Why is it that so many people in this country want to liberate women by telling them what they can’t wear?  Jack Straw, former Foreign Secretary and backer of the war on Iraq said in an interview with the Lancashire Telegraph that he would ask Muslim women who wore a niqab to remove the veil when attending his surgery.

On a day that of quite exceptional furore with “cop out” Muslim policemen and assaults outside a Muslim owned dairy, Mr Straw’s comments are badly timed and quite insensitive.  Having a debate on this issue per se is not necessarily a bad thing but context and factual information are important before reaching a conclusion.

Context first.  Mr Straw’s comments come in a year when many Muslims feel under assault with cartoons about our prophet Mohammed (PBUH), a highly undiplomatic remark by Pope Benedict, eviction of innocent passengers from an aircraft, a raid on a Muslim school, the shooting of an innocent man in Forest Gate, a discourse about passenger profiling (wanna guess which passengers?), criticism of a Muslim policemen etc. etc.

Secondly, religion.  There is a difference of an opinion within the Islamic faith if the Niqab is fard (religious obligation) some scholars of Islam say it is while some say it isn't. But whatever the case is women have a right to choose and here at MPACUK we celebrate the differences within Islam and the Muslim woman right to choose as to what they wish to wear.

More to the point who should be the arbiter when discussing what any woman should wear?  Mr Straw is not alleging that the women of his constituency are forced to wear niqabs.  If they wish to wear them why should anyone else object?  Mr Straw may have a point when he says that he finds communication with women wearing a niqab rather difficult but surely no more difficult than when talking to someone on the phone.  He states that he asks them not to wear a niqab and ensures the presence of another woman when discussing matters with his female constituents.  Surely the logical answer is the wearer should decide.  If our values are about freedom then freedom is not an abstract notion.  Mr Straw’s other contention is that the niqab is statement of difference.   Does that mean it is bad to be “different”?  Who is offended by difference?  Does that mean that our values have now come to include forced homogeneity?  Should we all aim to dress and act the same?  What scull-caps and turbans?  A statement of difference?  When the cartoons scandal erupted, Muslims were lectured on the sanctity of “freedom” in the west.  What about the freedom to wear the niqab?

Britain is a multi-cultural society and like any such society it faces challenges but these challenges should be viewed in the context that our society is not static but evolves.  Britain is not the country it was in the 1950’s and differences should not be crudely portrayed as negative.  Of course integration should be promoted but does that mean dumping the things that some people hold dear to them?  It is equally important that Muslims aren’t portrayed as the only ones facing challenges to integrate.

Mr Straw is an experienced politician so when he alleges that the niqab could be a barrier to integration he really should know better.  Of course Mr Straw is entitled to his view but so are women who think Mr Straw is plain wrong.