[Tom4784]

Originally Posted by jaxie

Except it is rarely their choice, it is conditioning.

Originally Posted by Brillopad

But I wonder how many of those women are just doing as they are told - forced to spout the men's words because the men know they can't. Maybe such a belief is not actually helping them. There are a lot of ifs and buts - enough to cast a lot of doubt on the validity of such 'opposition'.

But at the end of the day, as far as I and many other women are concerned, it is challenging female equality in a country that has equality laws to supposedly protect women from such backward beliefs towards women and their equality and is therefore offensive to women. In comparison the 'right' to wear what you want is not equal - it's trivial.

Technically we are not allowed to wear what we want anyway - that is a misconception to direct attention away from the real issue. There are rules about decency, racial/homosexual hatred etc and various other dress codes, so why is an exception made for this particular religion when it is offensive to about 50% of the population. It makes one doubt how 'equal' women really are in this country.

Both of these posts are incredibly patronising towards Muslim women.

Brillo, Your point of view is ultimately hypocritical, you've taken your view of what the Burkha stands for and you are passing it off as fact as a way of telling women what they can and cannot wear. Feminism is about equality but also the freedom of choice, if a woman wants to wear a Burkha then that is her choice to do so, of course there are controlling husbands/boyfriends etc out there. It's quite common in abusive relationships for the abuser to tell the abused how to dress and that's something that happens in relationships regardless of creed or race. You can't use that as an excuse to dictate to other women what is acceptable or not depending on your own standards.