AIBU to think face coverings in public should be banned?

[OpheliaWasntMad]

Should all types of face covering in public be banned? I think they should. Mainly I’m concerned that people in balaclavas and face coverings are shoplifting and stealing phones etc with impunity.
People with balaclavas on marches look threatening and sinister.
Women with niqabs create a barrier between themselves and others as it’s hard to form connections if you can’t see someone’s facial expressions.
I think all face covering should be banned. It contributes to a society that feels more unsafe and divided.

The aggressive, violent men who are out demonstrating and intimidating women are always wearing huge masks, balaclavas or scarves wrapped around their faces. Ditto shoplifters. That is how they get away with criminal behaviour. Like motor cycle helmets in banks, it needs to be expressly forbidden. If someone goes into a shop in a balaclava it is obvious they are up to no good.

That very much depends on how they’re grown.

Do they have a problem in Glasgow with balaclava wearing hooligans and shoplifters? The pp seemed to think there was no problem with face covering where she lived - people only covered faces against the bitter weather.

Baseball caps and hoodies can just as easily be be used to cover faces. Should they be banned too?

Because that's exactly what you said - Let's not bother to engage with the people who can't communicate with you because you have a face covering on.

Are you trying and failing to communicate with women in niqabs or do you just object to seeing women with face coverings when you are out and about?

I live in a very large multi-ethnic city with a large Muslim population and there are many women wearing the hijab but very few wearing the niqab. What they are wearing doesn't affect me in any way. Banning the niqab would be very illiberal and authoritarian.

I look forward to your wonderful world, OP, where women going through breast cancer treatments and wearing masks because their immune system is shot to hell have to flash their lumpectomy/mastectomy scars or bald heads to prove they're not evil thugs.

Where are your stats on this big change?

Anyone covering their face in public should be challenged by the police…
I volunteer in a charity shop and we have virtually zero police presence in the town where I work. Where are we going to find all these police who are going to challenge scarf wearing shoppers?

It’s not enforceable. Scarves and cold weather gear make it something you can’t insist on.

However if there was some way that on a summer’s day people attending marches could be removed from them if they have a balaclava or other face covering then I think this could be a good idea.

The problem is I can understand why you might want to just to protect yourself even if you have no intention of causing any trouble.

I am trying and failing to communicate with people in medical face coverings.

Probably no worse than here, but racism certainly exists. And France is a secular country so obvious religious symbols are banned in schools and neutral appearance is expected in public, hence fairly easy to ban Muslim garb for women.

Shops can enforce a no mask policy - for medical masks you can manage this by a camera at the door - you remove mask for ten seconds to have your face recorded and then proceed.

You are then face recognizable on camera if that information is needed later by the police.

But more often, not....

I think this is what normalised face coverings rather than religious use.

I am old enough to remember when a balaclava or ski mask meant bank robbers or IRA, so I am all in favour of no face coverings - they still spark that old memory.

As for medical face masks - IIRC they protect everyone from the wearer, and offer very little protection to them; so I think a case could be made for dropping them too.

YABU, banning clothing is authoritarian.

What about beards?
What about scarves?
What about face masks?
What about bridal veils?
What about long fringes?
What about deerstalker hats?
What about large sunglasses?
What about motorcycle helmets?

I think tackle criminal behaviour, don't criminalise ordinary clothing.

YANBU, OP. 100% support banning face coverings in the UK. Including niqab and burqa which I view as oppressive to women and girls.

I am shocked it's 2026 and people are still debating whether it's ok to tell a woman she can't wear her niquab. The goverment has NO place in telling women what they can or can't wear. What a ridiculous comment.
Not to mention the weather. I am assuming OP doesn't live in a particularly cold part of the UK. When I lived in the Yorkshire dales even the 15 minute walk to and from my kid's school in the icy wind Dec-Feb would make my nose so cold and painfully numb I would want to cry. I couldn't imagine being outlawed to wear my pink fluffy balaclava style hat

Yes I agree - very few niqabs - it’s not the real issue but as it is not a religious requirement and very very few Muslim women wear it I dont think banning it would be unreasonable.
The hijab is entirely different and presents no threat or issues to anyone.

But the goverment making laws about what women can and can't wear isn't oppressive? 🤔

The pp seemed to think there was no problem with face covering where she lived - people only covered faces against the bitter weather

I think you need to read pp's posts again.

A lot of the people who want Muslim women to remove their face coverings are the same people who protest loudly whilst covering their own faces - and rail against ID cards because 'invasion of privacy'.

You can't keep repeating that this is about crime OP, whilst including Muslim women in your argument who form a teeny tiny proportion of the criminal population.

Yeah but I think that’s just one of those things you have to deal with. I’m also hearing impaired, I can’t understand what people in medical masks are saying unless I’m somewhere with no background noise at all and they’re speaking deliberately slowly and clearly. But I wouldn’t think that therefore people shouldn’t wear them because my need to understand them is more important than their health. They have a medical issue. I have a medical issue. We’ll figure something out.

Too right OP! And as these young thugs always ride bikes we should ban all bikes. To be honest we should probably ban all young people, say under 25 from being outside after 6pm or on Saturdays.

They often wear black colour clothing too so maybe ban black clothes.

Anything else you can think of? Someone used a car to ram raid a jewellers near me recently. How about a car ban?

Criminals using balaclavas to conceal their identities has always been an "issue" (at least since the Battle of Balaclava 1854 when they came into being; before that robbers used kerchiefs over their faces and highwaymen used masks). How else can criminals conceal their identities? If someone is hellbent on crime, being told off for covering their face isn't going to stop them.