Racism, feminism and banning the veil

The vote in the French lower house to ban the wearing of the face veil in public is a dangerous development in the intensification of Islamophobia in Europe ( Racism veiled as liberation , 15 July). That it has been proclaimed as a victory for women's rights makes it all the more appalling. Racism is being legitimised by giving it a feminist spin. Banning the veil, or any other sort of Islamic dress, has nothing to do with liberating women. Liberation, if it is to mean anything, is about self-determination. This must include choice about how to live and dress. It is a myth that women only wear the veil because men force them to. Many women wear the veil in defiance of their parents. Why? Because they see it as a statement of pride in their religious identity and a refusal to be cowed by state-endorsed demonisation of Islam. If there are women forced to wear the veil by a male family member, how will the state forcing them not to wear it help? Such enforcement can never be progressive. The result will be that, far from being liberated, such women may become completely excluded from public life. It has become mainstream common sense to denounce Islam as somehow uniquely backward and oppressive. For those of us who genuinely believe in challenging oppression and fighting for women's liberation, we see it for what is, racism. Across Europe the only beneficiaries of such laws will be the far right. Judith Orr Author, Sexism and the System • There may be a small minority of women who wear the face veil in France, but I have lived in East Ham for 10 years and over this time I have noticed an increase in the number of women covering their faces. On a practical level, teachers in the local nursery are often worried when a parent collects a child as they are unable to identify the parent. They do not know who is behind the mask. Sometimes it is right for society to stand up and say certain freedoms have to be curtailed for the benefit of the common good. The smoking ban in public places is an example. The freedom to cover your face with a mask is not a freedom worth protecting. Ian Adams London • Madeleine Bunting castigates France for proposing a law banning full face veiling in public. She feels Muslim women are entitled to wear niqabs or burqas in public as a statement of cultural identity. For the vast majority of people in this country, let alone France, full-face veiling is an affront to long-standing cultural norms – in exactly the same way as a western woman publicly wearing brief shorts and a halter top would offend sensibilities in most Muslim countries. Nick Blackstock Bradford