People often insist the burqa is simply a personal choice. I can’t pretend to believe that.
I grew up watching what really happens when women push back, and my own mother paid a heartbreaking price for daring to say no.
When men — from any background, culture, or religion — dictate what women should wear, it’s not guidance.
It’s a form of control. And it happens openly, in front of all of us.
Society’s job should be to challenge that pressure, not excuse it because it’s uncomfortable to confront.
The Fury That Follows Anyone Who Speaks Up
This week in Australia, senator Pauline Hanson walked into parliament wearing a burqa after her proposal to ban the garment was rejected.
The backlash was immediate: she was suspended for a week and branded a racist.
The very same labels are slapped onto anyone in Britain who tries to question why this covering is pushed onto women in the first place.
But Hanson’s stunt isn’t the heart of the problem.
The burqa itself — a garment that hides a woman completely, sometimes showing only a mesh for her eyes — is not the topic the Left wants discussed.
Instead, they react with outrage at the mere suggestion that something might be wrong with it.
What Happens When You Can’t Even Ask Questions
By refusing to entertain any criticism, progressives end up defending the abuse of women — because what else can you call a system that demands women hide every inch of their bodies to prevent men from feeling “tempted”?
The message is unmistakable: a woman’s existence is inherently dangerous.
Only total concealment keeps her from being labelled immoral or shameful.
And the flip side is just as toxic: men raised with these beliefs come to view women from other cultures as sexually available simply because they don’t cover up.
Growing up in Pakistan, I heard it over and over — that European women were immodest, that they were essentially prostitutes.
Those assumptions have led to terrible consequences in Britain, from grooming gangs in towns like Rotherham to assaults by newly arrived migrants.
Clothing becomes an excuse for predatory thinking.
When Clothing Becomes a Cage
A ban on the burqa isn’t about punishing anyone. It’s about protecting women.
I think of my mother and grandmother, both early feminists in Pakistan.
And then I think of my father — deeply conservative, convinced he was entitled to make every decision for the women in our home.
I was only 15 when he gifted my sister and me bright, beautiful hijabs.
We loved pretty things, so we wore them with excitement. For two days, he showered us with praise.
But the moment I chose another outfit, the truth exploded.
His fury stunned me.
“You don’t take it off,” he shouted. “You’ve started — now you will always wear it.
You have no choice.”
Those words have never left me.
The Fight That Changed Everything
Afraid, I wore the hijab again the next day. It didn’t feel like a lovely accessory anymore. It felt like a uniform of submission.
When we got home, we walked into chaos — my parents screaming, something we had never seen before.
My mother ran to us, tore the hijab off my head, and shouted, “I did not give birth to slaves.”
She declared that we would never wear the hijab or the burqa.
My father answered her defiance with his fists.
We watched in terror as he beat her. She still refused to yield.
So he found another way: he cut off her access to money, punishing her through deprivation instead.
That is the reality behind many women’s “choices.”
Every time I see a woman in a burqa, I’m reminded of that raw coercion.
A Double Standard Hidden in Plain Sight
What appalls me most is how readily the liberal Left overlooks the obvious.
Feminists fought for decades to reject the idea that women invite mistreatment by showing skin.
That mentality was supposed to be gone.
But somehow, when the pressure comes from within Muslim communities, it becomes untouchable — protected under the umbrella of culture.
Britain hasn’t always been afraid to take a moral stand.
Female genital mutilation was banned long ago.
In colonial India, Britain outlawed suttee — the horrific burning of widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres.
If those practices are unacceptable, why is the burqa different?
How Other Countries Have Moved Forward
Many nations have already said enough is enough.
France and Portugal introduced bans years ago; protests flared briefly and then faded.
A 2022 study from the School of Economics in Paris found that girls in France performed better academically once hijabs, niqabs and burqas were no longer allowed in schools.
Even in Muslim-majority countries like Morocco and Uzbekistan, full-face coverings have been outlawed — partly for security reasons, partly to curb extremism.
If those nations can recognise the dangers, why can’t Britain?
Rediscovering Moral Courage
For years it felt impossible to even bring up the subject without attracting a storm of outrage.
But things are shifting. People are increasingly willing to discuss what covering women really signifies and who benefits from it.
We need the courage to keep speaking up. Pauline Hanson did, whatever one thinks of her methods.
My mother did, too — and she was willing to pay the price.
I refuse to forget her strength. And I refuse to stay silent.
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