The Muslim women featured in Emine Saner’s article (‘Boris Johnson wants to get the populist vote – at our expense’, G2, 15 August) miss the point as to why most of us find the niqab so objectionable. This has little to do with religion or racism. It is because the niqab covers the face and effectively renders a woman unidentifiable.
It is incomprehensible to many of us that the human face, the means by which we communicate and relate to each other, should be deemed unfit to be seen in public. Even more offensive, especially in these egalitarian times, is the idea that it is the female face alone that is required to be covered.
.... If Polly Toynbee were to walk the streets of Birmingham, she would see that the practice is far from the preserve of a tiny group. Mr Johnson might be a sharp political operator, but on this occasion his vivid choice of metaphor might start to undermine the apparent taboo surrounding the issue. [The Guardian] Read more
