Excluded by the veil

Much as it pains me to have to say so (as I despise our warmongering New Labour government), Phil Woolas is quite right to state that the Dewsbury teaching assistant who refuses to remove her veil at work must lose her job.

It is not racist or Islamophobic to insist that we have every right to criticise people's religious beliefs, nor is there anything wrong is stating that certain cultural practices (like a women wearing a mask to hide her face) are unacceptable for staff in a state school.

As for the unfortunate Muslim woman suspended from her job as a teaching assistant in Dewsbury, I am desperately sorry for her, but unless she agrees to remove her niqab before entering her workplace, then she must be sacked.

I would not have a child of mine educated in a school where staff were permitted to hide their faces behind masks and no member of staff in any state school should be required to put up with colleagues who refuse to show their faces.

A woman is free to wear a niqab if she so desires, but she must accept the consequences if she does.

These include an exclusion from virtually all jobs requiring communication with other people and the effective removal of her right to participate fully and equally in society - but then this is precisely what this garment is intended to do.

Burkas should be banned in public places on security grounds alone.

How do we know that the wearer is not a terrorist, man or woman, with explosives strapped to their waist?

How can anyone, including security personnel, identify them?

Surely there must be legislation somewhere that outlaws the wearing of clothing facilitating the concealment of identity?

Far better be safe than sorry.

W A Davis, Hall Street East, Wednesbury.