Rights Violation or Bad Manners?

There is much to be said about where to draw the line in the conflict between religious and cultural tradition and law-making. But I think there's an issue that's being undersold here. As I understand it, Jack Straw is neither promoting any laws, nor is he "demanding" anything of anyone. All the stories I've read, including the one linked here, have indicated that he's asking or requesting that women remove their veils during meetings with him. After being questioned directly as to whether he'd rather the veils be discarded completely, he simply said "Yes."

I'm not making any point as to whether his request is reasonable or not at the moment, I just want to make sure that any discussion on the issue is relevant to the question, which is not one of civil rights vs. religious doctrine, but rather one of communication vs. cultural sensitivity.

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