Khadija Patel is the niqab-wearing founder of the Bolton-based KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club. She recently received a British Citizen Award at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster.

It’s a decision that has polarised public opinion. Many have rightly applauded her contribution to the local community and for inspiring children to get into sport. But others are baffled by some of the other reasoning behind the award. To be specific, they are questioning why someone clad head to toe in the attire of a misogynistic religious ideology is being recognised for, in the words of the Lancashire Football Association, ‘her work empowering young women’.

It’s a good point. As a passionate advocate for women’s rights, I firmly believe that no one should dictate what a woman should wear. But the burqa or niqab is not a benign piece of clothing. It represents the erasure of women’s freedom in the name of a repressive religious morality. It is certainly not a sign of young women’s empowerment.

Hardline Muslims and many leftists refuse to accept any criticism of the Islamic veil. They accuse critics of ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘racism’. They would rather we didn’t talk about this attire and the misogynistic ideology behind it at all.

But I know all too well what it means to wear an Islamic veil, having been forced by my father to wear a hijab as a young teenager. For girls and women in Muslim households, adhering to this ‘modest’ dress code is often not a choice – it is an implicit condition for gaining the approval and respect from male members of the family.

Many forced to wear a veil find their appearance is endlessly scrutinised. They often find themselves trapped in a cycle of relentless abuse and end up policing their own bodies. Many feel a sense of shame because they are told that women ‘bear the responsibility’ for men’s behaviour towards them. Such poisonous, misogynistic beliefs take a devastating toll on the lives of women and girls.

Fortunately, I was blessed with a brave mother who stood up to my traditionalist, religiously conservative father. Despite his aggression towards her, she refused to let me suffer in the name of religious modesty. And so she made sure I wouldn’t have to wear a veil and endure the consequences of conforming to oppressive religious norms.

Many young girls and women who dare to reject these so-called religious dress codes are not as fortunate as I was. They face harrowing repercussions, including torture, ostracism and, in the worst cases, violence or even death at the hands of their own family members.

Under oppressive Islamic regimes in places like Iran or Afghanistan, women are tortured to death for refusing to wear Islamic garb. In Afghanistan, women flouting ‘modesty’ rules can have their eyes gouged out. Many are left to die.

So to see someone wearing this deeply misogynistic attire being hailed for ‘empowering young women’ beggars belief. Perhaps those who glorify this tool of women’s oppression should live in Afghanistan or Iran for a bit. Perhaps then they would understand the hell that has befallen the women and girls there.

We need to stop normalising the misogynistic mindset this attire represents. To celebrate the Islamic veil is to romanticise the oppression of women. We are surely better than that.

Khadija Khan is a journalist and commentator, originally from Pakistan and now based in the UK.

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