DAILY EXPRESS: A CABINET minister provoked outrage last night by suggesting wearing a burkha could be “empowering” for some Muslim women.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman claimed that a full-face veil was seen as “conferring dignity” in some Islamic societies, such as Afghanistan.
And she vowed to oppose calls for Britain to follow France in outlawing burkhas in public.
She said: “We are a free country, we attach importance to people being free and for a woman it is empowering to be able to choose each morning when you wake up what you wear.”
But her remarks sparked an angry reaction from critics last night.
UK Independence Party Euro MP Nigel Farage, whose party is pressing for the burkha and other face coverings to be outlawed, said: “It is astonishing that a member of the Government in the 21st century can say that women covering their faces empowers them.
“It does not. It disadvantages them in every walk of life. Her comments are ignorant and ill-founded.” Mrs Spelman spoke out yesterday after the Government ruled out banning the burkha, the niqab and other face veils. >>> Macer Hall, Political Editor | Monday, July 19, 2010
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