Comment & Debate
“Don’t ban the burka.” National Post Editorial (Canada). January 9, 2010: “We share this abhorrence for such clothing: The burka signifies the notion that a woman is a piece of male property, which must be packaged and caged. […] Still, banning burkas is not the right way to battle the sexist ideas that burkas symbolize. In our society, women have a right to wear what they want, assuming they choose to do so of their own free will.
[…] Western liberalism means, among other things, the right to dress, eat, pray, and speak as we please. And so the government’s role in the burka debate should be to educate all immigrant cultures, including those that are Muslim, that women have every right to behave as they wish, whether or not it pleases their fathers, brothers or imams.
If a woman understands this fact, and still chooses to go around in a burka, well, so be it. Being free means having the right to make bad decisions.”