Daily Mail

Three policewomen spend full day dressed in Muslim burkhas

 in controversial 'In Your Shoes' exercise

By Andy Dolan

Three female police officers were ordered to dress up as Muslim women for the day just to see what it felt like.

They wore traditional burkhas as part of a scheme designed to help police interact better with the Islamic community.

Two covered their faces with hijab headscarves and niqab veils, leaving only narrow slits to see through, and another wore Muslim dress and a headscarf showing her face.

Critics yesterday lined up to denounce the scheme as ‘political correctness gone mad,’ and accused South Yorkshire Police of losing sight of its main objective.

Douglas Murray, of the Centre for Social Cohesion think-tank, said: ‘You just couldn’t make it up.

‘The victims of crime must be amazed that the police have so much time on their hands that they can spend a day playing dress-up.

‘This is a complete waste of police time and taxpayers’ money. It’s not the duty of police to empathise with particular sections of the community. It is the duty of the police to prevent crime and catch criminals.

‘After this are they planning to dress as members of other communities such as Hindus and Buddhists?’

Fiona McEvoy, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘The police should be spending their time trying to catch criminals rather than indulging in gimmicky exercises.

‘This is political correctness gone mad – it’s ridiculous. These kinds of schemes seem to yield few measurable benefits.

‘Taxpayers would rather see the officers concentrating their efforts and resources on providing decent frontline policing, making the streets safer for every section of the community.

‘The police are overstretched as it is without officers being paid to do other things than their real job.’

The officers, Sergeant Deb Leonard, Sergeant Deb Pickering and Police Community Support Officer Helen Turner, all from Sheffield, were accompanied by four Muslim women to help them learn more about the Islamic faith on a tour of the city.

In return, the Muslim women were shown around South Yorkshire Police’s custody suite and CCTV office and learned about the day-to-day duties of a police officer.

A spokesman for the force said the exercise, called ‘In Your Shoes Day’, was designed to help officers interact better with the Muslim community across Sheffield.

‘This exercise is just one of many activities South Yorkshire Police have planned with communities and ethnic minority leaders to secure strong relationships, celebrate diversity and encourage integration, working towards a safer, closer society,’ she added.

But she said there were no plans to extend the scheme for officers to dress up as members of other minority communities.

Mr Murray said the scheme showed that the police were ‘having a nervous breakdown’. Sid Cordle, Sheffield-based Yorkshire regional organiser of the Christian People’s Alliance, said: ‘As far as we are concerned this form of dress is a symbol of oppression of women. The police should not be encouraging it.

‘If they really want to know how Muslim women feel they could learn far more by going and living amongst them and talking to them.’

The police spokesman said the officers who dressed up believed they were being monitored by security staff when they went into a shop and were stared at in the street.

But she admitted that they were unsure whether this was down to their clothing or being overly conscious of their appearance.

‘This is something which Muslim women would have to encounter and contemplate as a regular part of their lives,’ she added.

‘Two of the Muslim women anticipated that people may stare and possibly make comment, whilst the police officers entered this exercise with an open mind not knowing quite what to expect.’

Sergeant Leonard said the experience had given her a greater appreciation of how Muslim women feel when they walk out in public in ‘clothing appropriate to their beliefs’.