UK politician says burka is 'bank robber' clothing
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The reading
The United Kingdom's former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of racism. He made a number of comments about women wearing the burka while writing in the British newspaper 'The Telegraph'. Mr Johnson said women who wear burkas "look like letter boxes". He also said: "If a female student turned up at school or at a university lecture looking like a bank robber," he would ask her to remove it so that he "could talk to her properly". Johnson was writing an article about the recent full-face veil ban in Denmark. In the article, Mr Johnson said full-face veils should not be banned in the UK, but said women who wear a burka "look absolutely ridiculous".
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The UK's Prime Minister Theresa May has asked Mr Johnson to apologize for his comments. She said: "I do think that we all have to be very careful about the language and terms we use, and some of the terms Boris used describing people's appearance obviously have offended." Another senior British politician has asked Mr Johnson to resign. Many other politicians said Johnson's comments were Islamophobic and were a hate crime. They say he knew his comments would offend many Muslims and others in the UK. Mr Johnson was London's mayor for eight years and the UK Foreign Minister for two years and so had thousands of experiences interacting with Muslim people.
Sources:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-45096519
- https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/boris-johnson-burqa-wearers-look-like-bank-robbers-letter-boxes/news-story/
- https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/boris-johnson-allies-say-he-won-t-apologise-for-islamophobic-burqa-comments-1.757866
