Source: The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/31/wscarf131.xml
On January 3, 2004 The Telegraph ran an opinion piece by Stella White, a Catholic woman from Kent who wears the hijab, or veil. She writes, "To liberated Westerners, the hijab, or veil, is a stain on womankind. It symbolises the crushing of the female spirit and is the mark of slavery, transforming a woman into a passive lump who is only allowed out of the house to buy her husband's dinner...Yet for many, including myself, the veil is not an instrument of coercion, but a means of liberation. Personally, I have never felt so free as I do when I am wearing it Before you presume that I am regurgitating propaganda from a culture that has brainwashed me, I should point out that I am a Catholic, not a Muslim. I am not from the mysterious East, but am a 32-year-old woman from boring Kent...There is nobody in my past that has coerced me to wear a veil. I do so simply because I love it."