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October 10, 2006
Straw men
It was not the first time I had conducted an interview with someone in a full veil, but this particular encounter, though very polite and respectful on both sides, got me thinking. In part, this was because of the apparent incongruity between the signals which indicate common bonds - the entirely English accent, the couple's education (wholly in the UK) - and the fact of the veil. Above all, it was because I felt uncomfortable about talking to someone "face-to-face" who I could not see.
So I decided that I wouldn't just sit there the next time a lady turned up to see me in a full veil, and I haven't.
Now, I always ensure that a female member of my staff is with me. I explain that this is a country built on freedoms. I defend absolutely the right of any woman to wear a headscarf. As for the full veil, wearing it breaks no laws.
I go on to say that I think, however, that the conversation would be of greater value if the lady took the covering from her face.…
I thought it may be hard going when I made my request for face-to-face interviews in these circumstances. However, I can't recall a single occasion when the lady concerned refused to lift her veil; and most I ask seem relieved I have done so. Last Friday was a case in point. The veil came off almost as soon as I opened my mouth. I dealt with the problems the lady had brought to me. We then had a really interesting debate about veil wearing. This itself contained some surprises. It became absolutely clear to me that the husband had played no part in her decision. She explained she had read some books and thought about the issue. She felt more comfortable wearing the veil when out. People bothered her less.
…The husband chipped in to say that this matter was "more cultural than religious". I said I would reflect on what the lady had said to me. Would she, however, think hard about what I said - in particular about my concern that wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult. It was such a visible statement of separation and of difference.
What Cristina Odone said Jack Straw said:
Neither mantilla nor veil is calculated as an aggressive provocation to society — quite the opposite: these are soft and feminine folds of cloth that modestly conceal a face and figure. In a mantilla, as in a veil, even raunchy figures like Madonna and Posh would come over all romantic and mysterious.
But you don't wear the veil, the mantilla, as a counter-intuitive come-hither, the entrancing whisper in a room full of fishwives' cries. Both items prove your respect for an authority other than Kate Moss, Topshop – or Jack Straw.
This show of independence does not go down well with today's Westminster control freaks. The Government, which tells us what risks to take, what garbage we can throw away and when, now wants to tell us what to wear.
…You shouldn't wear the veil, he [Straw] told the Muslim woman constituent who came to see him with her concerns. She had come to petition her representative, but received instead a sartorial diktat. The Leader of the House couldn't help her as she was, he explained: her veil made for crossed wires and bad communication; it separated her from people like him.
And then she started exaggerating!
For government to single out people because of what they wear is not just silly; it is dangerous. There are odious antecedents — think of the anti-Semitic caricatures of skull-capped men that circulated in Germany and France within living memory. If we continue in this vein, the next step will be to single out people by telling them what they must wear. A yellow crescent moon, perhaps?
While the media assure us that this business of an MP daring to speak his mind has set off an unholy row, I've seen little evidence of it. If even Tony Blair is willing to call Straw's comments "perfectly sensible," you know you have a good-sized pile of nothing on your hands. Politicians admitting they're human beings, capable of thoughts and feelings not sanctioned by their parties' PC handbooks, is a good thing.
Posted by Chris Selley at October 10, 2006 09:15 PM
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