Johnson should talk to us before he opens his mouth

I SPENT a pleasant weekend hosting guests and visitors to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s annual convention in Hampshire.

As I drove across the site and showed visitors the facilities run and organised by women to cater for the 15,000 female guests a thought struck me.

From my golf buggy I could see lawyers, teachers, GPs, surgeons, people with PhDs, housewives, students, nurses, CEOs, project managers... no end to the talents in a few fields of rural England.

These women belong to a community that advocates the wearing of the veil. Many of them will wear a hijab and nobody has bullied them into doing so. They are all smart, educated, confident women working and serving local and national communities.

I only wish Boris Johnson had consulted us before writing his article about women looking like “letterboxes” (“‘It’s not the answer’ – Boris Johnson hits out at Denmark for banning the burka in public”, August 6).

We would have been able to correct his views – for most letterboxes don’t talk. We would have explained that covering the face is mentioned in the Koran. We would have told him the burka is not a barrier to integration.

What a shame he decided to speak on our behalf and thought we needed his intervention to save us from making our own choices.

We would have politely explained that in our wonderful, diverse and tolerant Britain, we have the freedom to choose how we dress.

Sarah Khan, Wimbledon, Gtr London