How Straw stirred up the debate
OVER the past decade the burkha has become increasingly controversial in the UK.
Justice Minister Jack Straw ignited a storm of debate after revealing he wanted his female Muslim constituents to stop covering their faces three years ago.
The MP for Blackburn complained he was unable to understand Muslim women who attended his surgeries and often asked them to show their faces.
He even went as far as to declare he personally wanted the veil scrapped while stopping short of calling for an outright ban.
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with a 36 per cent Muslim population, banned all pupils under 16 wearing the veil at school in 2004.
In 2005 an NHS Trust in Lancashire provoked fresh outrage when it trialled burkha-style hospital gowns covering everything but the wearer’s eyes and hands.
The £12 “Inter-faith gown” was introduced by doctors who believed it would encourage Muslim patients to seek treatment. A Daily Express poll revealed 96 per cent were against the garment.
Earlier this month Muslim hate preacher Anjem Choudary provoked controversy when he demanded that all British women be forced to wear burkhas.
Conservative MP and ex-Army officer Patrick Mercer said: “If anyone thinks that those views are a step forward in society they are seriously deluded.”