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extremely poor analogy; NOT discrimination

Reader comment on item: Niqabs and Burqas Banned at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
in response to reader comment: Discrimination!!!!

Submitted by commonsense (United States), Jan 18, 2010 at 16:36

Bans on obscuring the face in unsealed public spaces are NOT religious discrimination, since everyone, regardless of religious affiliation, is subject to them.

A veiled person who lifts her/his veil, shows her/his face and a photo ID to security personnel before s/he steps on a plane is a TOTALLY different case from the case of people wearing face-obscuring attire in larger public spaces such as the streets, most buildings and so forth!. The analogy is NOT even remotely close. Someone getting on a plane today is temporarily getting into a sealed space where weapons and other potentially lethal devices have been rigorously screened for, and where no one who has not been so rigorously screened can enter or exit for the duration of a flight. Obviously, in larger public spaces hardly anyone (except perhaps those on parole), including those with face-obscuring attire, has been pre-screened for their identity, weapons-possession, or etc. .Face-obscuring attire in public allows the perpetrators of assault, theft, hit-and-run, murder and many other types of serious crime to hide their identity and make conviction impossible unless the perp is immediately apprehended (which very rarely happens) and forced to reveal his/her face. Eyewitness testimony against perpetrators who wear face-veils during a crime or accident will be impossible.

Face-obscuring attire also allows criminals to hide the identity of those that they have victimized by abduction or physical abuse. (A kidnapped child named Elizabeth Smart was hidden in plain sight from detection because she was forced to wear a face-mask in public; intervention to help victims of domestic abuse sometimes occurs when an outsider sees the evidence of abuse on the face or body). In America, almost all abducted children that have been recovered have been recovered because someone recognized their face from a publicly-released photo. If children and teens are routinely veiled this will be impossible, since the abductor will simply veil the abducted child or teen, knowing that outsiders dare not interfere with a supposedly "religious" right to veil someone who appears to be part of a household.

In a highly mobile, populous societies, where weapons are readily available (i.e. most modern societies) the obscuring of facial identity in non-sealed public spaces makes it impossible to identify anyone who commits a crime in public or who has been victimized by crimes. By allowing people to obscure their faces in public you take away the right of anyone vicitimized by the dangerous of acts of those in face-obscuring attire (or those who impose it on their victims) a chance to apprehend or prosecute those who wronged them.

At a minimum, if governments are going to allow face-obscuring attire in public, they need to impose very severe additional punishments on anyone involved in an accident or accused of a crime who fails to immediately remove his/her face-covering attire to anyone claiming to be victimized by them. There is a very good reason why hit-and-run is punished more severely than someone who duly identified him/herself after being involved (as perpetrator or victim) in an accident.

Submitting....

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Reader comments (31) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Finally [121 words]Tater SaladJan 24, 2010 19:57167853
Burka time.....or not? [7 words]Tater SaladJan 25, 2010 11:55167853
1Burka Time ?? [232 words]Tater SaladJan 23, 2010 17:43167792
Discrimination!!!! [162 words]BritishJan 15, 2010 11:25167366
1extremely poor analogy; NOT discrimination [504 words]commonsenseJan 18, 2010 16:36167366
Discrimination - reply [54 words]AprilJan 21, 2010 22:42167366
justifying terrorism is terrorism, kindly don't support issue blindly because your forefathers did so/ [42 words]Ravi Ranjan SinghMay 4, 2010 06:58167366
Your Commentary on the Veil [69 words]Wolf LorberMay 5, 2010 23:36167366
salem women show solidarity [22 words]nikomoJan 13, 2010 19:45167314
Do as Arabs do, when not in Arab lands! [123 words]Ravi Ranjan SinghMay 4, 2010 07:55167314
It's the US Government's fault [100 words]Sylvia ScottJan 13, 2010 13:36167299
Very Torn [222 words]MClarissaJan 6, 2010 16:47166937
Sensible Comments [211 words]RobinozJan 9, 2010 23:57166937
A reasonable thing to do BUT is it too late? [71 words]Canadian with no Green CardDec 28, 2009 08:49166357
Absolutely ridiculous! [231 words]ChloeDec 27, 2009 23:49166343
Think about this... [68 words]JamesDec 30, 2009 04:14166343
Better ridiculous than dead! [83 words]KafirDec 31, 2009 13:13166343
My Reply to James and Kafir [366 words]ChloeJan 2, 2010 03:22166343
1No, YOUR arguments are "absolutely ridiculous" [672 words]commonsenseFeb 3, 2010 15:28166343
to Chloe [369 words]ASMar 7, 2010 19:04166343
drunk drivers [28 words]dhanjSep 8, 2010 13:03166343
Safety First and Political Correctness Leave [92 words]Proud to be AmericanDec 27, 2009 09:31166328
If You Don't Like a Policy ... Go Somewhere Else [71 words]RobinatozJan 1, 2010 22:24166328
GOOD FOR HER COURAGE!!!! [161 words]Suzanne S.Dec 27, 2009 02:02166323
Oh No!! This is a violation of religious freedom and Islamophobia [218 words]SusanDec 27, 2009 01:20166318
Its about time [23 words]Ed NicholasDec 26, 2009 20:34166310
1re scarves and burkas [44 words]edith m. cordDec 26, 2009 19:03166307
Because it hides [44 words]Ravi Ranjan SinghMay 4, 2010 08:16166307
It is a perfectly reasonable thing to do [55 words]Joe BlackDec 12, 2009 02:53165704
Sounds fair to me! [46 words]BillDec 15, 2009 23:33165704
End this now. [118 words]Bob MillerDec 27, 2009 01:49165704

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