There is no reason why Western lifestyles have to put up with Muslim females draped from head to toe so that their identities are completely hidden.

This is offensive to those enjoying free nations’ liberties. These Islamic customs are not only ridiculous but offensive to reason.

If free nations have any self-respect they will see to it that such garb is banned. It is not being irreligious or discourteous. It is being logical.

How can a public school teacher in such dress instruct pupils? She can’t.

How can a civil servant see through her duties as a social worker or clerk at a motor vehicle desk? She can’t.

Therefore, Muslim women tied to head-to-toe veils should stay in their own Muslim environs or give up the hide-away when moving into non-Muslim cultures.

According to Jane Perlez of the International Herald Tribune: “Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes.

“Like little else, their appearance has unnerved Britons, testing the limits of tolerance in this stridently secular nation. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. At the same time, efforts are growing to place legal curbs on the full Muslim veil, known as the niqab.

“The past year has seen numerous examples: A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not represent a client because, he said, he could not hear her. A teacher wearing a niqab was told by a provincial school to go home. A student who was
barred from wearing a niqab took her case to the courts, and lost. In fact, the British education authorities are proposing a ban on the niqab in schools altogether.”

Every move to undress the Muslim woman so that we know who she is is another step toward civility. Do reasonable citizens truly want their societies further unwoven by the intrusion of the Muslim veil? They should fight this with every civil effort possible.

“David Sexton, a columnist for The Evening Standard, wrote recently that Britain has been ‘too deferential’ toward the veil. ‘I find such garb, in the context of a London street, first ridiculous and then directly offensive,’ he said.”

True.

When Roman Catholic nuns wear the habit, that is fine. Why? Because their identity via face is known to whomever. When Amish dress in their style, that is fine. Why? Because their identity is visible.

When Muslim women cover themselves except for eye slits, that’s reprehensible. It simply cannot continue in a free country.

In “France, Turkey and Tunisia, students in state schools and female civil servants are banned
from covering their hair. British Muslim women can wear the headscarf, and indeed the niqab, almost anywhere, for now.”

Hurrah for France, Turkey and Tunisia. Other parts of the planet take note and follow.