Muslim sues school for asking her not to wear burka on premises

I have never said anything of the sort! But I do say now, that wearing a Burka or a Niqab, is
probably as British, as wearing Pickelhaub and having a German Kaiser instead of the King. Or the Queen.

I say probably, because I'm not British either. But nemo iudex in causa sua, then maybe I'm even in a better position to say so, and being in Britain, or any other country, I would not dare to enforce my culture or just being ostentatious about it.

It is as elegant and decorum, as an American from the middle west, asking for a hamburger while being in Rome in a proper Italian restaurant, or a Brit swearing loudly in a restaurant in Cracow, as I witnessed, thinking that nobody can understand him anyway, and acting like, just because he is in a country commonly associated with vodka, he get himself drunk so badly, to vomit over entire market place, and insult the local monuments!

OK, What is up with the scary old man puppet?

Trying hard to be funny and speak some elements of a serious message in the same time.

An old family friend used to grab onto keys and make the sign of the cross whenever somebody in a burka walked past

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The article states that the woman in question began wearing the face veil 14 years ago, and so has presumably been wearing it to collect her three children for the entire time they have been in school, so clearly it's not an impossible situation. Also, an 11 year old child is surely going to recognise their own mother, and the other parents at the school will also be able to recognise her by talking to her once they get to know her, as well as getting to know her individual mannerisms. I don't think a productive discussion on security issues and identification is going to happen until people at least begin to address their fear of the unfamiliar, which is very evident in some posts on this thread.

I mean, why not let women wear what they want?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslim-mother-london-school-face-veil-ban-daughter-niqab-holland-park-rachida-serroukh-a7852396.html

This woman is a vexatious litigant, what a waste of the court's time. If she wins her lawyer will be enriched as will she, and the public purse impoverished. To what good end?

The more incidents there are like this, the more the division grows between non Muslims and non non Muslims.

Many will feel If she is so unhappy with this, why doesn't she go and live in a country whereshe would be forced to wear a burka anyway? Like Afghanistan?

False.

True

https://iwpr.net/global-voices/afghan-women-still-bound-burka

Don't tell me what's false and not about Afghanistan when I have been there and seen women without burka and actually majority of the girls don't even wear it. The country does not force anyone to wear it. Get your facts straight.

I mean, why not let women wear what they want?

The article in the Guardian (link) seems to be full of a surprising amount of padding, even by the 'muh emotions' standards of that newspaper. Lots of junk about how the mother went to that school and how well her daughter performed in Year 6, which add nothing of interest to the core debate.

I personally agree with the decision. It's proportionate. Not only are there the security concerns outlined by @BigYoSpeck, but there's also the question of intimacy and familiarity. Such parent-teachers meetings are situations where a teacher is expected to convey details about a child's performance and behaviour at school. It's therefore a place where a teacher would expect a lively conversation with a parent, and, particularly at a prestigious school such as this one, the parent to show emotion and react to their suggestions for improvement. The glorified tent cloth does an excellent job at hiding your facial expression, which would feel disturbing to me, as I wouldn't be certain as to whether my feedback was getting across in the way in which I expected it to be.

The only reason why the child was left alone and embarassed was because of the mother's lack of foresight (not buying one of those clip-on veils), and stupid religious dogma, that prohibited her from showing her face to a group of professional, middle class, middle-aged parents. Hardly a den of sexual predators whose mere witnessing of a female face could be feared to arouse lustful instincts.