o problem with the hijab, or with Sikhs’ turbans, or Rastas’ red gold and green woolly hats, or Hasidic Jews with their locks, hats, and glasses (is it all that poring over the Talmud that makes glasses practically universal among male Hasidics?).
Having just queued up in Tesco’s in front of a woman dressed in a burqa – the business with the slit for eyes – I have to say though that, yes, that is something I find offensive. It’s not so much the implication of women’s subservience, though that’s there of course, but the covering up of the face. There’s something about an open society that it works when everyone in a social setting – in the street, shopping – has their face visible; a sort of democracy of social interaction. It offends me when people don’t respect that.
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