Cloth is cloth, nothing more.

A teaching assistant in West Yorkshire is coming under fire for teaching while wearing a full-face veil. Thanks for starting this issue, Mr. Straw!

Now, I don't have hugely strong opinions on this. I pretty much am reserving my vitriol for thing like illegal wars and whatnot. This issue leaves me feeling baffled more than anything, because...it's not like she's doing anything wrong. She's not beating small children. She's not teaching them incorrect methods of long division.

According to the BBC article, she was told to remove the veil while teaching because children had trouble understanding her. If that's true, that they couldn't understand her words, then it's a problem with her speech, not her dress. Last time I checked, a thin sheet of cotton is hardly a significant acoustical barrier.

Personally, if I were a parent? I'd be more concerned that the school's administration is wasting its time on what feels to me like an idiotic witch-hunt, rather than "Oh no, she's wearing a veil!"