Bishop defiant over call for headscarf ban.

Bishop defiant over call for headscarf ban. :

"But Ms Bishop continues to support comments from her Victorian colleague, Sophie Panopoulos, saying the headscarf is symbolic of a clash of cultures and it is time to take a stand."

It will be a clash of cultures if this is kept up. Many people have come to this country and have kept their mode of dress for some time. Once they've settled in they adopt a a style of dress for which we are famous...the relaxed attire. It takes time. It will take more time if people have been oppressed and it will take more time if women have been sanctioned and punished for not wearing particular forms of attire. The scarf is about covering the hair. There are also some groups who have to keep women's legs covered. When that has been your way of living it has to stay like that until you resolve it in a different culture. To force such issues shows we lack understanding. To say Christmas carols have ben banned is another issue and needs to be resolved in a different arena. That is what living in a multicultural society is about. I saw a woman at the shops on Saturday. She had her hair all brushed out and held in a pony tail with a big hair slide. Normally her culture would expect it to be plaited. Then she was wearing a blouse and a T shirt and then a long , fawn linen skirt and a lovely pair of our leather shoes. Culturally she was half and half but she looked really nice and her dress mirrored where she was at in terms of living in a new country. At school, the children will often come around quite quickly. To "make a stand" about a form of dress which is about modesty and which has been strongly required in the country of origin is not very logical and shows little faith in our lifestyle. When we were in Vanuatu we were told to dress more modestly if you went into town, but if, as a woman, you went into town in shorts and a string top, you felt totally inappropriately dressed. No one said anything, no one treated you badly, you just knew it wasn't what you wore in Port Vila, so next time you put on a light blouse and a skirt/sarong or pair of summer pants . We all talked about it. No one had said exactly but you picked up the cues just by being there and it taught me a lot about how people can teach you without saying a word! No lectures, no bans, no punishments...just being there. The magic of peer pressure.