Koran never says women should cover face: Shabana

LONDON: As a major controversy raged in Britain over the veil issue, film actor and activist Shabana Azmi on Thursday suggested a debate on the question of Muslim women wearing the controversial veil, saying that as per Koran a woman does not need to cover her face.

"The Koran speaks about women wearing clothes to cover her modesty. A woman is supposed to cover herself to be modest. She does not need to cover her face. A time has come for a debate on the issue," Azmi told reporters shortly before receiving the International Peace Award instituted by the London-based Gandhi Foundation.

"The fight today cannot be between the Christians and the Muslims the fight cannot be between the Hindu and the Muslim. The fight needs to be between ideologies - the ideologies of the liberal versus the ideologies of the extremists."

It is within this paradigm the debate has to be carried out, she said.

The controversy over Muslim women wearing veils was sparked three weeks ago by Commons' leader Jack Straw when he said he had asked Muslim women to remove veils while visiting him at his Blackburn constituency office.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said last week that the garment was a "mark of separation" and makes people from the outside community feel uncomfortable.