Why must the haters of feminism - in all its many incarnations - so often resort to insults and name calling? Is it because the argument that women are lesser creatures pre-destined to live the sorts of lives others decide they should live is rather hard to sustain?
Life is not simple, it isn't made up of right and wrong, black and white, to veil or not to veil. It is made up of complex, overlapping themes, influences and currents. Thoughtful people try to tease out these knotty problems and expose them to examination. Less thoughtful ones sling insults.
No-one is wholly right or wholly wrong, that's why allowing people to follow the dictates of their own heart and conscience is often a wise strategy. Humility is all about recognising that you (feminist, christian, muslim, rightist, leftist, man, woman, gay, straight, worker or boss) do not have all the answers or know just the right way to live. Feminism - despite those who willfully misrepresent it - has always been about women choosing their own destiny. And, in my view, that means they can wear any damn thing they please and do (or not do) any damn job they want and make their own mistakes, gain their own wisdom and make their own way. What, I ask, is so offensive about that?

Ena, thank you for your refreshing commonsense. This debate had become debased and silly.

I don't have a problem with what people choose to wear. As far as I am concerned, a burka is no more inappropriate on a day of 40 degree heat than a mans' suit and tie. And no more strange looking than a Catholic priest's outfit. And no more ludicrous than a judge's wig.

But, as I said before, in a world which is of necessity becoming more and more concerned with safety, a face needs to be seen, at least sometimes, for security and identification purposes.

I'll draw an analogy. Most of us, at some times in our lives, need to have full body medical examinations and/or procedures involving parts of our bodies which are not usually on public view. Some people are so traumatised by just the thought of this that they delay or avoid examinations and/or procedures and maybe die as a result. Others find the thought of others seeing their bodies so traumatic that this is more stressful to them than all the other far more significant aspects of their medical condition combined.

The obvious answer to this predicament is to be comfortable with your own body and be prepared to expose it [maybe reluctantly, but that's OK], if the necessity arises.

The same applies to a face. A recognisable full face photo has to be part of both driving licenses and passports. And sometimes the photo has to be verified as a true likeness of the person holding that document. If the simple act of showing one's face is so traumatic that it cannot be contemplated, then the owner of that face has a problem. And it should be THEIR problem, not Australia's.

Incidentally, what do such women [and I realise it's not just the womens' fault] do when they need medical treatment? Surely the Australian taxpayers don't have to pay extra for special services [eg only same-sex health professionals], when this is not required for the rest of us.

Ena,
If you think that apartheid was wrong in South Africa why do you condone the practicing of Tribal Aparthied by the Muslims in this country. They are a religious tribe because except for a few exceptions they dont marry outside of their religion.

There is a limit to tolerance.

Should the Jews be offended if a group of people decided to walk around Melbourne in Nazi Uniforms. After all the people wearing the uniform arent the actual people who threatened the extermination of the Jews.
Should I as a westerner be tolerant of people who walk around this country in the uniform (the hijab)of people who threaten the existence of my children(kill the Infidel)although they are not the people doing the threatening.

Does respect for tribal cultures and respect for females MIX?

Tribes are groups of people who have lived together for some time. There are tribes fighting tribes in Iraq. There are tribes fighting tribes in America. Tribes as tribes have nothing to do with respect for females.

From Bob Herbert, "Why Aren't We Shocked?":

"Who needs a brain when you have these?" -- message on an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt for young women

In the recent shootings at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania and a large public high school in Colorado, the killers went out of their way to separate the girls from the boys, and then deliberately attacked only the girls....

In the widespread coverage that followed these crimes, very little was made of the fact that only girls were targeted. Imagine if a gunman had gone into a school, separated the kids up on the basis of race or religion, and then shot only the black kids. Or only the white kids. Or only the Jews.

There would have been thunderous outrage...There would have been calls for action and reflection. And the attack would have been seen for what it really was: a hate crime.

None of that occurred because these were just girls, and we have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny....

The disrespectful, degrading, contemptuous treatment of women is so pervasive and so mainstream that it has just about lost its ability to shock. Guys at sporting events and other public venues have shown no qualms about raising an insistent chant to nearby women to show their breasts....

...Staggering amounts of violence are unleashed on women...

A girl or woman is sexually assaulted every couple of minutes or so in the U.S. The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count.

...the relentless violence against women and girls is linked at its core to the wider society's casual willingness to dehumanize women and girls, to see them first and foremost as sexual vessels...and never, ever as the equals of men....