A conversation with a future child in a post-religious Britain:

"Grandad I was reading today about something called a Burqa that women used to wear. What was it?"

"It was like a kind of robe thing Muslim women used to wear when I was a kid. It covered every part of their body."

"Like a dress?"

"No, more like sort of a sheet. A thick one that covered every visible part of their skin up to their hands and feet and over their heads. They had to be pitch black so they looked like walking bundles of shadow and they were worn whenever they stepped outside their home."

"That sounds pretty scary. They walked around everywhere like that?"

"Oh, it wasn't so bad. You see they kept entirely to themselves. Never spoke to any outsiders and it might have been dangerous for them if they were caught speaking to strange men."

"What do you mean? Why were they wearing these things?"

"Well Sally, their ancestors came from a part of the world that was run by warlords. Women weren't allowed to drive or have real jobs, they'd cut off your hand if you stole something, and you could get stoned to death if you cheated on your husband. They believed in what they called 'Islam'. They said men and women were equal but different. Which meant that women were too weak to make real decisions for themselves and they had to submit to their husbands in all matters. It's like how you and your baby sister are equal, but different. She's a baby so she gets treated like a baby. Some Muslims believed that if a woman walked outside with any part of her skin showing she would be attracting unwanted attention to herself and causing her husband all kinds of stress."

"Why did she have to wear a big black sheet to avoid drawing attention to herself?"

"Well she didn't. It was just tradition dating back nearly one thousand years which was resurrected by violent despots and genocidal terrorist cells during the late 20th century."

"So why were some women made to wear them in the UK when most didn't?"

"She wasn't made to. It was entirely her choice."

"What you mean nobody did anything?"

"Sally, it's about time you checked your goddamn privilege. You can't tell women what to wear and it would have been racist to do anything about it. You're sounding an awful lot like a bigot Sally."