Firstly, I think it's fair to say that anybody who claims we have 'the right to dress as they like' is either naive or plain thick. Or both.

If I had the right to dress how I liked, I would be allowed to go out wearing a t-shirt carrying a racist/sexist/homophobic slogan, I would be allowed to come into college wearing clothes expressing with a combination of four-letter expletives my opinion on additional work, or I could come into college wearing, well, nothing.

Obviously I would do none of those things for two reasons; the first being that I was born with a brain, and the second being that I'm not allowed to (or, at least, I assume there are rules against that sort of thing...).

We don't have the freedom to dress how we like. Even if laws and rules weren't in place to stop us, social pressures would. That can be good and bad. Personally I think it's awful that women are pressured in some rare cases to wear a veil when they don't want to; but I'm thankful that it's a legal and social requirement to wear clothes in public. Imagine Egham full of naked, old people. It would be horrific.

im sorry but i disagree with the comment you made about the veil.
for 17 years my mother only wore the head scarf(occasionally( but took it off at times, however over the last year she has become very religious after reading islamic books, she made the decision to put it on. just because my mother wears the veil does not mean that i will.(my grandmother didnt and neither did my great grandmother)
no one is pressured into wearing it they do it by choice. just as a teenage girl like myself isnt pressured into wearing a mini skirt to attract boys but we still do. ... i hope i have made this clear to you .. MUSLIM WOMEN DO AS THEY PLEASE ... if they dont agree with the religion then they convert its as simple as that . trust this.its the truth/ as a muslim i would know!!!!

No offense intended, but I don't think that you can speak for all Muslim women. Just because in your case there was no pressure to wear a veil does not mean that no Muslim girls are pressured into it. However, this is simply a more extreme case of the social conditioning we all find ourselves under. We are expected to wear certain things at certain times, and as a general rule, we do.

Some items of clothing are considered smarter than others. However, who dictates that any outfit is smarter than the next? Smartness isn't a physical thing, it's a social concept, and one that the clearly has a profound effect on our attitudes. It works both ways. Our attitudes effect our clothing, and our clothing effects our attitudes.

Yeah, I agree (I left the first comment). Just because you aren't pressured to wear certain items, it does not mean that all Muslim are free from that sort of thing.

I very much doubt that it would be acceptable to some families for a daughter (or, indeed, a son) to convert simply because they had a few problems with the religion. The same goes for Christian/Jewish/Hindu/Sikh families, I imagine.

I could give you a case example of a family I knew, where the son was required to undertake a certain operation (you can probably guess which one..) to conform with his family's religion. He refused, and his dad didn't speak to him for years.

Pressure? We all suffer it - some more than others.