'Veil furore' rages in Britain

2006-10-06 19:28

Robert Barr

London - Former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's preference that devout Muslim women visiting his office remove their veils ignited a heated debate on Friday about cultural isolation and tolerance in Britain.

Straw says he believes veils inhibit communication and are a sign of division in society. At his constituency office, he says he asks - but doesn't insist - that veiled women reveal their faces, and he said the women have always complied.

"It is trivial to suggest that you need to see someone's face to speak to them freely. People can still communicate with a veil on," said Fauzia Ali, 23, who lives in Straw's parliamentary district of Blackburn, northwest of London.

Ali chooses not to wear a veil or a headscarf, but said "I know some women would refuse to leave the house if they had to remove them."

'Offensive and disturbing'

The Lancashire Council of Mosques, based in Blackburn, called Straw's position "offensive and disturbing."

The debate highlighted anxieties about cultural clashes in Britain, which gained force after four young Muslims killed 52 commuters in suicide attacks in London last year.

Straw, now leader of the House of Commons, kicked off the controversy with his column in the Lancashire Telegraph newspaper, published Thursday. He wrote that "that wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult. It was such a visible statement of separation and of difference."

Muslims, mainly from Pakistan and India, make up 19% of the population in Straw's district.

"His comments are misjudged and are not helpful in the current climate. Rather than encourage integration, they promote feelings of separation within the community," said Blackburn resident Shazia Ahmed, 19.

Daud Abdullah, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he understood Straw's views about the veil.

"This does cause some discomfort to non-Muslims," Abdullah said, adding that opinion among Muslims about veils was divided.

Baroness Uddin, a Muslim member of the House of Lords, called for a "measured debate" that also considers the status of British Muslim women.

"I think it's about human rights on both sides: Jack's right to say and the women's right to wear what they please," Uddin said.

Catherine Hossain, of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, said Straw's remarks were not helpful in addressing deeper problems.

"My real concern is that he's trivialised a real and serious problem of the segregation that we have between Muslims and non-Muslims in towns like Blackburn," Hossain said.

- SAPA