A Veil Can Enshroud Women’s Rights

Re “The Many Layers of the Veil,” Column One, Jan. 12: I’ve been following the fierce worldwide debate on the hijab since the mid-1990s when, as a cub reporter at Canada’s national newspaper, I wrote about the phenomenon. Ten years ago, private school officials in Quebec made national headlines for expelling a young student who’d refused to remove her head scarf.

Since then, I’ve spoken to women in oppressive Saudi cities, in lively souks in Turkey and Egypt, in bustling bazaars in India and Pakistan, as well as in malls in Canada and the U.K. Their concerns are the same: Whether you’re a nun or a devout Muslim, the message shouldn’t be about covering hair (or men lording their power over women), it should be about opening minds to the bigger teachings of the great monotheistic religions -- decent behavior toward your fellow humans springs to mind first and foremost.

Muslim mullahs and their patriarchal co-religionists need to stop tripping over a piece of cloth and focus instead on a peaceful evolution of Islam in the West.

Amber Nasrulla

Anaheim Hills

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I can’t agree with your positive spin about the slavish Muslim dress code for women acting as a liberating force. By what logic? Your poster girl was a journalist who became sexual prey because she divorced and finally had to hide behind the veil to avoid disaster.

Oh sure, the harassment stopped after she concealed herself under the Muslim tent-like garments, and she even found a job again, selling the same degrading clothing to other women. It’s detestable hypocrisy that many Americans jeer at the religious feelings of their fellow citizens but are ever so respectful of third-class citizenship for Muslim women trapped in theocracies.

Charles K. Sergis

Calabasas