Burqa Wars

Just as Corbyn’s Opponents have lighted on the spurious issue of antisemitism within the Labour Party as a way of ousting him, Boris’s detractors are now using the veil as a way of getting rid of him.

As you know, he took a leaf out of Donald Trump’s playbook and appealed to his ‘base’, of whom there are many. Vox pops around the country suggest he has touched a chord with racist elements that lurk in Little Britain, and as we have seen with Brexit, there are millions of them.

Careful to hold on to his libertarian roots, Boris said he didn’t want to ban the burka, as they have in Denmark and elsewhere. But he has ridiculed them, and thereby deeply insulted Muslims everywhere.

I don’t like the Burqa either. I can understand the point of view of certain Muslim women, who insist they like it; that it actually enhances their freedom. But for me, every time I see it, I think: exploitation and male patriarchy. The Burka is just an extension of man’s power over women, women who in certain factions of Islam, have no right to education, to go out by themselves or indeed to have any voice at all. That’s why it’s wrong.

I have heard articulate and intelligent Muslim women speak of the liberating effects of the veil, and how their decision to wear it is theirs alone, and not as the result of a domineering male presence. But to me that doesn’t change anything. As a symbol of male power it remains odious to me, as it should to anyone who truly believes in self determination.