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I'm completely against it. Mainly because of the Kulturkampf effect. The weight of meaning which is being attached to the veil these days is ensuring that any moslem woman who wishes to express her Islamic identity will wear a veil. It is becoming less and less acceptable for moslem women to choose not to do so.
I heard a French woman on the radio a few years ago qwhen France was looking to ban the veil in schools. She said when she was young she fought for her right not to wear a veil. Now she fights for her daughter's right to wear it.
Aside from the more thought out and conscious decision to adopt the veil in public, made by liberated moslem women; what about the more traditional communities? In my town the moslem community is almost exclusively from Kashmir, and mostly from one village in particular. They are drawn from a very traditional, rural community. Many of the women are brides brought over from the old country and many do not speak English. Many wear veils outside; though some cover only part of their face. They do not take driving lessons, because it is improper for them to be out there amongst the men, and most driving instructors are male. They primarily keep to their own parts of the town.
I briefly volunteered at an ESOL class, to which benefits claimants were sent after 6 months of claiming, if they did not pass the language class. We had mainly moslem men, but a handful of local moslem women. They only ever spoke up, or answered questions when they were in a separate room from the men. They rarely made eyecontact particularly if the men were around.
At a local community centre in the Asian area, a small group of moslem women set up a language class/club for other Asian women. It was very popular, lots of the local women attended. The local Imam was not happy. The men systematically undermined that group and many prevented their wives from attended. It eventually folded.
If we were to ban the veil; it would not create a liberal environment for those wives. If wearing a veil outside becomes illegal, their response will not be to go out without the veil,. it will be to not go out at all. We would effectively shove those women into an even tighter, culturally enforced purdah.
Their daughters meanwhile will end up either rebelling against their community, and losing their cultural moorings when the male-dominated culture closes the door on them; or they will rebel against us and become resolutely and exclusively moslem and anti-western.
Utterly counter productive.
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