An impressive collection looks at Muslim women’s lives in modern Britain
No other item of religious clothing has ignited passions and prejudice among politicians and media commentators as much as the burqa, worn by a minority of Muslim women. In 2006, then leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw wrote of his “concerns” after a meeting with a veiled Muslim woman in his Blackburn constituency – he later apologised. Tony Blair, who was then prime minister, said the wearing of veils was a “mark of separation”. More than a decade later, Boris Johnson wrote that women who wear veils “look like letterboxes”.
The paranoia over Islamic clothing has become a political opportunity to codify laws against European Muslims. Legislation prohibiting or limiting face veiling now exists in Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria, France and Germany. Last year, politicians in Denmark cited local values when they passed a law banning the wearing of face veils in public. The law, punishable by a fine, affects only an estimated 200 Muslim women.
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Continue reading...from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2UUI4rZ
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