My reaction is "well said Jack Straw". There is too much timidly tip-toing around "sensitive" issues and pandering to the PC brigade. What he said was really just about good manners. He asked them to remove their veils, but did not insist.

A Quote from our local evening paper.

...Dr Daud Abdullah, of the British Council of Muslims said he understood. "This [the veil] does cause some discomfort to non-muslims" he said, adding that Muslim opinion was divided on the wearing of the veil.

Personally I find women walking round in black robes even without their faces covered up discomforting in a way that is not the case with women of Asian origin wearing their traditional dress. Similarly, I did not find it discomforting when I visited the Gulf many years ago. After all, it was part of their culture. It was well known in those days the wives and daughters of the wealthy were only too glad to discard their veils when they visited the West.

As far as I can observe this wearing of of a full veil seems largely confined to the Arab world and to one or two other countries. In many Islamic countries women do not seem to cover up, though they may well wear a shawl or scarf over their heads.

I remember some years ago, before all this blew up, an Egyptian woman who lives in Britain saying what has been said earlier that it is cultural. She added that the Qu'ran did not require women to be veiled, simply to "dress modestly".