Andy Bannister sends along a letter from today’s Sunday Times (UK):
The tolerance of the West is justified only up to the point when it does not undermine the efforts of other societies struggling against the
concept of political Islam, including the hijab (Comment, News Review
and Letters, last week).As an Iranian woman I witnessed at first hand how we suffered from our
naive tolerance 30 years ago when the hijab came into the political
arena of the Iranian opposition.We too thought it would disappear. Nobody said a word for fear of being
considered a partisan of the Shah. And many preferred it to the
miniskirt anyway. But it did not end there, as we all know well.You do not tolerate the wearing of black shirts in your schools; nor
should you tolerate the hijab. Both are used to promote ideologies that
are dangerous to our way of life.Afsaneh Khalat-Bari
London W9