The British debate over veils began in October 2006 when the MP and government minister Jack Straw wrote in his local newspaper, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, that, while he did not want to be "prescriptive", he preferred talking to women who did not wear a niqab (face veil) as he could see their face, and asked women who were wearing such items to remove them when they spoke to him, making clear that they could decline his request and that a female member of staff was in the room.
Straw said he told the newspaper this information to open a debate on the subject, and not because of the upcoming deputy leader election in the Labour Party. Straw was Foreign Secretary at the time of the Iraq War and since 1979 has been the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Blackburn, where at least one quarter of the population are Muslim. Straw later stated that he would like to see the veil "abolished" altogether, adding that he was worried about "implications of separateness".
Straw's views were met with a mixed response, with some agreeing to the idea of a debate, some arguing that Muslim women should not wear veils in the United Kingdom, and some, such as the newspaper the Daily Express, calling for the veil to be banned. Others were opposed to Straw's intervention, and some accused him of encouraging prejudice.
In 2010, Jack Straw publicly apologised over his 2006 comments, stating "If I had realised the scale of publicity that they received in October 2006, I wouldn’t have made them and I am sorry that it has caused problems and I offer that apology."
Read more about British Debate Over Veils: Background To The Debate: The Face Veil in Islam, Expressions of Opposition To The Wearing of The niqab, Expressions of Opposition To The Raising of The Issue As A Public Debate, Expressions of Opposition To The Tone of The Debate, Accusations of Islamophobia, Violent Attacks, Media Spoof, Opinion Polling, Foreign Commentary On The UK Debate, Parliamentary Debate
Famous quotes containing the words british, debate and/or veils:
“These battles sound incredible to us. I think that posterity will doubt if such things ever were,—if our bold ancestors who settled this land were not struggling rather with the forest shadows, and not with a copper-colored race of men. They were vapors, fever and ague of the unsettled woods. Now, only a few arrowheads are turned up by the plow. In the Pelasgic, the Etruscan, or the British story, there is nothing so shadowy and unreal.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great deal of unnecessary worry is indulged in by theatregoers trying to understand what Bernard Shaw means. They are not satisfied to listen to a pleasantly written scene in which three or four clever people say clever things, but they need to purse their lips and scowl a little and debate as to whether Shaw meant the lines to be an attack on monogamy as an institution or a plea for manual training in the public school system.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,
And unawares Morality expires.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)