In a free and democratic society, you may not go around disguised. You should go around perfectly recognizable, especially in enclosed spaces, where a robber or a terrorist could hide under a mask. That should be obvious to everybody. However, some people living in countries not their own are trying to make it less so, with incredible impudence.
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A few days ago, a Muslim woman from Bangladesh went to a post office in Northern Italy. She was wearing a niqab, a Muslim dress that leaves only the eyes visible. The clerk, after seeing her identity card, asked her to show her face so that he could identify her. She did so at the clerk’s insistence, but then she wrote a letter to a few Italian newspapers, claiming to have been discriminated against.
The post office answered that there had been no discrimination whatsoever. They simply enforced the law. It’s impossible to identify anyone properly if he doesn’t show his face.
Regrettably, such incidents are anything but unusual in the Western world nowadays. And we Westerners do have to be very clear about that.
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The niqab and the burka, which humiliate women and make identification impossible, should not be permitted. And no concession should be granted, either. A woman wearing a niqab or a burka may not ask to be identified in a private area only by female clerks. This would actually be discriminatory toward the other customers, and anyone might ask for a special identification by personal whim.
In the West, to go around perfectly recognizable is not an opinion you may agree or disagree with. It’s a law — which is the same for everybody.
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If you don’t like our laws, you are quite free to go back to your own country.
Image via Picryl.