I see no reason for anyone to tell anyone else what they can or cannot wear.
If the Burqa is a security issue then all we need is laws to allow the appropriate identification in areas of concern such as banks etc.
Only a tiny minority of Muslim women wear the Burqa so Im sure it can be fairly easy to work with people who chose to wear it so everyone is happy with the outcome.
I would be happy to bet that as second and third generation women from families who have traditionally worn the Burqa grow up the Burqa will totally disappear from western countries and it will become a distant memory.
In 10 -20yrs time the next generation of women from these families will be staying out all night, shagging, drinking, smoking and wearing revealing clothing with the rest of their Aussie friends.   

adelcrow wrote on Jul 11^th, 2010 at 10:50am:


I agree. In many cases they already are.

Soren wrote on Jul 10^th, 2010 at 10:36pm:




One of the joys of online journalism is that you can include links to your sources, and this pleasure is never keener than when the source is a 75 page PDF of an academic report in Danish. This one contains some very useful perspective on the debate about banning burkas, to be precise, Niqabs. The Danish government thought to ask how many people such a ban would affect: the answer was something between 100 and 200.

An article on the interesting Swedish site islamologi.se picks the story up: In France, where there is an inflamed debate on the matter right now, the first investigation carried out by the police last year found that there were 367 women in France who wore burka or Niqab – 0.015% of the population. This was so low that the secret service was told to count again, and came up with a figure of 2,000; in Holland there seem to be about 400, and in Sweden a respectable guess suggests 100.

The most fascinating figure of all, though, came from the Danish researchers, who actually interviewed some of the covered women. Most were young, or at least under forty, and half of them were white converts. I think this makes it entirely clear that in modern Europe the burka is not an atavistic hangover, but a very modern gesture of disaffection from and rejection of society, which appeals to a certain kind of extreme temperament.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/mar/10/religion-islam

The Guardian link has links to the Danish and Swedish pages.

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A woman's choice in clothing is indicative of an extreme temperament... Shouldn't you be crocheting doilies in the corner?

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What about their simple freedom to choose for themselves what to wear?

You can make all sorts of statements by covering your face. It's silly to pretend there is only one.

It has traditionally been used to communicate that you are in mouring, do not want to be spoken to, are about to get married, etc. In modern times there is of course far more individualism involved. You can make just about any statement you want.

Soren wrote on Jul 13^th, 2010 at 9:38am:



I know what you mean. People should cut their hair short and say 'sir' to people in authority and show some respect, and listen to ABC Classical. I mean after all we do represent the great Australian civilisation. These people - hippies, muslims etc have no business questioning the values of our society. We have no need to change anything if our society is perfect.

- and if they don't like it, they can go back to Disneyland.

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Alternatively, do you reckon that people who question society in some way might actually contribute to improving it?

(I guess that was a no)

Soren wrote on Jul 13^th, 2010 at 1:44pm:


First of all, if we have a choice between permitting topless wear and  banning the burqa, then let's ban the burqa.

Highlighted section - Don't you know the answer to that? From experience, Muslims are suspicious about the loose morals in Western Society. Like any other fundamentalist religious group, they withdraw themselves from society.

However I do take the point that it is a cultural element of Australian life that people take exception to blocking the face, especially the older generation. I saw the same attitude to wearing dark sunglasses when I was younger. Old fogies have a thing against it.

Should people be allowed to protest about aspects of their society that they disagree with? - because that's what the majority of burka wearers are doing (except for the occasional retinue of Middle Eastern Royalty)