With Belgium and France considering banning the burka I've been trying to figure out where I stand on the subject.  In practical terms it's tricky because I'm totally in favour of people's right to wear whatever they want.  Lets assume for the sake of simplicity that anyone wearing a burka, actually wants to wear one.

The immediate penalty for wearing something socially unacceptable is usually ridicule but that's obviously ineffective in this case because one cannot ridicule anything islamic (even though the burka is 'cultural' not religious) without the threat of death from the religion of peace.  The next step would probably be exclusion from polite company but that's exactly what the proponents of the burka want for its wearers.  Of course in Abu Dhabi there are a few women disguised as black tents, I generally oblige them by completely ignoring them and they, in turn, often appear to be completely oblivious to everything around them.

Here then is my first definite opinion, full head gear whilst driving, including the dishdash, is most definitely dangerous and really should be banned for both sexes.  This is currently being tested by a case in France where the police have issued a fairly minor fine to a woman they pulled over for wearing an abaya (not a full face covering, just the slot for the eyes).  Her lawyer says the effect on her vision is no different to wearing a crash helmet.  The result will be interesting.

The thrust of the argument against the burka is security, not from terrorist threats particularly but there are plenty of other people who might want to hide their identities.  In the UK, you cannot pay for your petrol wearing a full face crash helmet, you cannot wear one to the bank or post office any more than you could wear a balaclava.  You might be able to get away with nipping to a news stand for a packet of cigarettes but I would consider it extremely rude to carry out all but the briefest conversation with only my eyes visible.  I don't see why the burka warrants any exception to this convention.

Refusal of service might be a better option than an outright ban but I expect very few women would give up the veil so that they could continue to shop at Geant, they'd simply go to a clique of shops who will serve them, further dividing them from the rest of the community.

Perhaps a high tech compromise would be allowing anyone to hide their face in public as long as they have an implanted identity microchip and could be scanned by shop clerks.  This concept has already been interpreted as the prophesied 'mark of the beast' by certain religious nutters however and would no doubt be made to be contrary to islam by some interesting re-interpretation of the infallible word of the sky daddy.