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July 26, 2010

The personal is the political prisoner

In which David Mitchell misses the point about banning the burqa.

Governments and legislatures shouldn't tell people what they can and can't wear. By doing so, they would, in every sense, be taking a massive liberty. As long as people aren't wearing crotchless jeans outside primary schools or deely boppers with attached sparklers on petrol station forecourts, we've all got the right to wear exactly what the hell we like and I can barely believe that we're having this debate.

Following his own logic, who the hell is David Mitchell to tell people they can't wear crotchless jeans outside primary schools? It would be a good deal less dangerous to children than the world his misplaced liberality is hell bent on defending. Imagine the horror of knowing your mother's face, your father's property, is hidden in shame somewhere behind the bin bag walking up to the school gates.

Mitchell says banning the burqa is the only thing that would make him want to wear one. It is a catastrophically stupid thing to say, showing contempt for the rights of British women (for now, his brown sisters especially). Worse yet, thanks to Mitchell's brand of too clever by half, wilful simplisme, more and more of his countrymen are thinking along the same lines about Klan robes.

Elsewhere in women's rights: Saudi appropriation of Western technology guards against women escaping.

When women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar flew out of Saudi Arabia last week for a holiday in Italy with her family, she was hoping for a brief respite from what she describes as the ‘gender apartheid kingdom.’

She wasn’t so lucky.

As she left, her husband received an automated SMS text message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informing him that his wife, legally considered his ‘dependant’ under Saudi Arabia’s strict gendered guardianship system, had left the country.

In the land of Mordor, where the shadows text each other.

Elsewhere in public safety: An Islamic "extremist" is to head the Muslim Safety Forum.

An Islamic extremist, who has described al-Qaeda as a "myth" and justified the killing of British troops in Iraq, has been chosen to head the Muslim Safety Forum (MSF), which is recognised by London's Metropolitan Police as "the principal body in relation to Muslim community safety and security".

Elsewhere in occupied England: A council-run graveyard is selling Muslim burial plots £500 cheaper than those for non-Muslims.

Dhimmis: Know your place!

Posted by Ghost of a flea at July 26, 2010 09:08 AM

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