see the men wearing desert robes). It is a legacy of pre-Islamic times when the type of dress was necessary for the climate the people lived in. The Koran does not specifically state what should be worn and it is the interpretations of various Islamic cults which is employed.

Muslims want to set themselves apart and whilst enjoying all of the freedoms living in our country allows them they also want to restrict the rights and beliefs of others by imposing their own.

Ban veils YES, Headscarves NO. what would happen if I went into a bank with a balaclava pulled up over my mouth or a motor cycle helmet with the visor down,"There soon would be an uproar"

Hear Hear !!!!

I've read a lot of answers that are going on about head scarves !! It's not the head scarves that are the issue , it's the covering of the face and only being able to have a conversation with two eyes !! It's rude to cover your face when speaking to someone !!! When we travel to countries like these we show respect by covering ourselves up so why shouldn't they show the same respect by removing their veil when having a conversation !!!