Madam, - Like most adolescents, our three sons in their teens sometimes rebelled against what they saw as the unreasonable constraints of family life. Our parental response was that if they wished to be family members, with the advantages which such membership bestowed (accommodation, food, welfare and education), they would have to live according to the established standards and traditions of the family. If they chose not to, they could leave.
The same principle of conformity should surely apply to this State in relation to such current controversies as the wearing of the hijab at school and the "urgent need" ( The Irish Times, May 30th) for sharia-compliant financial services to be made available in Ireland. - Yours, etc,
PETER EVANS,
Percy Place,
Dublin 4.
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Madam, - I was interested to read Breda O'Brien's views on the wearing of the hijab in schools (Opinion, May 31st).
As a teacher in a school where the wearing of a uniform is a requirement and where discipline is a daily battle, I feel that the uniform rule is one of the few means we have of trying to impose order and control, so that learning can take place. Although, the issue hasn't arisen, I would predict that if the hijab was allowed in our school, it would lead to the wearing of all kinds of weird and wonderful apparel and the invention of new religions to go with it, because our students are nothing if not imaginative and creative. Far from diffusing tensions, it would magnify differences.
Ms O'Brien also contends that the wearing of the hijab is about preserving women's modesty. I taught in Saudi Arabia for two years with Muslim women, not only from Saudi but from Egypt, The Lebanon, Syria, the UK and the US, and we had interesting discussions on many topics including the covering of women. The consensus was that the wearing of the abayah, the hijab and the niqab was more to do with the fact that men couldn't control - and were not expected to control - their sexual urges, than with women's modesty. Interestingly, women must uncover their faces when they go to Mecca, to face God. - Yours, etc,
MARGARET GOODE,
St John's Wood,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.