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  1. Politics
30 June 2010updated 12 Oct 2023 9:58am

Tory MP bids to ban the veil

Philip Hollobone begins attempt to introduce repressive ban with private member’s bill today.

By George Eaton

One Conservative MP, Philip Hollobone, is hoping that Britain will follow Belgium by introducing a repressive ban on the niqab and the burqa. He will present his Private Member’s Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill in the House of Commons today. The parliament website describes it as:

A Bill to regulate the wearing of certain face coverings; and for connected purposes.

The bill would introduce a ban on people wearing burqas (and balaclavas) in public. Hollobone has previously made his support for a full ban clear. During a Commons debate on International Women’s Day he said:

The phrase that has been given to me time and again is, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” This is Britain; we are not a Muslim country. Covering one’s face in public is strange, and to many people it is intimidating and offensive. I seriously think that a ban on wearing the niqab or the burqa in public should be considered.

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Like other supporters of an illiberal ban, Hollobone has yet to provide a convincing answer to the point that those who complain that Islamist men tell women how to dress are doing precisely the same thing by calling for a ban. On matters of sexual equality, Muslim women would be better served by the enforcement of existing laws against domestic violence than by the enactment of new laws restricting their dress.

For a detailed discussion of Europe’s war on the veil, see my colleague Mehdi Hasan’s recent New Statesman cover story on the subject.

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