The veil has no place in today’s Western society

SIR – Sarah Waseem’s argument (Letters, October 5) for permitting the wearing of burkas in the West on the basis of female freedom of choice is somewhat undermined by her belief that it is only male politicians who wish to ban it.

However, it is fatally undone by her supporting claim that on one occasion Mohammed “allowed” his wife to reveal her face.

This confusion of hard-won feminist freedoms with one-way, patriarchally controlled and culturally dissonant “rights” perfectly explains why the burka has no place in modern Western society. Victor Launert

Matlock Bath, Derbyshire SIR – Following Austria’s ban on full-face coverings, Sarah Waseem says she looks forward to hearing how many surgeons are stopped.

How many surgeons wear their masks outside the operating theatre? Dr Paul Turnbull

Alverstoke, Hampshire

SIR – It is not male politicians who determine, primarily, that Muslim women wear a full-face veil, but the Muslim men who control their religion and its practice.

Many others feel it to be a badge of female subjugation – including the many women who were delighted to cast it aside when they were liberated from Isil. J D Abell

Christchurch, New Zealand