From the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs Guide; Travelling Women:

--
In some countries and/or cultures, dress standards may be more conservative than in Australia and may be stricter for women than for men. The way you present yourself may affect the way people react to
you. To help avoid unwelcome attention you should take care to be sensitive to local dress standards.

In some Islamic countries you must wear clothing that covers your full body and a scarf over your hair. If you don’t you could be harassed or even arrested.

T-shirts can be offensive to people in countries with more modest dress codes, such as Burma,Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

In some countries, certain forms of dress are unacceptable at religious and other culturally important sites. Some do not allow women in at all.

In South East Asia, you cannot enter Buddhist temples or royal palaces in shorts or sleeveless shirts.

Shoes are never worn in Muslim mosques or Buddhist temples.

In some countries bare shoulders are unacceptable in Christian churches.
--

Our government clearly considers it acceptable for other countries to impress their dress codes on women from Australia: it therefore seems quite reasonable for it to impose our own dress code on women from Islamic countries.

First we were force fed Multiculturism as the way to go. Now it is being used to take away our freedom of speech, next will come the imposition of sharia and we will all have to suffer it.
Multiculture has come at the expense of our own culture, we are not allowed to critisize it-that is 'racist' , yet we must see our own laws and traditions cast out and say nothing.
Some of the traditional dress of newcomers is fine but that horrible black burq and its ilk should be banned from Australian streets.A more terrible punishment for anyone having to endure it ,I cannot think.

If CJ Morgan had read my post more thoroughly he/she would see that I have no objection to so-called Islamic dress (or any other type of clothing for that reason) so long as it is CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE.

The Burqa or any other face covering, identity obscuring garb is NOT culturally appropriate in my/your/our/Australian society. FULL STOP.

Go to Rome - do what the Romans do! No-one expects to visit an Islamic country and swan around in mini-skirt and midriff top or singlet and boardies. That would be CULTURALLY INAPPROPRIATE and likely to get you harassed at best, arrested at worse. (You better believe there won't be too many Nursels advocating freedom of sartorial expression to support your right to wear what you please either) SO - Come to Australia - leave your burqa behind. Simple!

Transplant Nursel Guzeldeniz to Saudi Arabia in the attire on her site photo and she would find herself in prison facing a couple dozen lashes (or worse) before she could launch into a discourse on the rights of anyone anywhere. (Leigh suggests Ms Guzeldeniz is Muslim. I would think 'not so'. Those I know who are 'liberal' still do not expose much skin below the neck or above elbows and ankles. She would be considered very immodest even in those circles.)

Australia is a remarkably tolerant society. If you don't believe that, I suggest travel to non-western (preferably Islamic) countries.

Meantime I am sick and tired of being expected to accept the UNACCEPTABLE because of so-called political correctness and multi-culturalism.

BTW Cornflower - Is it legally permissable to drive wearing a burqa? I would have thought anything that obscured sight would be out of bounds. If this is true our law-makers and the idiots who influence them should be locked up and medicated until they regain sanity ....

"many of us support cultural diversity and the rights of Australians to dress how they wish - even if we find it discomfiting at times."
Dear CJ
Do you support the right of descendants of some of your ancestors to dress as some of your ancestors did, namely naked?
Regards
Blair

CJ MORGAN,

Weirdly we are probably on the same side on this one as well. However let's test that theory.

On the whole I think people should be allowed to wear whatever they want. However there are exceptions. I think we've already agreed on another thread that Muslim woman police officers should not be permitted to veil their faces.

To what extent can employers impose a dress code? Can a public hospital insist that nurses wear a uniform – which in Australia would not be a burqa?

How about public schools? Can a public school insist that a teacher's face should be visible to the pupils? Can private schools?

How about supermarkets? Could a supermarket enforce a dress code that excluded covering the face?

Could a business refuse to hire a woman who insisted on covering her face? Or one who refused to wear a business suit?

How about courtrooms? Can a Western jury form an opinion of a witness' testimony if she has her face covered?

Could a bank refuse to allow entry to a masked person for security reasons?

It is these issues, rather than what people do in private life, that make me uneasy.

Steven's on the right track. While I think that the State has no role in dictating what is "culturally appropriate" to anybody, and as I've said before at OLO on this topic, I think that it's quite reasonable to prohibit the wearing of any clothing - including the burqa and the niqab - that restricts the wearer's capacity to operate regulated machinery or vehicles, or compromises security in certain situations.

So to Steven's specifics:

* To what extent can employers impose a dress code? Can a public hospital insist that nurses wear a uniform – which in Australia would not be a burqa? - As much as they do now. If there's a pre-existing uniform and the person wants a job at that workplace, then they have to wear it. Where there is no uniform, then the employer should have to be able to show how the dress impedes performance or is otherwise unacceptable. For example, a burqa wouldn't necessarily be a problem for someone working in a call centre or on a keyboard, but would be somewhat inappropriate for a bus driver or a public school teacher (although it might be suitable for a fundy Muslim school...).

* Supermarket burqa bans? Sure - but I bet they wouldn't in areas where lots of Muslims live. In fact, it'd be a really good way to create ghettoes - ban Muslim fundies from shopping anywhere else but their own enclaves.

* Courtrooms? I don't see a real problem with the burqa here. Evidence is evidence, with or without eyeballing.

* Banks? Absolutely no burqas - ditto with servos, post offices, train stations, airports etc. Anywhere you can't currently wear a motorcycle helmet should be burqa-free.

There's no need to get hysterical and faux-feminist about this. I'm sure that under the above circumstances most women will eventually decide for themselves the burqa really isn't all that practical to wear in Australia.