$1:
I think you are simply converting a simple case of a religious prescription being blindly followed into a case of forcible interference with religious rights. Many of the women, for instance the british muslim lady lawyer, spent years working WITHOUT any cover!
But never mind what I think. The point is that I have given a three step assertion of my case. You appear to be sheltering yourself behind the rule regarding 'Proving the Negative', which says that unless I can prove that muslim women have no other reason, apart from that prescribed by the Qur'an, namely Mahram, there may be some other reason.
If you have even a shred of information about other reasons for wearing a burka, Glen, then you should bring it forward. We cannot survey situations that we cannot imagine.
Well, I don’t think I’m asking you to, “prove a negative,”----- that is to prove there isn’t some reason other than blind prescription to religious authority to account for the Burka custom. I already accept as a transparently understood “given” that another reason exists beyond blind prescription (for the wearing of the Burka).
The force of religion and religious tradition, by its very nature, is about far more than just blind submission to religious prescription. Religious tradition also encompasses an individual’s search for meaning in the universe---meaning which conversely expresses itself through religious tradition.
To make the issue even more complex, the counter-point one might raise is that religious authority often, as well, casts a psychological influence of repressive conditioning and self-censorship over the lives of its adherents. And that repressive conditioning can exert negative coercion to follow tradition. In the context of a Muslim culture, the conditioning might be about an attempt to denigrate women and deny them equality----or it might not.
Religious tradition, whether one refers to the Burka or some other custom, carries with it the dual implication of spiritual meaning and a religious authority which is sometimes repressive. So, to say that women necessarily must be wearing the Burka only because they lack the will to resist coercive authority half misses the whole picture.
So also, obviously, there is no “one size fits all” cookie template of law which can be made to apply to all of a religion’s followers. To varying degrees, depending on the individual, Muslim women wear the Burka also because they derive meaning from Islam and its traditions.
Religion ultimately pivots on the experience of the individual in a deeply personal and unique way. So, what motive might be true for one Muslim woman who wears the Burka might not be true for another. One woman might observe the custom out of conformity, and one woman might observe the custom as a facet of her religious faith. Religion is so wrapped up in the nuance of individual perception and inclination.
I’m sorry to say that I see no easy and glib answers to the question of the Burka. If you ban the practice, you run the very real risk of violating a person’s religious faith, even as you liberate those women who may joyfully throw the custom away. I suspect the real answer lies in a growth of natural maturity over which we have no control
Our religious perspectives expand to match expanded dimensions of human understanding concerning the universe in which we live. And that expanded understanding helps religious followers grow in their mature perspective and self-awareness so that they realize the importance of making their own choices in life.
Moreover, a free society has no right to dictate religious values and customs to its citizens. It only has the right to ask those citizens to dispense of their customs at the point where those customs harm the public interest.
Glenn Fitzgerald.
CKA Moderator 
CKA Super Elite 
