"Unawares"?

Okay, I admit I have a visceral reaction to the niqab - and I would object loudly if one of my great-niece or nephew's teachers wore it to school. I wouldn't be happy with any religious adornment - but the niqab is the worst, because of the messages it sends about women, their bodies, and their role vis a vis men - and about men and their place in the world and ability to control themselves. Plus, the violence men feel free to inflict on women who don't wear it in some places in this world. It's not religious (not that I feel "It's my religion!" exempts one from criticism, nor do you, really: does tossing a child into a furnace seem okay? No? It's religious, after all...) , it's cultural. Christians in many places wear hijabs, Orthodox Jewish women do much the same, and Muslim women who are from, say, Indonesia don't wear the niqab.

Yes, I hate to admit it, but I'm a bit Federationy in my views: as Quark said to Sisko, "You're always preaching tolerance but you only practice it with people whose customs you approve of."

Still, even if I'm completely wrong and she's not damaging the children's schooling - the school and the local council disagree, and even in places like Oman they bar the niqab at schools, and a friend of mine who recently spent a year in Egypt, studying, said she rarely saw the niqab there but one of the few times she did it was on a woman being refused entry onto the university's grounds because she was wearing it - even if, as I say, I'm wrong and the kids wouldn't have had trouble learning from her and wouldn't have picked up any messages about their self-worth or anything else, this makes me lose what little sympathy I had for her:

A week ago, during a BBC interview she was asked directly whether she wore the veil at her interview. She hesitated and then replied: "Do I have to answer all the questions?"

When pressed again, she admitted she had not worn the veil but insisted she did not realise she was going to be interviewed by a male.

"I was caught unawares," she said.

Caught unawares?

What, they came to her house to interview her? No, that won't work, she must have niqabs at home she could have put on.

And if she went to the school, or the council, or anywhere - why wasn't she wearing the niqab? How on Earth could she have been "caught unawares"?

Yes, she likely wouldn't have gotten the job - but maybe she would have. After all, they didn't sack her right away when she showed up wearing it.

Kirklees Council said the decision was taken after a monitoring period in which the impact of wearing the veil on the teaching and learning was studied.

So maybe she would have. We'll never know. She'll never know.