Banning the Burka

[birdie1971]

Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party has called for the all full-face covering apparel to be banned in public places.

Good idea or not?


http://news.bbc.co.uk..._politics/8464124.stm

[Seadragon]

It is a difficult one because what are the crime statistics for women wearing a full-face burka? So how does that threaten security? Or is it more comforting for non-burka wearers to at least see the face of the wearer even if the rest of the body is covered?

[Teleph0ne]

If that is the case and we can ask certain groups of people to remove hear wear over others because of crime statistics then surely it's not a problem to stop and search at airports based on the same rather than random! Also there have been cases of men disguising themselves as women wearing a burka to evade capture and to leave the country under a false passport knowing that customs wouldn't dare risk upsetting a muslim woman by asking her to remove her burka.

[sp1814]

birdie1971,

Further to your question last night, there's a double episode of Family Guy on BBC3 every Sunday evening at about 10pm.

[Seadragon]

Human rights - they have body scanners for that and new improved ones on the way in. The new scanners should be able to detect a male from a female at least?

[B00]

"Or is it more comforting for non-burka wearers to at least see the face of the wearer even if the rest of the body is covered? "

This.

I honestly couldn't care less about a persons religious and or cultural beliefs, each to their own etc. However I do have to admit that I feel slightly uneasy around a woman wearing a burka. It just looks totally wrong here in this westernised country and tells me (possibly wrongly?) that the wearer has no intention of trying to intergrate into our society,when she looks totally alien to the majority of people.

I do respect her right to wear it though, I just don't happen to like it.

[123everton]

Teleph0ne, I don't believe your anecdote for one minute.

[Teleph0ne]

How does a man in his 40s with a hood up because it is snowing affect security? It's no wonder this country is in such a state when everyone is so scared of breaching someones human rights that national security is put at risk. They are no longer allowed to stop and search due to human rights! where will it go next? the terrorists are laughing at us as are the extreme groups! some people just want to bury their head in the sand and let it happen, perhaps you would feel diferently if you were involved in a security scare or your lofe was put at risk!

[123everton]

Boo, integrate into what?
Driniking, drugs, promiscuity, brazen loutishness, gluttony?
Read ya women's mags, Jordan's a role model, a footballer's wife is an aspiration.
To get on T.V (apart from Orla Guerin) you've got to be attractive, if a woman wishes to advance her carreer the pressure on her to strip off for F.H.M is immense.
It's the Brits that have changed, not them, I wonder if their wearing the veil is their rejection of the new British expressionism, they're not alone in that.

[B00]

Feel free to slap a burka on then everton and join them :-)

[Bobbisox]

Burka wearers set themselves apart from our society, that said, I think it is entrenched in them from puberty by a male, first the father then the husband, they have to cover up completely, like or not, Islam is a male dominated culture, take the difference in Saudi Arabia, not sure about this now, but women were not allowed to drive and if a girl went out she had to have a male escort, i.e a brother or an Uncle, yet over the border in Kuwait, women were more westernised and were able to drive etc;
I have read many books on their culture and male dominance in their society, but it has no place in a western civilisation

[Seadragon]

I sympathize with what you're saying here Boo - 'I do respect her right to wear it though, I just don't happen to like it.' And this is also an uncomfortable truth I face. I am ok with the face not being fully covered but uncomfortable with the full face one.

Telephone - When the full-face burka is an issue for national security in the sense that all other avenues of address have been considered and there is no other alternative then I will accept that removal of the full-face burka is the only option, should it come to that. At the moment it hasn't. You are just pitting yourself against someone else.

[123everton]

Does facism have a place in western culture, because, telling people what they cannot wear is very fascist.
Boo what I'm saying is, what happened to women's suffrage?
I go out and I see women acting like men, they drink like men, they swear like men, they fcuk like men, I've even seen them peeing in the street!
How does a woman assymilate into such a culture?
Emeline Pankhurst must be turning in her grave.

[bubbly2000]

its all gone much to far now and our so called govenment are wusses. Would we be allowed to move to a muslim country, wear shorts & T. shirts and open christian churches everywhere. I think not. But why not??? I'm all for freedom of speech and equal rights but it appears this rule isn't for true Brits

[Bobbisox]

That's a very valid point bubbly, yet no one tends to come up with it when bemoaning the rights and freedom of any culture, the argument against it would be, those countries are not a democracy so freedom of anything is mostly prohibited, we, as a democracy, have let ourselves slide into cow-towing to the 'ranters' and the young school girls who go to court on a whim so they can wear the burka, incited by a father no doubt who wants the 'freedom' of living in this society but doesn't want his daughter to marry 'one of us' and wants her to cover up completely

[tamborine]

I havent seen a post saying "I am a muslim female and choose to wear a burka for -----reasons"!

C'mon muslim women, prove the burka is your choice. We cant see you face on here but your silence also tells us you dont have the freedom of an internet chat site, like your men do.

[B00]

My flippant remark aside everton (sorry for that by the way)...I happen to agree with you, I too dislike this ladette culture, if there was a way of addressing that as well, im all for it to be honest!

However, nothing and no one can shake the uneasiness I feel towards a woman, or indeed anyone with their faces fully covered, and yes, this also includes teens wearing hoodies and with scarves wrapped around their faces. my natural reaction is they've something to hide- it maybe irrational, but the feeling is there nonetheless.