Caroline Spelman: wearing burka can be ‘empowering’

The controversial remarks by Caroline Spelman, who as Environment Secretary is the second most powerful woman in the Cabinet, were immediately described as “moronic” and “bizarre”.

She is also likely to face anger from back bench Conservative MPs, some of whom have called for the burka – the covering which some Muslim women adopt in public to hide their face, hair and body – to be banned outside of private homes.

Mrs Spelman made her remarks when asked in an interview what she thought of the recent decision by French MPs to introduce a law outlawing the burka in public.

Critics of the ban, including her fellow ministers, have argued that while they do not like to see women covering their faces, particularly if forced to do so by male relatives, legislation is heavy-handed and contrary to the principle of freedom of expression.

But the Environment Secretary’s suggestion that wearing the burka could in fact be seen as a feminist statement will raise eyebrows.

She said that she held her view “as a woman,” and claimed that her experience of visiting Afghanistan had persuaded her that “the burka confers dignity”.

Her remarks are particularly controversial given that before the Taliban was driven out of large parts of Afghanistan with the help of British troops, millions of women were forced under threat of physical violence to wear the veil in public.

British soldiers still gauge the level of threat from the Taliban in a particular area by assessing whether local women feel the need to cover themselves.

But Mrs Spelman insisted that the burka was “empowering”. She told Sky News: “I take a strong view on this, actually.

“I don’t, living in this country as a woman, want to be told what I can and can’t wear.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on in this country is being free, and being free to choose what you wear is a part of that, so actually banning the burka is absolutely contrary I think to what this country is all about.

“I’ve been out to Afghanistan and I think I understand much better as a result of actually visiting why a lot of Muslim women want to wear the burka.

“It is part of their culture, it is part of understanding that they choose to go out in the burka and I think those that live in this country, if they choose to wear a burka, should be free to do so.

“You have to understand the actual culture and it was probably only when I went there and spent some time amongst women that I really understood that for them it’s a choice.

“For them the burka confers dignity, it’s their choice, they choose to go out dressed in a burka and I understand that it is a different culture from mine but the fact is in this country women want to be free to choose whether or not to cover their heads, whether or not to go out in the morning wearing a burka, that’s for them.

“We are a free country, we attach importance to people being free, and for a woman it is empowering to be able to choose each morning when you wake up what you wear.”

Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independent Party, described Mrs Spelman’s remarks as “moronic” and “bizarre”.

He said: “Wearing a burka seriously diminishes a woman’s life chances in 21st century Britain – to describe it as somehow empowering is simply moronic.

“It was a thoroughly extraordinary and deeply ignorant comment for Caroline Spelman, a Government minister, to make.”

Mr Farage said that opinion polls showed that two-thirds of the British public would like to see a law similar to that which is likely to be introduced in France.

Philip Hollobone, the Conservative MP for Kettering, has tabled a private members’ bill which would make it illegal for people to cover their faces in public. However, without Government support, it is unlikely to succeed.

Damian Green, the Immigration Minister, said that enforcing a burka ban was “un-British”.

He told the Sunday Telegraph: "Telling people what they can and can't wear, if they're just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do. We're a tolerant and mutually respectful society."