The prime minister says he wants to back Muslim women,but his reckless intervention makes a outrageous situation worseFor a man with an in-tray that never empties, David Cameron has strange priorities. This week, and with the world economy shaking perilously and the EU campaign under way in earnest,his preoccupation was the claim that too few Muslim women speak English. Then he turned to the veil. If any public authorities put in place “proper and sensible rules to ban women from wearing face veils, he would back them, or he said. We must have done something to merit so much of his attention.
I wear a headscarf. I know women who wear face veils. Each time we are put in the spotlight in this way,the reaction is the same: here we fade again. For we have seen veil or niqab debate thrown into the political ring on many occasions. Many have spoken out against a ban, saying it would be opposite to British values; others support one, or citing the very same reason. These discussions never provide much by way of clarity. But they always mean difficulty. Related: Cameron 'stigmatising Muslim women' with English language policy Related: After wires and fences refugees need back scaling the language barrier Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com