Could the Muslim women of Blackburn be making a mass two-fingered gesture to Jack Straw, a message of defiance that nobody, especially middle-aged white politicians, were going to tell them how to dress? It was a nice idea but, disappointingly, it proved not to be the case. In this area a great many abide by the Hanafi philosophy, which advocates the wearing of veils.

Many said that they always dressed this way and that Mr Straw was irrelevant. When asked about the rumpus he has caused by asking Muslim women who come to his constituency surgery to remove their veils, some just shook their heads and gestured as if swatting away a pesky fly.

There was little doubt, though, that Mr Straw’s remarks, made through his column in a local newspaper, had left a lot of Muslims, male and female, feeling angry.

Many would not talk and those that would were reluctant to give their names. One woman called her husband on her mobile telephone to ask whether she should speak to the press. He told her: “No.”

At one point, as I stood in the streets of Brookhouse near Mr Straw’s constituency home interviewing a 23-year-old woman in a burka, a car driven by a Muslim man pulled up. He wound down the window and shouted at my interviewee: “Don’t talk to her. Ignore her. She’s just being nosey.” Happily, because she was articulate on the subject, she took no notice. “I think [Jack Straw] has got a point, but to expect women to take their veil off, I don’t think it’s fair,” she said. “You can’t tell people how to dress within their own culture. I have worn [a burka] since I left high school because it is what I am most comfortable with.”

One woman phoned her local radio station to say that Mr Straw had once asked her to remove her veil at a meeting and she had refused.

Rukhsana Aslam, 20, was outraged by Mr Straw. “He cannot start asking women to remove their veils and scarves,” she said. “I feel sinful for not wearing my veil all of the time in public.”

Not all women were affronted by Mr Straw. In a newsagent’s shop Shazhad, 28, and Pravina, 53, (not their real names) both said that they chose not to wear burkas. Pravina said many women did it to please their husbands. “I don’t think that’s much of a life,” she added. Shazhad said she thought it was “bad manners” to wear a burka in a one-to-one situation.

One thing that many seemed agreed on was that Mr Straw had used the issue to get himself on the front pages.

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