Here is a photo I posted to Instagram on the weekend that has been generating a lot of response on social media these past few days:
The man who made the suggestion we ban men from wearing suits rather than women wearing hijab or burkinis was obviously joking but he made a clever point.
Let's be honest about the burkini ban in particular, and the more general discomfort we have with women who chose to cover themselves for religious reasons. It's not about harm or the likelihood of harm coming from someone covering themselves up. It's about the fear of Muslim extremists being amplified to unfairly include all Muslims.
Particularly Muslim women. Women at the beach. Women at the supermarket. Women in the workplace or picking their kids up at school or buying a coffee (or 14 coffees if you're a Muslim woman called Susan Carland who is a notorious self-confessed caffeine addict and who rocks a headscarf like nobody's business).
Because these women and their covered hair and bodies are the REAL threat to security and way of Western life, right?
Shameful — Armed French police order Muslim woman to remove burkini on Nice beach, threatening her with pepper spray pic.twitter.com/BgYm9iOlfv
— سلطان سعود القاسمي (@SultanAlQassemi) August 24, 2016