She was speaking under Chatham House rules so no direct quotes are available, but there are a couple of interesting points from the speech that Cherie Blair made yesterday in India:
Mrs Blair told a group of Indian journalists in Delhi that attitudes towards women in some Muslim societies were out of date and needed to change. She urged Muslims to embrace more modern attitudes to sex equality.
But then:
Although she is fiercely protective of her family’s privacy with the British media she disclosed at the lunch that her daughter Kathryn had opposed her decision to take up the case of a Muslim schoolgirl banned from wearing a jilbab, or traditional Islamic dress, at school as it breached the uniform code. Kathryn believed that the case was a blow against women’s freedom but Mrs Blair thought deeper religious and human rights were at stake.
Well good for Kathryn.
Cherie’s avoided criticism for her role in the case, quite rightly. She was doing her job. But if she brings up the subject in public, and makes it clear that she took the case on as a point of principle, then she is surely opening herself up to a charge of poor judgement. Was she not aware at the time of the influence of Hizb ut-Tahrir on Shabina Begum?
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