Starmer masks real issue

FUN, FEISTY AND FEARLESS

- Carole Malone

SO REFORM has got its political knickers in a twist over a row about whether we should ban the burka.

But why the row? Of course we should ban it on the basis it’s misogynistic, it demeans women and it has no place in a liberal, civilised society.

Reform says banning it isn't party policy - why not? A poll by the Express this week had 96% of people wanting it banned. And it's not because they're Islamophobic, it's because the burka and the niqab are not just pieces of clothing, they're symbols promoting a misogynistic ideology which erases women's identities and renders them second-class citizens without a voice.

It makes my blood boil when I see a Muslim man in the street with his wife or “wives” walking five paces behind, faces covered, looking cowed and subservient. Why the hell are we tolerating this in a country where men and women are equal, where they have an equal voice and there are laws to ensure that they do? Why do we tolerate Sharia courts, which are also tools to subjugate women and which allow Muslim men to literally disown their wives and throw them on to the street if they get bored with them?