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Salman Rushdie says Muslim veils 'suck'

Rushdie, whose book The Satanic Verses triggered death threats from Islamic clerics, gave his full backing to Leader of the Commons Jack Straw for raising the issue. In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, held to mark the opening of a new joint exhibition with sculptor Amish Kapoor, he backed Mr Straw to the hilt. "Speaking as somebody with three sisters and a very largely female Muslim family, there's not a single woman I know in my family or in their friends who would have accepted wearing the veil. "I think the battle against the veil has been a long and continuing battle against the limitation of women, so in that sense I'm completely on [Straw's] side. "He was expressing an important opinion, which is that veils suck, which they do. I think the veil is a way of taking power away from women."

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