DUBAI: The UK Independence Party (Ukip) Thursday unveiled its general election manifesto in which they announced their desire to ban the burqa and niqab in the country.
However, a reporter for the Mirror newspaper pointed out that one of the party’s reasons for proposing the ban targeting Muslim women was slightly bizarre.
UKIP has come up with an absolutely priceless new reason for banning the burqa pic.twitter.com/40GuXIQkOT
— Dan Bloom (@danbloom1) May 25, 2017
According to the manifesto, “clothing that hides identity, puts up barriers to communication, limits employment opportunities, hides evidence of domestic abuse, and prevents intake of essential vitamin D from sunlight is not liberating.”
Banning the burqa to ensure vitamin D intake? It’s a creative approach.
Ukip also states that such barriers are barriers to integration and pose security risks, according to the manifesto.
“Ukip will ban wearing of the niqab and the burqa in public places. Face coverings such as these are barriers to integration. We will not accept these de-humanizing symbols of segregation and oppression, nor the security risks they pose.
Suggestions that UKIP is undermining liberty with this policy are absurd. There is no human right to conceal your identity. If anything prevents liberty, it is the niqab, by preventing women from being perceived as individuals in their own right. We want to open opportunities to all women, so that they can participate fully in life and in the workplace.
We stand in solidarity with women worldwide who are rebelling against the imposition of the niqab and burqa.
