Clegg against ban on full veil

A Lib Dem minister called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them
16 September 2013

It is not "appropriate" for students to wear a full veil in the classroom or for people to go through airport security with their faces covered, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said.

But Mr Clegg said he did not want to see a state ban on the wearing of religious items of clothing in particular circumstances. His comments came as a Liberal Democrat minister said the Government should consider banning Muslim girls and young women from wearing the veil in public places.

Home Office minister Jeremy Browne called for a national debate on whether the state should step in to prevent young women having the veil imposed upon them. His intervention was sparked by a row over the decision by Birmingham Metropolitan College to drop a ban on the wearing of full-face veils amid public protests.

Mr Browne said he was "instinctively uneasy" about restricting religious freedoms, but he added there may be a case to act to protect girls who were too young to decide for themselves whether they wished to wear the veil or not.

"I am instinctively uneasy about restricting the freedom of individuals to observe the religion of their choice," he told the Daily Telegraph. "But there is genuine debate about whether girls should feel a compulsion to wear a veil when society deems children to be unable to express personal choices about other areas like buying alcohol, smoking or getting married. We should be very cautious about imposing religious conformity on a society which has always valued freedom of expression."

Responding to his comments, Mr Clegg said: "I think there is a debate going on already in households and communities up and down the country. My own view, very strongly held, is that we shouldn't end up like other countries issuing edicts or laws from Parliament telling people what they should or should not wear. This is a free country and people going about their own business should be free to wear what they wish.

"I think it is very un-British to start telling people what pieces of clothing they should wear. I think there are exceptions to that as far as the full veil is concerned - security at airports for instance. It is perfectly reasonable for us to say the full veil is clearly not appropriate there. And I think in the classroom, there is an issue of course about teachers being able to address their students in a way where they can address them face to face. I think it is quite difficult in the classroom to be able to do that."

The Prime Minister believes that schools should have the right to set their own uniform policies, his spokesman said. At a regular Westminster briefing, the spokesman said: "I actually think there is a position of principle here, which is around the ability of institutions such as schools, to set a, in the case of schools, clearly a uniform policy, so I think that is already there.

He added: "The Prime Minister doesn't take the view, doesn't believe, that Parliament should legislate on what people do and don't wear on their local high street. Nonetheless, that is not incompatible with institutions having dress codes. Schools are an example but it is for institutions to take those decisions. There are legal frameworks within which all institutions operate."

Pressed on whether that meant the Prime Minister was open to other institutions setting down a ban on the veil if that was possible within existing laws, the spokesman said: "No, no, no. I'm specifically not being specific about any item of clothing. I'm very clearly talking about the issue of dress codes. I'm not being specific about anything in particular. I don't think there is an incompatibility between a free society and some institutions, should they wish to do so, to have dress codes."

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