All women should be allowed to have a face

Bikinis are not as controversial as burquas.
The body and head covering sported by certain Muslim women.



This type of dress has its origins with desert times long before Islam arrived.
It had two functions.
Firstly as a sand mask in windy conditions.
This would be worn by men and women and is still common today.
For women only the masking of the face and body was used when one group was being raided by another. These raids often involved the taking of women of child bearing age.
With all women hidden behind a veil, and the home team fighting back, the chances of being taken were substantially reduced as the women of child bearing age could not be quickly distinguished from the very young and the old.

Many Muslims believe that the Islamic holy book, the Koran , and the collected traditions of the life of Muhammed, require both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public.
However, this requirement has been interpreted in many different ways by Islamic scholars and Muslim communities.
The burqa is not specifically mentioned in the Koran.
Hence, in most countries where a majority is Muslim the burqua is not required for women to wear.
Only in certain areas women wear burquas, like in North Western Pakistan.
And then we have the Taliban who forces women in Afghanistan to wear burquas.



In Europe the burqua has become controversial.
Some European countries have now large groups of Muslims.
And some of these Muslims are orthodox and fundamental.
Instructing their women to go out wearing a burqua.

An orthodox Muslim woman can do this in Europe.
A woman can walk the streets of Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and London wearing a burqua as she pleases.
She won't be arrested and no naughty boy will try to pull down her veil.
The problems with women in Europe wearing burquas arose when orthodox Muslim girls wanted to attend school dressed in that fashion.
That was considered unacceptable by the authorities resulting in loud protests from fundamental Islamists.

It is a very peculiar situation that a west-european girl dressed in a T-shirt and mini skirt will never be allowed to walk the streets of cities in Egypt, Morocco and Iran.
While people from those countries coming to Europe believe they have a constitutional right to parade around, go to school and to work dressed in a burqua.

In the UK a conflict arose when the politician Jack Straw asked Muslim women from his constituency to remove any veils covering their faces during face-to-face meetings with him.
Straw explained to the media that this was a request, not a demand, and that he made sure that a woman staffer remained in the room during the meeting.
A media furore followed.
Some Muslim groups said that they understood his concerns, but others rejected them as prejudicial.

There is an aspect of forced controversy here.
Of willingly obstructing and challenging European societies by fundamentalist Muslims.
In the own Muslim societies the tolerance is very limited.
However, in Europe the societies are very liberal and that is happily embraced by certain Muslims to practice their customs.
And when then a certain way of dressing, like the burqua, is not everywhere allowed in Europe, like in schools, there is an outcry that this is discrimination, limitation of freedom and anti-Islam.

This policy of creating controversy even went as far as the swimming pool.
Muslim girls would show up in what they called a "burkini".
A swimming suit that is specifically designed for the female adherents of Islam.



Imagine a public swimming pool with boys and girls, men and women dressed in West-European styled bathing suites: most men in Speedos and women in bikinis.
And here come some Muslim girls in their burkinis.
And why?
Because of religion.



In France now it is not allowed anymore to wear burkinis in public swimming pools.
The reason the authorities are giving is that it is unhygienic.

The issue with the burqua and the burkini is that when a woman wears these clothes in Europe, it is a public statement.
It is the statement of saying: "I am a Muslim".
A rather provocative way of propagating a religion when we know that in the Koran, the book on which Islam is based, nothing can be found about burquas and burkinis.

It is not that controversial to express in Europe a religion with a dress code.
In countries like Spain and Italy men can be seen in the streets wearing the soutane.
And women dressed like nuns.
But the fundamental difference with the burqua is that priests and nuns keep their identity.
The people can see them in the eyes and know who they are.

The burqua takes away the public identity of the woman.
As President Sarkozy of France recently put it: "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,"

Fundamentalist Muslims are going back in time.
Adapting ways of living even from before the Koran was written.
Pushing women back in a position as in the days when people lived like barbarians.
That is unacceptable.
At least in Europe.



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