Epona, // Naomi, there is no need to go off on one with me…//
I do not go off on one. I simply tell it as it is. You compared wearing a burqa to wearing a crucifix, apparently completely unaware that within Islam there is no requirement for a woman to cover her face, just as within Christianity there is no requirement for anyone to wear a crucifix. Whilst this practice continues unopposed, those that are obliged by men to wear the burqa will never be allowed to integrate or to become part of the society they’ve come to live in. These women do not have a voice; their ‘sisters’, who are free to abandon the burqa at will, do not speak for them, their menfolk do not want anyone to speak for them, so if we don’t speak, who will? There are women who have been living in this country for years who, because they have never been allowed to interact with the rest of the population, still can’t speak English – and it goes further than that. Arranged marriages, female genital mutilation, marriages of little girls to old men - all of that is what people who defend the burqa endorse – albeit unwittingly. I want these ladies to integrate - I want them to have the education, the advantages, and the freedom that the rest of us enjoy – but they will have none of those things until these horrendous practices stop. I’m on their side!