The burqa is not a civil right

Many British liberals have come out against a ban on burqas of the type being discussed in France, on the grounds that such a move would contravene the freedom of choice of British citizens. The daily The Independent disagrees: "This covering makes women invisible, invalidates their participatory rights and confirms them as evil temptresses. ... Yet some liberal Westerners take dilettante positions on freedom because their own lives are unaffected. Instead of standing with modernists, the staunchest defenders of freedom, they defect to the enemy."

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