Nobody should tell women what we’re allowed to wear

THANK you for publishing a small part of my letter (Readers’ letters special, August 11). I’d like it if you published the rest of it for context. As a woman who escaped an Islamic upbringing, my stomach turns whenever I see a burka.

Women did not invent a belief system that makes them secondclass citizens by any standards that well-meaning liberal apologists for Islam apply to other areas.

A man invented Islam just as it was men who invented Judaism and Christianity. Islam permits and sometimes advocates polygamy, temporary marriages, concubinage, wife beating, child marriage, reduced inheritance rights and states a woman’s testimony in court is worth half that of a man’s.

The term Islamophobic is a contradiction in terms. A phobia is an unreasonable fear. It is not unreasonable to fear a belief system that maintains gender apartheid in the 21st century.

If you raise a little girl to believe her body is a source of evil temptation to men, and that she must cover all of it except her eyes, you will find some grow to feel unclean if they walk in public with any part of them visible.

This is the reality behind the so-called free decision of some to wear a burka. Many are compelled to do this, particularly those here as polygamist wives, unable to speak English and disempowered.

The burka should be banned in the UK because: It prevents the absorption of vitamin D, a problem for dark-skinned people like me even without a face covering, and it contravenes normal security rules (you can’t wear a balaclava in a bank). Permitting it validates gender apartheid.

There are two huge problems for apostates: one is the privilege awarded religious belief systems when it comes to equalities issues. A “get out of jail free” card.

The second, and most ironic, is Left-wingers who abhor chauvinism in the “white” population will do anything but condemn it in “minority” cultures. Their fear of being seen as racist makes them view Islam through rose-tinted spectacles.

In my family, the burka was not used but my brothers were allowed to run about in warm weather, comfortable in minimal western clothing. Like my mother, I had to wear long trousers and sleeves.

I was taught my hair, unlike my brothers’ hair, was temptation for men and it was my responsibility to protect males from being tempted.

My sister still believes this, so strong is the indoctrination. If this psychological conditioning prevails in moderate Muslim families like mine, you can imagine the impact in more extreme families.

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