"It's a cultural ornament."

Of no consequence, none, innocuous, of no meaningful effect like the burqa.

You cannot bring yourself to criticise Islam can you Poirot? Astounding. The absence of any complaint from you and people like you about Islam is one of the main reasons Islam is unchecked in its progress through the world.

Instead of prevaricating answer the question about the burqa. You can't can you? By default you are a supporter of Islam.

Then again, the tie can be seen as more than a cultural ornament.

What I meant was that it's of no inherent value as clothing.

Psychologically, I suspect it denotes power.

Here's a link that may help:

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-truth-behind-the-burqa/

Lexi says on the punch article which is very good:

"I’m not suggesting you have called for a ban, like Sarkozy, only making an observation that more pressure on these women is likely to result in them being prevented from participating in society. If young women today can be educated and work, so long as they wear the hijab, perhaps that’s one step towards their daughters having a genuine choice whether or not to wear it."

What do you mean by more pressure and from whom?

What I garner from the article is that fundamentalists have subverted even further a fundamentalist religion by exacerbating the already existing gender inequality in Islam.

I also think the leaders of Islam do have hegemonic ambitions; whether consciously or not, their tactics are brilliant; a combination of terrorism, passive aggressive and insistent demands for accommodation of ostensible sharia features designed to vitiate the dominance of the secular legal structure and the use of women in burqas to unsettle existing and up to the encroachment of Islam, social structures which had seen the evolution of female equality.

The point is, if wearing a burqa is a prominent symbol of a repressive religion why should there be anything but zero tolerance of it?

Dear cohenite,

You do realise that not all Muslim women wear the burqa -
the link I provided gave a few examples or did you miss
those? What about the peculiar dress that some other religions
take part in? You've made no mention of any of them.
Do Sikh's have to wear those turbans and their hair long?
Do all Jewish men have to wear their head coverings?
And so on ...

Why pick only on the burqa?

Lexi: Why pick only on the burqa?

Because the Burka covers the entire woman in a man made & enforced prison. Yes I know women say they wear it to show their faith. Though, if they refused to wear it their husbands would kill them for bringing shame on the family. It has been stated before, by many noted Imams, that the Burka, etc, is a tribal tradition & not really part of Islamic Culture.

As for other Religions & their sometime strange to us, dogma. Yes they do wear some cultural religious garments, but, if you notice it's only the men. E.g., Turban for the Sikhs.

Some Catholic Monks wear a particular Habit but that is falling by the wayside nowadays. They wear them on specific occasions not all the time. Buddhist Monks wear their Yellow/red/orange Habit but if you look around where they are from that type of dress is normal wear, although with the Wests influence there are changes happening with the local peoples. The Buddhists Monks don't insist on everybody wearing the Habit.

If it is now so important for Muslims to wear the Burks to preserve a women's Modesty then I suggest that the men, also, must wear it as well to protect a Muslim mans modesty. In the name of equality. Don't you think?.