EXPRESS Blackburn is experiencing a rise in burka and niqab sales

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Despite most muslims believing there is no requirement in the Koran for women to wear the burka, or the slightly less overwhelming niqab, sales are up and the prevalence of fully-covered women is increasing. Express.co.uk can reveal shopkeepers in Blackburn, the British town with the third highest Muslim population, are enjoying a boom in sales. The burka is the most concealing of all Islamic dress incorporating a usually black one-piece garment which covers the face and body with a mesh covering the wearer's eyes. It is designed to effectively dehumanise the wearer in the interests of modesty by disguising all of her physical elements.

EXPRESS The burka and niqab both conceal the wearers body completely, apart from the eyes

The niqab is usually a veil worn in conjunction with a headscarf to create a similar effect to the burka. In the Islamic faith both garments are worn as an assertion of religious and cultural identity. And they both got a boost from an unexpected quarter just days ago when Marks & Spencer unveiled its ‘burkini’ Islamic swimwear to howls of derision from both feminists and designers. Many Britons find the burka and niqab sexist and even threatening.

But, while their popularity in many Middle Eastern countries is on the wane the number of women wearing burkas and niqabs on the streets of British northern towns and cities and parts of London is increasing.

The rise of the burka and the veil all stems from 9/11 Nadeem Siddiqui

A snap survey carried out by Express.co.uk in the Lancashire town of Blackburn, where 11 per cent of the population is Islamic, found around 30 per cent of muslim women completely covered their faces. Exact figures are hard to establish because many burkas are sold door-to-door, but Nadeem Siddiqui who runs the Hijab Centre in Blackburn and is the town’s biggest burka supplier said: “I'm selling more burkas and niqabs than I used to, no question. “I used to sell one or two burkas a month, now I sell about that in a week, so sales are clearly up.” He blamed the US reaction to the September 11th attacks for increased sales and said: “The rise of the burka and the veil all stems from that.”

EXPRESS Mr Siddiqui runs the Hijab Centre, but is not a fan of the veil

Although Mr Siddiqui sells burkas and niqabs he is not a huge fan of the garments. However he warns that an out and out ban like the one in Norway would fail in Britain. He said: “The answer is education not a ban. A ban would have the opposite effect. “When Jack Straw said those things against the veil, sales of the veil in my shop soared.”

GETTY Jack Straw was Labour MP for Blackburn from 1979 to 2015