Burkas strike me as rather odd, and I’m not confident that I understand the mentality which leads to the wearing of them, or leads to people pressuring other people to wear them.
However, I’m afraid we do have to accept that large numbers of muslim women cover up (even if they do not do the full burka) entirely voluntarily and because they feel that this is morally, religiously and/or culturally superior to the very high levels of public semi-nudity and sexualisation that we are used to.
Now, there may be a real problem with human rights lurking around down there for some (possibly for many) people. But I can understand why any woman wouldn’t necessarily want to be on the receiving end of my own slightly predatory semi-staring in the street, or the incredible rash of comments that anyone who accidentally posts a picture of their wife looking a bit tubby gets on here, or the leering that a picture of Megan Fox in hotpants gets etc etc.
I suspect that part of the hostility to muslim women covering up is that it makes the rest of us feel judged, whether we are women wandering around in minimal clothing or men who like to peer at women. And we don’t like feeling judged.
Banning one woman from wearing what she wants to so that everyone else can get on with “appreciating” tiny little shorts seems odd. 🙂