As a female who almost daily wears a traditional head covering I find it repulsive that anyone, anywhere could or would want to have control over my CHOICES.
I am half Czech, I spent a good deal of my early life living on a small holding with my family in the countryside of Moravia, in a village called Cejkovice. My main carer was my Grandmother who was born in 1927.
Moravia is oozing still now with tradition. Traditional costumes or Kroj, flamboyant churches and devout church goers, festivals that go on for days, weddings that last 4 days, wine making, baby swaddling and many more but one that I would like to highlight is headscarf wearing.
It is traditional for women in Moravia to wear a headscarf and I as many others grew up accepting that as part of our attire.
I as you all know live in the United Kingdom. Head scarves are not ‘normal’ attire for women here, in fact you’d be more likely to see young women donning Nike baseball caps than a scarf!
So there is no traditional need for me to cover my head. I am married to an American Southern Baptist who has no desire to have his wife cover her head… so again I have no pressure on me to cover my head.
I wear a head scarf because I CHOSE TO. It keeps me warm when it’s cold, keeps the sun off my head when it’s hot, keeps hair out of my eyes, keeps my hair clean if I am doing dirty work, keeps my hair out of food when I cook and best bit is it saves me blushes when I wake up and have one of those “I can’t be bothered to do my hair” days… or as most of you will know, I colour my hair very bright colours… well those colours fade and mostly fade to an unattractive blergh shade so a nice bright scarf can work wonders to cover my lax approach to hair care up!
Now to think an authority could make it illegal for me to wear my scarf makes me shudder! I guess when I go out and I have my head covered and sunglasses on one could argue that people I meet only see my mouth and chin.
So not dissimilar to an upside down Niqab.
OK lets take the Niqab as an example here because I don’t know about you but I often pass by people in my town who look just like they are wearing a Niqab, baseball cap on, hoodie over the top and for some strange reason a scarf around their necks pulled up to cover their lower faces…. if it’s a sunny day the sun glasses go on in between the hoods and scarves &  then you’ll meet faceless people all over Southend.

So why is it that these things are acceptable for fashion reasons but create the same effect from one item of clothing and add a religious reason behind it and all of a sudden it becomes bad?
Bad for WHOM? No one asked me to vote on this?

The legislation in Belgium does not specifically mention veils, the BBC’s Dominic Hughes in Brussels says.
Instead, it says the ban applies to clothing that hides someone’s identity in public places such as parks, buildings and on the street.

That would be me then? On a cold day I tie the scarf up under my chin, wrap a scarf round my neck and because I have ocular photo sensetivity I wear glasses even in winter! Goodness me at 40 years old if I visit Belgium after this law is passed I could get arrested! Oh unless I ask THE POLICE for permission!

Anyone who ignores the ban would face a fine of 15-25 euros (£13-£21; $20-34) and/or a jail sentence of up to seven days, unless they have police permission to wear such garments.

They justify this bizarre proposal though with the following:

Supporters of the bill – which has cross-party support – say it is necessary as a security measure, to allow police to correctly identify people.

I’m sorry but I was once a police officer and I can hand on heart say that the only times I couldn’t correctly identify someone was when the person in question was a cocky so-n-so who evaded my questions or gave smart answers like “Yeah man, my names Mickey Mouse innit!?” Well Mr Mouse invariably found himself in the back of a police van destined for the custody suite where his correct identity would magically be found! NONE of those people had head or face coverings that prevented my duties!

They also say that it is “important for social integration in a country with many different communities that people can see each other’s faces when they communicate” what, by making everyone look the same? Anyone else see an oxymoron here?

The thing that really makes me cross about all of this is comments like, “head coverings and veils oppress and threaten the dignity of women”. How DARE they use female oppression and dignity as a tool in their pathetic battle. Choosing to wear a head covering for whatever reason is just that, a choice. If these bigoted bureaucrats with little else to do with their time and money are REALLY concerned about the dignity and oppression of women then I can think of plenty of other places they could be sticking their noses into.

One last thing, how is stopping me from wearing my headscarf when I want to, where I want to not oppressing me? How is forcing me to walk around Belgium [should I visit] with my manky faded hair feeling like scum because I can’t cover it not taking away my dignity?

This has nothing to do with security or wanting a more open community. It is in my mind nothing more than one religion picking on another.

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