I very much agree with the line in the Jo Bartosch piece: "There is nothing more racist than thinking something is acceptable for ‘other’ people that you would not want for yourself."
It seems to me there is a difficulty in opposing the niqab, though. Some people say they oppose it because the women who wear it are oppressed and forced to wear it by men. Others say they oppose it because the women who wear it are doing so to make a religious and ideological statement - deliberately covering up their faces to show how pro-Islam they are and also in defiance of Western values.
And those are two very different things. How do you deal with them?
Obviously none of us believe women should be forced by their husbands into covering up their faces. But what good would banning it do? You're just criminalising the victims. That makes no sense.
As for women who are doing it deliberately, it's not great, but I can imagine that criminalising it would just make them more angry and more defiant. Positions would become more entrenched and polarised. And in any case, when you think of all the anti-social things people already do and get away with (dropping litter, urinating in the street, playing loud music in public etc) it seems a bit harsh to pick on women wearing veils. They aren't actually doing any harm; they're just looking slightly sinister.
So I don't see there's a lot we can do. And yet symbolically the face veil is very powerful - I feel very angry and alienated when I see women wearing one, because in so many other places it's used systematically to oppress women.