It's one thing for John Passant, suspected of lefty leanings, to view President Sarkozy's call for a ban on the burka as merely a diversionary strategm for attacks on the French working classes: it's quite another for him to cast aspersions (Letters, June 30) on policies which see female TV presenters representing a subtle and nuanced form of women's oppression.
Even the ABC, in what can only be described as advanced political incorrectitude, offers viewers like me gals whom we may suspect have grey matter and skills in oral communication, but above all who are blessed by nature.
What does Passant want?
Cerebrally over-endowed misery-guts like Germaine Greer, Anne Summers or Sharan Burrow giving us their take on the weather, footy, the latest fashions and goings-on of Madonna, et al; or how ignorant interpreters of the Holy Koran over a millennium have somehow determined that burkas and purdah are OK.
They're not, but then legislation won't do the trick either, Virginia at least not in this part of the world.
Where Passant may secure some traction is for him to goad the likes of Keyser Trad but especially the imam of the Lakemba mosque into coming out unequivocally with the observation that such apparel represents an appalling interpretation of an authority, with some iffy theology I might add, but nonetheless something revered by more than a billion people.
Patrick Jones, Griffith
Whose agenda?
Jo Mazengarb (Letters, July 1) tells women that she finds their burkas very offensive.
Does she do the same to the bikini-clad women on Cronulla Beach?
Some of them may be expressly trying to submit to the desires of a man but which women should she confront?
Some may be just enjoying the sun.
And how can we be sure of the motives of the women wearing burkas and niqabs?
Will confrontations with the ''thought police'' increase the confidence of such women or just pave the way for more aggressive attacks?
I don't like submissiveness but if I micromanage the relationships of others, am I asking them to submit to my agenda?
What about those gay people or heterosexuals who enjoy acting out a dominant/submissive role?
Women's rights are very important but controlling what women wear doesn't look like a useful path to go down.
Rosemary Walters, Palmerston
Who's to blame?
So the ACT has the longest wait for elective surgery in the nation, the second-highest emergency waiting time and the lowest levels of GPs per capita (''Surgery queues longest in nation'', June 30, p1).
So what is new? This has been the situation for years, but is apparently not a problem for the bulk of Canberra voters, who continue to vote in the government responsible for the situation and which has a preference for spending taxpayers' dollars on arboretums, ''Live in Canberra'' campaigns, statues, little-used bicycle lanes on major roads, luxury prisons, unnecessary artworks and the like.
And all this at a time when the economy is in dire straits, and the population ageing and in more need of hospital services.
ACT voters have had numerous opportunities to redress the situation and now they have to live with the consequences.
Ric Hingee, Duffy
Pay's the cure
The ultimate in state health system one-upmanship: ''My basket case is better than your basket case.''
Pay nurses what they are really worth and they will flock in to staff our hospital beds and operating theatres.
B. Woodman, Greenway
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