Britain's Burka Blues

Britain's Burka Blues: "I'd Like to Thank Boris Johnson"
by Denis MacEoin • September 3, 2018 at 5:00 am



"As a Muslim woman, I'd like to thank Boris Johnson for calling out the niqab" — Title of an article by Dr. Qanta Ahmed in The Spectator.

"his is a point that we Muslims seem to be unable to get across to non-Muslims – there is no basis in Islam for the niqab.... That's why Muslim nations are themselves regulating and banning the niqab and burqa..." — Dr. Qanta Ahmed, The Conversation, January 2017.

Some observers feel that it is especially painful to see Western feminists marching and wearing black face masks in order to protect Muslim women's right to wear them, but failing to support the rights of other Muslim women who plead not to be forced into them.

We are expected to feel guilty if we dare to question what some Muslim women themselves question: if shariah law is really the most wholesome lifestyle for many women.


To many, female Islamic clothing, from hijabs to niqabs and burqas, represents the powerful oppression of women's rights. They look as if they could be symbols of the undue pressures on women to conform to a patriarchal, deeply misogynistic code and the punishments that can be and often are inflicted on women for even a slight avoidance of the rules. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
On August 5, Britain's former Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, published an article in The Daily Telegraph. Entitled "Denmark has got it wrong. Yes, the burka is oppressive and ridiculous – but that's still no reason to ban it", the article created a furore both within and outside his own Tory party, and for more than one reason.

Johnson is currently the strongest candidate to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister, given her increasing weakness as a leader, largely due to the problems surrounding Brexit and her inability to create a suitable deal for it. This is relevant to the furore. Johnson is an ambitious politician who is given to making controversial comments. "I'd Like to Thank Boris Johnson"
by Denis MacEoin

Note: I never thought there is another side of this fiasco from some muslim women themselves.

It is relieving to know.