“I mean just what is his problem? He comes out with disgraceful stuff like this all the time. It’s not funny, it’s dangerous. He is peddling this rightwing rhetoric and shrouding it in humour.” Waqas Siddiqui is exasperated and fears yet another rise in hate crime in his home town of Blackburn after Boris Johnson’s controversial remarks about the burqa.

But another thing that Siddiqui predicts is the rise in sales of the full veil over the next few weeks. The Siddiqui family own the Hijab Centre in Whalley Range – an area with a large Muslim population. For 17 years, they have sold every kind of Muslim headscarf conceivable. Rows of mannequin heads line shelves. They are adorned in intricately embroidered scarves of fuchsia and turquoise. Nadeem Siddiqui and his wife, Amna, make regular trips to Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to bring back luxurious cloths and silks.



To the front of the brightly lit store in a corner, there is a much smaller section. A few pieces of thin black cloth with a slit in the upper section hang from a hook. These are niqabs. They cover everything on a face apart from the eyes. The store now sells roughly one a day, having seen a steady growth in recent years.



‘He comes out with disgraceful stuff like this all the time. It’s not funny, it’s dangerous’: Waqas Siddiqi who works at Hijab Centre, responds to Boris Johnson’s comments. Photograph: Phil Tragen/The Guardian

Mariam, one of the shop assistants, demonstrates. She places the niqab on her face and there is a bit of giggling – she doesn’t normally wear one, but says she sells many and appreciates why women want to wear them. In a mix of Gujarati and English she explains that women feel protected by the covering – “they don’t want men looking at them”.



Siddiqui, 27, says Blackburn has experienced a rise in women wearing the niqab. He believes it is a reaction to the criticism of his faith. His wife chooses to wear a full-face veil but his mother and sister don’t.



“There has been an increase – it is mostly the younger girls who are buying them rather than the elderly. I think we see more girls wearing them now in places like Blackburn because when people criticise your religion, you hold on to it a bit more. You retreat back into what you’re comfortable with,” he says.



The last time there was an increase in sales of the niqab at the shop was in 2006. The area’s local MP, Jack Straw, wrote a controversial column in a local newspaper requesting that Muslim women lift their veil at his surgeries in his constituency. Straw sparked a national debate, saying he was worried about the “implications of separateness” and the development of “parallel communities”.



“We saw a rise in sales during that time,” says Siddiqui. “When people attack you, you feel like the only thing you have to cling on to is your religion – like a safety blanket. It makes you go inwards. When we had all the Jack Straw stuff, women felt unsafe, they felt they would be targeted in the streets and the same will happen now.”



Siddiqui says the “irresponsible” comments made by politicians will once again fuel hate crime in his area.



“He [Johnson] has a hidden agenda, trying to gain support of certain types of people who have certain views on Muslims. You already feel like you’re a minority in the country and then if you wear the niqab, you are in an even smaller minority.



“There are certain individuals who will use this, those individuals that do not view Muslims in a positive light already and seeing someone in a position of power making comments like this gives them the green light to take it a step further.”



Fazal Hassan, the Muslim chaplain at Royal Blackburn hospital said he felt “deeply hurt” by the comments and joined calls for Johnson to resign.



He said “The Muslim community feels belittled.



“Britain is a democratic and free country, therefore the right to clothing is a matter of personal choice and freedom. It is absolutely unacceptable that a choice of a person’s dress is equated to that of a criminal.

“Worryingly, his actions and choice of words indicate that Islamophobia is becoming mainstream in the UK and is on the rise. Furthermore, if the Conservative party fails to take any action it will signal that Islamophobia is acceptable within the Conservative party.”



Meanwhile, back to a street near the shop, Saika, 28, says she has worn the veil since she was a teenager. She cannot understand the overwhelming interest in her clothing. Asked why she wears the veil, she replies bluntly: “Because I feel like it.”

Six years ago when she arrived in Britain and completed the Life in the UK citizenship test she said she was told that people in the UK were free to wear whatever they wanted.



“I was never forced to wear it. I like it. If I haven’t got it on I don’t feel comfortable. Nobody is telling me to do anything. I don’t go around telling other people what to wear – so why do they think they can tell me? This is my choice.”