If it was about the baby....there would be social programs to take care of the baby

[riderinthestorm]

41. Sorry but we can and do outlaw cultural practices we find problematic

and it does tend to work.

Outlawing spousal abuse (a cultural AND religious thing for some religions), setting up shelters, making hotlines available, those things work. Should we NOT do these things or have these laws because well, sooner or later the guys will just give it up as they assimilate?

No. We have made a decision as a society that we MUST outlaw these things. And we enforce it. I don't have any problem outlawing any cultural or religious practices that denigrate women, relegate them to second status, harm them etc. Sorry I don't. The burqa erases women from society. Its very design means there are jobs they cannot do, things they cannot do, places they cannot go - ie, relegates them to second status.

Just no.

Your point was that we shouldn't "tell" women what to wear. I was responding to that point. We can and do tell people what they can wear. Nobody objects. Its because we have agreed as a society that those are the standards we want in our public square. I believe the burqa is colliding with western values about face covering and the inherent misogyny. I don't have any problem with it likewise being regulated.