Hawzah News Agency - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has hinted at making face masks mandatory in shops. Earlier, Scotland passed a law that requires people to wear a face covering in public places. At this moment, Twitter is trending a hashtag #facecovering while the British media, members of the public and prominent personalities have started campaigning in favor of face coverings in public.

 This is the same Boris Johnson who compared Muslim women wearing a face veil to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers.”

Times have changed! Now the Europeans have no qualms with embracing face coverings as a protection against the coronavirus. After all, it is in the best “public interest” and as the slogan says, “For Your Safety.” But what about Muslim women wearing face veils?

 Reminisce how sections of the same Western media campaigned to ban face veils and argued that a Muslim woman wearing one is a sign of oppression and backwardness, contradicting the Western values and way of life.

 Master of Arts journalism student at the University of Leeds. Like many other academics, I was shocked to know that the British parliamentarian Straw, who had provoked anger and outrage among the British Muslim community by saying that the face veil is a “visible statement of separation and difference,” was actually one of the former student union presidents.

Since then, there has been a never-ending veil debate as people have written doctorate theses, thousands of newspapers, journal articles, books and manuscripts have been printed, public discussions held, lectures delivered, documentaries and films produced, and teasing caricatures made.

Some time ago, French President Emmanuel Macron introduced a coronavirus mask to the public, calling it “national pride” because it was 100% made in France.

So what is so special about a piece of cloth that makes it a “national pride”? Obviously, if it fits into government policy, it is pride, otherwise, the veil can be regarded as a “shame” and “outdated.”

That is understandable. But is this not the same France that once made wearing a face veil illegal for only a handful of Muslim women including French reverts? At that time, the face veil ban was presented as protection against French liberal values.

Further, in the best interests of French society, it was revealed to the public that the face veil is a “symbol of oppression,” a “health risk,” a “threat” and even a “national shame” because it is outdated and does not fit with a modern secular society.

Now compare the French and the Taliban's views of Muslim women's veils. Are they any different? Both forced women to accept their way of dress, with the French banning face veils and the Taliban making them mandatory.