Wearing a burka does not prevent Muslim women ‘engaging in everyday life’ in Britain, the Conservative Party chairman Sayeeda Warsi claimed yesterday.
Lady Warsi, the first Muslim woman to serve in the Cabinet, defended the right of women to choose to wear the burka in comments that will reignite the row about the full face veil.
A backbench Tory MP has launched a bid to ban wearing the burka in public, and critics claim itis a symbol of oppression, arguing that some Muslim women are forced to wear the veil by their husbands.
But Lady Warsi yesterday launched a passionate defence of the face coverings, suggesting that many Muslim women choose to wear them of their own free will.
Lady Warsi, named last year as Britain’s most powerful Muslim woman, said: ‘Just because a woman wears the burka, it doesn’t mean she can’t engage in everyday life.
‘Why should we tell women what to wear? What it boils down to is choice. If women don’t have a choice over what to wear then they are oppressed.
‘But if a woman has a choice, and she chooses to wear whatever she chooses to wear, then she’s not oppressed, is she?
‘She’s choosing what she wants.’
Critics claim the burka alienates Muslim women from the rest of society. But Lady Warsi said it did not act as a barrier in itself.
She added: ‘There are women who wear the burka who run extremely successful businesses – internet businesses, which don’t actually require you to be there face to face.’
Lady Warsi’s intervention is the latest bid by the coalition Government to close down debate about the burka.
The Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman sparked anger last month when she suggested that the burka ‘confers dignity’ on women and can even be ‘empowering’.
Immigration Minister Damian Green also waded into the row, saying it would be ‘un-British’ to prevent women from wearing the full face veil.
But ministers in Britain and elsewhere in Europe are facing
a growing clamour to outlaw the garment as part of a drive to persuade migrant communities to integrate into Western life.
Despite her defence of the burka, Lady Warsi yesterday said she backed other Government moves to ‘give everyone an equal opportunity to improve their lives’ – including new rules which require immigrants coming to Britain to join their spouses to learn English before they arrive.
‘We have to be quite clear about what people are joining here, and that includes having to join the language,’ she said.
