UK : Jack Straw asks women for (islamic) veil rethink
BBC News ^ | 10/05/2006
news.bbc.co.uk
Muslim women in the UK who wear full veils make "better, positive relations" between communities more difficult, Commons leader Jack Straw has said. Failing to show the mouth and nose was "a visible statement of separation and of difference", the MP wrote in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
Now he asks women who meet him if they would consider taking off their veils.
But the Islamic Human Rights Commission claimed the Blackburn MP's request would cause selective discrimination.
"It is astonishing that someone as experienced and senior as Jack Straw does not realise that the job of an elected representative is to represent the interests of the constituency, not to selectively discriminate on the basis of religion," said commission chairman Massoud Shadjareh.
And Halima Hussain, from civil liberties group the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, asked: "Who is Jack Straw to comment on negative symbols within a religion that is not his own?
"The point is these women have chosen to wear the veil and it's their own decision," she told BBC News 24.
"These are not oppressed women. I don't think he's right to say this at all."
'Provides some separation'
Mr Straw, who is the MP for a Lancashire town where Muslims make up about a quarter of the population, said he was seeking true "face-to-face" conversations with constituents.
"The value of a meeting, as opposed to a letter or phone call, is that you can - almost literally - see what the other person means, and not just hear what they say."
Later he told BBC Radio Lancashire that the issue was relevant because "we are able to relate, particularly to strangers, by being able to read their faces, and if you can't read people's faces, that does provide some separation".
He asked: "Would those people who do wear the veil think about the implications for community relations?"
Mr Straw was home secretary from 1997 to 2001, and then foreign secretary until 2005, a period which included the build-up to, and invasion of, Iraq.
He said he always made sure he had a female colleague in the room when asking someone to show their mouth and nose - and his constituents had so far always agreed to do so.
The MP added he defended the right for women to wear headscarves.
'Selective discrimination'
However, Council of Lancashire Mosques chairman Hamid Kureshi accused Mr Straw of "giving a small point a very big importance".
He told BBC Radio Five Live that those who wanted to remove their veils could, but that many would not want to.
"Jack Straw is putting them into a very awkward position by compromising the faith they believe in and that is ill-placed," he added.
Liberal Democrat constitutional affairs spokesman Simon Hughes questioned whether it was Mr Straw's place to question the way that members of the public dressed.
"I don't think it's the job for somebody who represents the whole community to say to somebody who comes through the door, 'Do you mind if you dress differently in order to talk to me?'
'Different views'
And Rajnaara Akhtar, who chairs the organisation Protect-Hijab, suggested the "appalling" comments showed "a deep lack of understanding".
Mr Straw was "a public servant and he cannot dictate to the public how they should dress", she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
However, Dr Daud Abdullah of the Muslim Council of Britain said individual Muslim women could choose to remove part of their veil.
"Even within the Muslim community, the scholars have different views on this.
"Our view is that if it is going to cause discomfort and that can be avoided then it can be done. [But] the veil over the hair is obligatory." |
