I didn't realize that it was illegal to wear a ski mask in a convenience store. Even when it's cold? Of course, it probably wouldn't be practical or comfortable to wear a ski mask in a convenience store, but then again there are no religious complications restricting someone from removing their ski mask in a convenience store, either, so to leave it on might appear, at the least, odd. Nor am I certain that the mandatory exposure of one's face makes us more secure. After all, there are other reasons that a person might be uncomfortable exposing their face in public - burn victims and those with various deformities, for instance. I don't think the two, the ski mask and the burkha, are necessarily relative at all.
I would be against this ban anywhere, including Afghanistan as it seems to assume that women shouldn't be allowed to make the choice for themselves. In Afghanistan, there are women who have worn the burkha all of their lives and they are comfortable in the burkha. To force exposure on them would rob them of their freedom to choose and in some cases cause great psychological trauma. Of course, I would agree on measures that would give women the choice to wear the burkha or not in places like Afghanistan, that would be fantastic, but I don't see forcing them not to (particularly in the west) as a compassionate or even reasonable way of going about it.
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Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce
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