In the instance of it happening in a school I seem to remember a case in France where a school had enforced a uniform and asked a muslim girl to remove her veil and in the end I think the school won, and rightly so. If a school hasa uniform policy it is unfair that any student be seperated by making allowances, regardless of its for religious or cultural or whatever reason. Otherwise you'd get kids saying that it was against ther religion to wear any uniform and there'd be no way to enforce that without potentially upsetting someone.

In terms of in normal society I don't think you can really enforce anything though, you could just hope that people will be civil enough and respect each other, but in the instance of what happened with Jack Straw I think that he was right to an extent, in that it is generally considered polite to be able to see someones face when you are talking to them. This, of course, isn't something that a strict muslim would agree upon I'm sure, but as someone who isn't a fan of religion I can't really sympathise with that.

I hated having to wear school uniforms as they weren't comfortable, which put a negative spin on everything else, like a butterfly effect almost, although I know that isn't the issue here. The problem is that it will seperate people by their religion, something that happens in different ways anyway, but it shouldn't need to, there should be a compromise, it's just a case of finding it.

And just out of curiousity, not as a joke or meaning offense, but what type of photo would a muslim woman have on her passport, and would she remove her veil to go through security at an airport etc? If exceptions are made in that instance, why not in others?