Salman Rushdie: Face veils suck

AUTHOR Salman Rushdie yesterday risked wrath from fellow Muslims by saying face veils for women “suck”.

The writer, still under an Islamic death sentence for his book The Satanic Verses, said veils took power AWAY from women.

His views came as PM Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown both backed Commons Leader Jack Straw for starting a debate about whether Muslim women should hide their faces.Mr Rushdie said of Mr Straw:

“He was expressing an important opinion which is that veils suck — which they do.”The author added on BBC Radio 4:

“Speaking as somebody with three sisters and a very largely female Muslim family, there is not a single woman I know in my family, or in their friends, who would have accepted the wearing of a veil.

“The battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women.

“I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women.”

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