Practical matters aside (obviously, there's a real problem if your friendly ambulance rescuer can't hear what you're saying!), the philosophical issue rests on choice. People should be able to wear what they like. And that's where I have a big problem, because many Muslim women don't actually like. Burkas, for instance, cause painful compression around the head and headaches because you're wearing what amounts to a blanket held on only by a headband. The Religious Policeman blogsite used to have a hilarious-but-highly-creepy video of a couple of Saudi women eating spaghetti at a sidewalk cafe. It's the sort of thing that's funny only if you're NOT there. Imagine having to put up with that kind of handicap in your daily life. However, if women don't wear full veils, they can get acid thrown in their faces or get raped. That may not be a problem in England, but that kind of threat in the background is enough to get millions of people to change their behavior. Look at what happened with the increase in the fear of flying based on the very small possibility of a terrorist attack on a given plane. Many Muslim women are wearing full veils not so much because they want to as because they're uncomfortable at the thought of not doing it. That's just plain wrong. People should be able to wear what they want. But the only cure that's been shown to work is the Turkish solution of simply banning the things that make you faceless. That breaks the cycle, and then eventually people can get back to wearing whatever level of veil actually holds meaning for them. But in the meantime, people can't wear what they want. It's a difficult question.