“Muslim Fury Grows Against Straw; Veil is a Choice,” by Kamuran Samar in zaman.com:
The recent statements of former British Foreign Minister and leader of the House of Commons Jack Straw who said “wearing the full veil is bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult,” have intensified debates over wearing the veil.
While the incident received broad media coverage, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has expressed his support to the women who wear full veils.
Prescott suggested that Straw’s fears about the women who wear a veil were exaggerated.
“If a woman wants to wear a veil, why shouldn’t she? It’s her choice,” Prescott told the BBC’s Sunday AM program.
Prescot said he would not ask a Muslim woman to remove her veil when she visits his office.
“If somebody comes into my constituency whether they are wearing a school cap, or wearing a turban or wearing dark glasses, I’m not going to ask them to remove it. I think you can communicate with them,” he explained.
Straw’s statements also drew reactions from political party leaders. The spokesman of the Liberal Democrat Party Siman Hughes said that it was not Straw’s business to decide what the citizens will wear while Conservative Party spokesman Oliver Letwin remarked that the women were free in choosing how to dress.
The British daily Independent reported that Straw was accused of laying the ground for racist reactions by deputies from his party and referred to a woman, whose veil had been torn off from her face by an activist chanting racist slogans last Friday.