Burqa's Row Rages Across Europe (apart from Britain).

Across Europe the argument about whether wearing full face coverings is 'exploitation', 'anti- western','exclusive' or 'tolerant' etc etc .....

The New Face Of 'British' Womanhood?

..... the prevalent feeling appears to be that Muslim women wearing the Burqa are doing so for purely cultural reasons and not under any religious requirements. 

This implies that they are rejecting western values and are being 'Un-French' or whatever, and not integrating or are not relishing the freedoms so hard won by Western women.

Of course this being Britain, we have to know more than Germany, France, Belgium and Spain, cos we are British, and somehow that makes us superior, somehow .... that's why in Europe they call our capital "Londonistan" ... and we already have politicians like immigration minister Damian Green, and Catherine Heseltine (a convert, who is unelected but thinks she represents Muslims), falling over themselves to say, that no matter what the rest of Europe decides (and most are heading towards bans or restrictions), we will not do anything.

• In Spain, Barcelona has banned the wearing of full Islamic face-veils in some public spaces, and at least two other towns in Catalonia have done the same. 
• In Belgium, the lower House of Parliament has voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public.
• In Germany, allies of Chancellor Merkel have suggested they should follow Belgium's lead, and ban the Burqa, suggesting its "a massive attack on women's rights, it is a mobile prison."
• In France its now likely to become illegal to wear the Burqa after French MP's voted in the new law. 
• In Britain, two polls show that around 67% of people want the Burqa banned in public (in France its  70% who support it ..... in France that means its enacted as law, in the UK its rejected by one minister).
• France rejected a Burqa wearing women's claim to citizenship on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France. She was said to be living totally in subjugation to male relatives.
• The Netherlands will very likely also bring in a ban, while tensions simmer about non assimilation of Muslim immigrants.

 

But because we live in a democracy in the UK, what we want is not what we get, instead its the personal convictions of the MP's (who live under the continual fear of the PC brigade) which become laws, so while the rest of Europe goes one way, we will continue to buck the trends and allow an unpopular practice to be continued.

I expect it will take some terrible outrage such as a terrorist attack or bank robbery, that's achieved by the  criminal use of Burqa's, to finally drive the point home in the UK:

• Pakistan arrests 'German' Asian militant disguised in a Burqa.
• In Greater Manchester a robber posed as a woman in a Burqa

Personally it disturbs me on some core level when I see women in these get up's, and I wouldn't want to talk to anyone who feels that they have the right to hide from me (I wouldn't deal with a 'hoodie' either).

I wonder if they will ever make the connection between the segregation of women, and the fact that many women have to fear men in Egypt and Pakistan? Could it be because the men never see any women except their sisters/mothers in any social context?

Anyway, that aside, we are told that our women must respect Islamic sensibilities while on holiday in Muslim countries, and now we are told that we must respect their sensibilities while in ...... hang on, we are in the UK.

"We're a tolerant and mutually respectful society."
 Damian Green Immigration Minister.

Hoodies - The 'Other' Face Of Britain

One of the ironies of this row, is that in hardline regimes such as Iran, many young women are risking beatings or worse, in order to stop having to cover their head and faces ....

Girls in Tehran

I voted Tory last election, but they are actually softer than Labour on immigration, asylum and integration matters ..... they are fast losing my support, and I suspect that of many others, by failing on two of the key issues that cost Gordon Brown his premiership .....