Vic, yes, I can walk the streets wearing a mask if I want to, but I am expected to, and obliged to, reveal my identity in certain situations. If I entered an airport building, or a bank, or a shop, wearing a mask, I'd be made to remove it, so tell me why I am deemed less trustworthy than a woman who chooses to shroud herself from head to toe in a burkha?
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I'm sick of this word 'tolerance' because the tolerance that people like you constantly demand is expected to work only one way. People here bang on about the possibility of Muslim women being 'criminalised', but the fact is it's the rest of society that is being criminalised right now by being obliged to reveal their identities in certain situations when a small minority are not.
And what do you expect society to tolerate anyway? It can't be religion because Islam doesn't demand that people cover their faces, so these women can't in all honesty use that as an excuse, and neither can you. If there are rules in this regard, and there are, then they should apply to all, without exception. There is no valid reason to bend the rules to accommodate anyone's personal preferences.
As for your post to hc4361, actually, I think that's appallingly insulting. Unlike the women who choose to wear burkhas - and it is a choice - the blind have no choice. They do not deliberately choose to distance themselves from the rest of society.