This debate about the burqa has more twist and turns than a politicans promise.

I guess I look at it this way, when western women travel to these middle eastern countries they are required to dress modestly.

At this point in time Australia is not a middle eastern country and women are not required by law to wear the burqu yet.

As I see it there are two problems with the Burqa:

1) Any person who does not show their face does not have an identity in our society - they cannot participate. After all, how can we confirm that someone is who they say they are if we cannot see them? The burqa effectively isolates women and separates them from anyone but their families and other women (when men are absent).

2) The religious excuse I have heard used for the burqa is that women must not reveal themselves lest this arouse immoral thoughts/lust etc. in men. Thus, whenever a man in our society sees a burqa it is an ongoing, silent accusation that he cannot control himself. It is demeaning to women and a demeaning insult to men.

The burqa has no place in our society and should be banned - for the sake of both women and men.

'Sheik Hilali’s description of Australian women as “uncovered meat” in 2006 is essentially the equivalent of Bernardi’s push to criminalise Muslim women who wear the burqa'

These sort of comments goes to show that feminist don't themselves know what they want. They need a good man to guide them.

I'm a bit puzzled by the manufacture of a 'problem'. Can we please differentiate between: a) a head scarf, b) the hijab, c) the nikab, and d) the burka. (Surely nobody is complaining about dress below the neck ?)

I can't, for the life of me, see anything wrong with the veil or hijab, and the number of women wearing the nikab or burla (I've never actually seen a woman in a burka in real-life) is surely negligible ? So why the preoccupation with what Muslim women might be wearing ? Why not have a go at muffin tops and baggy, bare-arse jeans ?

Leave it alone. It will be up to Muslim women (and their feminist sisters) to sort out what they wear, and when they might feel free enough to switch to less restrictive dress. But it's their call, not anybody else's.

Joe

An intelligent, well-argued article with which I substantially agree.

It always amuses me when the lunar Right conscript women's rights in their war against Islam, while attempting to dictate to women what they can and cannot wear. The confected burqa controversy is nothing more than a dog-whistle to Islamophobes.

As has been discussed ad infinitum at OLO, there are many ways to discourage the wearing of the burqa in Australia short of banning it.

I'll say it again: oh, the irony of Western liberals using the craven language of 'cultural sensitivity' to give comfort to the most illiberal of ideologies.