This thread starts off with the wrong basis. All clothing choices are political. Just because she didn’t realize it didn’t make it less so. Ignorance is sometimes convenience, I guess.

I don’t really buy the Clash of Civilizations narrative, but at the same time I believe that — no matter what the participants therein say — that the burka/niqab/hijab is a form of forced servitude.

That said, I don’t know that banning the wear of such garb is the answer. I lean that way, with laws similar to those in France, but I’m not certain of it.

All these folks come out of the woodwork when there is some effort to preserve secular society, but there is nary a word when forced veiling or the politics of the veil is brought up, or Muslim oppression of women….

To me, preserving a secular society at pretty high cost is worth making some people’s lives worse or more inconvenient for a while.