Philobiblon

The British mainstream media, the blogosphere, the radio … everywhere seems to be full of the veil debate (eg here and here).

Should you be on another continent, ths short version is that Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons, wrote in his local paper that he asked Muslim women who veiled their faces to remove such veils during meetings in his office in the interest of improving communication. (That this column might have had more than a little to do with the Labour leadership struggles I’ll leave to the Kremlinologists to discuss.)

I was chewing over the issue over a very late lunch, and I came to the conclusion that I agree with Straw on this – or at least would entirely defend his right to request of a visitor to his office an action that he thinks will assist the work.

Maybe he had a Hindu yogi visiting who liked to hold consultations while standing on his head. If Straw found this difficult, he could reasonably ask the yogi to sit on a chair. Or indeed, if someone arrived in a bikini and Straw found this uncomfortable, he could ask that visit to wrap up in a beach towel. It is his office, and he can make reasonable requests of visitors.

Of course there is a power imbalance, so he should be very careful of what he asks, but this isn’t unreasonable.

The issues is stewing further since Straw said that he would prefer no women wore the niqab anywhere.

Well, yes. So do I. Of course grown women who have sufficient independence in their life to have the freedom to genuinely make their own choice should be able to choose to wear the niqab if they choose (some very large ifs there), but given that the ideology behind the niqab suggests that women are dangerous, dirty, and do not belong in public spaces, to say that you would prefer them not to be worn anywhere is perfectly reasonable.