What would happen if men had to wear burkinis?
The French police need to be more sensitive if they’re called upon to handle the ‘burkini ban’, especially given that a court has now ruled it is illegal. I agree with Sarah Vine that the way four officers dealt with a Muslim woman on a beach in Nice was incredibly cold and embarrassing (Mail).
however, France (and any western liberal democracy) still has a right to ban certain dress modes, just as Muslim countries will prevent women wearing bikinis. And people have a choice to follow the law or face the consequences of not doing so. It is not true that a woman has the right to wear ‘whatever the hell she likes’ and neither does a man.
The symbolic meaning of clothing is important. If you wear a swastika in public, people wouldn’t object on the grounds of it being a bent equilateral cross, but because of its association with the Nazis.
Burkas and burkinis are an issue not because they’re voluminous whole-body garments, but because they’re generally worn to signal membership of an ideologically defined ground. Context is everything.
Perhaps more Westerners would be willing to respect such garments if Muslim men wore them, too. But something tells me that Islam as a religion would start to disappear if its men had to put up with the same sexist nonsense as its women.
EMILIE LAMPLOUGH, Trowbridge, Wilts.
Sensitive dress
FroM 2003 to 2011 we lived in three different Middle east countries: Bahrain, the United Arab emirates and oman. During that time, I made sure I always dressed properly, in long baggy trousers or a long skirt, always with long sleeves and a high neck on my top.
on many occasions, not least because of the extreme summer heat in these countries, it would have been easy and very welcome to have traded the long legs and arms of my clothes for shorts and sleeveless tops, but I would never have done that.
I wished always to respect the country, the people, their culture and the laws of the land in which we lived and I would never have done anything which might have offended. every one of the friends I made during my husband’s work time in those countries felt and behaved exactly as I did.
France prides itself on being a secular country and has laws in place which prohibit extreme forms of religious dress in public places. Why is it so difficult for Muslims in France to respect this and behave accordingly?
ELAINE MacKENZIE, Burgess Hill, W. Sussex.
When in Rome . . .
The trouble is that many Muslims won’t agree to a level playing field. Can women visiting Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and other similar countries wear a skirt or a two-piece swimsuit?
even the Queen has to adjust her clothing when she visits these places. Why not follow the injunction, ‘When in rome … ’?
CLIFF KENT, Beckenham, Kent.
Stoking extremism
The French have suffered from recent ISIS atrocities, and it’s probably best left to them to determine their response.
Sarah Vine describes hardline Islam as a misogynist movement which shouldn’t be tolerated in Western society.
As she says: ‘A British Muslim woman has the same rights as any other, whether she be Christian, hindu or Buddhist.’
Unfortunately, under Sharia law, it’s apparent that she hasn’t. Allowing Muslims to follow the hardline Islamic culture of the subjugation of women by allowing Sharia law to grow in this country is more likely to let ISIS-type extremism flourish. ALF EAST, South Shields, Tyne and Wear.
Justified response
YeS, it will have been upsetting for that lady on the beach to have been asked to remove some of her clothing, but this whole situation has been brought about by the murders of innocent people, in the name of Islam.
No doubt it could have been handled better: she could have been escorted to a more private place and dealt with by female police officers. But even then she would probably have felt embarrassed and degraded. These situations will get worse as more innocent people are killed by lone attackers shouting ‘God is great!’ in Arabic.
We see and read in the news that extremist terrorism is getting more frequent, no matter where you are, so I can understand why the French, after what has happened to them, are reacting in this way. one thing I do believe is that Muslims could do more themselves to stop this slaughter, often the slaughter of their own kind.
LES WOLLITER, Leeds.
Misplaced outrage
AFTer the Scottish independence battle and accusations of racism, J. K. rowling now feels the success of her infantile books entitles her to pontificate on the burkini debate.
Perhaps if the massacres at Charlie hebdo, the Bataclan and in Nice had occurred at the offices of Private eye, the royal Albert hall and on the seafront at Bournemouth, rowling and her ilk would not be so vociferous in their protests outside the French embassy.
The legacy of its imperialism means that France, unlike Britain, has a huge Muslim immigrant community which largely refuses to integrate and accept the secular values of the French republic.
The French have every right to protect those sacred principles, which were won through their blood and suffering, by any means that they see fit.
rowling and her like-minded pals should mind their own business. Dr ADRIAN MARLOWE, The Hague.
Blame religion
CrITICISM of the ‘ burkini’ on Brighton beach and elsewhere is not the issue.
It’s religious belief itself that is the issue. And no one anywhere, thus far, has had the courage or integrity to take on these outdated beliefs that have no relevance in the modern world.
religion might have had some comforting purpose millennia ago when early humans didn’t have explanations for things they didn’t understand, but that is no longer the case.
We have known that our planet isn’t the centre of our own solar system (and, therefore, of ‘ all things’) since Copernicus dared to publish in the 16th century. And we have known since Darwin (and Wallace) in 1859 that we weren’t ‘created’, but ‘evolved’.
religion, these days, is about power and control. There is not, and never has been, a scrap of evidence for the existence of any ‘god’ anywhere.
It’s disgraceful that scientists such as Professor richard Dawkins are vilified by religious bigots for simply promoting, for the public understanding of science, what we know to be biological and evolutionary facts.
If religion is to be taught at all in schools, it should be confined to the history curriculum, where it belongs. our chapels, churches and cathedrals are beautiful buildings and can be viewed as such, but in the context of something we believed in centuries ago, when we knew no better.
From the Archbishops of Canterbury and York down to local vicars and priests, all the supposed ‘ clergy’ ( including imams) are living off the fraudulent earnings from the continued and shameful propagation of what we now know to be a total fiction.
They should be shown up as such and their occupations phased out and banned. Not to do so would be to let down whole generations of our children everywhere by continuing to allow them to be indoctrinated with false beliefs. Dr JOHN CHAMBERLIN,
Yeldersley, Derbys.
A case of discrimination
The problem with the burkini is the head covering. No one cares about women or men wearing full body swimsuits, but covering the head in public by Muslim women who want to show they’re different is pure provocation.
If there is any discrimination, it’s by those who follow the Muslim faith. Whether it’s a burka, hijab or niqab, the headdress is designed to separate Muslim women from the rest of society.
These items are imposed, primarily by men with their strict Islamic or Sharia laws. They should be made illegal outside the home, as they have no place in our secular european society.
PETER FIELDMAN, Paris.