I’ve been struck by two events since Denmark introduced its “burka ban” in May. The first was a protest in which feminists put on full-face, black veils to demonstrate solidarity with those who wear them. The second was the landmark prosecution under the new law, which began with a Dane ripping the niqab off a Muslim in the street. Both fill me with dismay.

I wonder what the women of Raqqa, who sang for joy as they pulled off black shrouds when liberated from Islamic State, or Afghan girls under the Taliban, or Iran’s My Stealthy Freedom protesters imprisoned for fighting the compulsory hijab, would make of these free western women willingly wearing this garb of the erased, the enslaved. I wonder too whether Danish