The burka argument goes on

Damian Green, Immigration Minister thinks that banning the burqua is somehow un-British, as if the niquab were simply a fashion choice. Caroline Spelman, Environment Secretary is deluded enough to think that somehow or other the burqua empowers women. I presume that somewhere in her fluffy brain there is the thought that the women who are forced make the feminist choice to wear the burqua would not, otherwise, be allowed out of the house by their tyrannical enlightened families.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown comes roaring into the battle.

These British apologists for the burka make me see red, whatever side of the political spectrum they come from.

They can be Left-wingers who'll countenance no criticism, however valid, of hardline Muslims. They can be Right-wing libertarians who insist any woman has the right to wear whatever she chooses.

And, as we discovered this week, they can be members of the British Cabinet who ludicrously claim the burka actually empowers women.

Having had to put up with moronic soi-disant libertarians waffling on about the right to wear whatever people want to wear (and then they wonder why there are so few women in the so-called libertarian movement in Britain) I cannot but agree with that comment of "whatever side of the political spectrum they come from".

Furthermore, I cannot help agreeing with this:

Immigrant Muslims who came to Britain to get away from Stalinist ayatollahs, mullahs and women-hating fanatic regimes in their home countries must be spitting their teeth out after hearing Spelman's astounding endorsement of this dreadful garment.

We Muslims who came here wanted the freedom that Britain's proud history of democracy was renowned for. We wanted better education for our children and to live and pray in peace in a country which, for all its faults, gives us civil rights and equality between the sexes.

Yet Spelman's support for the burka suddenly puts all of our expectations under threat; for the most obvious manifestation of the oppressive Islam we left behind is welcomed here with the blessing of the ruling elite.

We should be helping Muslim women to get away from the oppression they suffer not work with the oppressors. But then, what do I expect from this Government and these Ministers? Read the whole article. The arguments are convincing and the barely controlled rage behind them is very understandable.

In his Daily Telegraph blog Toby Young demonstrates that men are as capable of understanding this point as women and, indeed, most do. Politicians and people who think they are political creatures on the other hand ....

Meanwhile, Syria has banned the wearing of the niquab in universities for reasons of security.