Madam, – As much as banning the burqa, would it make sense to present a document to all immigrants from theocratic societies explaining the equality of women and men in our country?
Seeing young women on hen nights tottering about our streets wearing punitively high heels, you would wonder if we have something to learn too in this regard. But then, of course, it’s our right and indeed custom to dress badly if we choose.
Perhaps our immigrants will wear high heels along with the burqa, and with pluralistic aplomb may endure the sexism of both cultures at once? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – To suggest a resemblance between banning the burqa and imposing the Star of David on Jews in Nazi Germany is confused thinking (Cormac McMahon, July 13th).
Banning the burqa is removing a dehumanising religious item of dress with the purpose of treating Muslim women as equal with other men and women; imposing the Star of David was adding an item of dress with the purpose of discriminating against Jews.
Our human identity and individual personality is nowhere more clearly expressed than in our faces. A sect that requires women to hide their faces in public has the effect of dehumanising and depersonalising them, whatever they may claim. There is also an effect on the rest of us when a burqa is worn in public. For to hide the face is to express displeasure or shame or to cover up wrongdoing. When we encounter women wearing the burqa, we receive at best a confusing signal. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – In his opening paragraph, Lorcan Byrne (July 14th) criticises an Editorial on the French ban on the burqa as liberal finger-wagging. In the next breath he attacks Islam in its present form as anti-liberal. Am I missing something or has Mr Byrne just aligned himself with the people he sought to criticise? Perhaps he will soon be donning a burqa of his own? – Yours, etc,