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Sayeeda Warsi, Britain’s Conservative Party chairman and the first Muslim woman to serve in the Cabinet, has defended the right of Muslim women to choose to wear the burka saying that many of them choose to wear the traditional attire out of their own free will. She opposed the notion that Burka prevents Muslim women from ‘engaging in everyday life’ in Britain. “ If women don’t have a choice over what to wear then they are oppressed but if a woman has a choice, and she chooses to wear whatever she chooses to wear, then she’s not oppressed. She’s choosing what she wants,” Daily Mail Warsi said. Warsi, who was named Britain’s most powerful Muslim woman in 2009, said, “Just because a woman wears the burka, it doesn’t mean she can’t engage in everyday life.” Earlier, a Tory MP Philip Hollobone had tabled a private members bill to ban "burka’ in public places on the ground that it is "against the British way of life". “There are women who wear the burka who run extremely successful businesses, internet businesses, which don’t actually require you to be there face to face,” she added.

Tory Chairperson Warsi defends rights of Muslim women to wear ‘burka’