Having observed that in several Muslim countries which he's just visited most women do not wear the full hijab, covering their whole face, Matthew Parris wonders how far we should 'tolerate it' in this country. Would it be wrong, he asks, to convey to those wearing the full hijab that 'though it is a woman's legal right to dress as she chooses, she should recognise that she's in a country where many people will find a masked face disturbing'? To disturb people's feelings 'is to be offensive', he says.
If it's a legal right to dress as you choose, then we do tolerate it; and we also should tolerate it pending some argument why this ought not to be a legal right. Parris doesn't offer such an argument; rather, he seems to accept the legal right. So what he really means to put in question is not whether we should tolerate the wearing of the full hijab, but whether we should tolerate it politely. Well, by and large matters of politeness and offensiveness aren't covered by legal rules. But it may be worth noting that telling people what they should and shouldn't wear is also widely regarded as offensive. On the other hand, it isn't a sufficient reason against saying or doing something that saying or doing it would give offence. Otherwise we should have to accept the case of those who argue that criticizing their religious beliefs offends them and therefore we shouldn't do that. Most clear-eyed liberals don't accept this case. Rightly not. Parris may, therefore, feel free to offend some people by telling them what he thinks of their wearing the full hijab. By the same token, they can just go on offending him, or anyone else, by wearing it.