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James makes some very valid points - the dress (and faith) is of the person not the individual; it is meanspirited at the very least to refuse the support of spirituality to a service user when an individual service provider has that insight. That is a dry way of putting it - and we have very good evidence that spirituality - or 'religion' - is important in health care. My centre was commissioned to conduct a critical review of the research in this field, and were left with no doubt that by discriminating against certain religions (or indeed any) one was adversly potentially affecting a significant number of client/patients - support in faith can be medically justified as well as being 'palliative'. This is perhaps better established in the ostensibly secular United States of America - but that's life. 'Faith, Prayer, and Religious Observances' Clinical Cornerstone 6,1 :17-24 2004 Oh yes, and the Hijab etc - I cannot help but observe that in contemporary Leicester the current fashion in burkas, hijab or whatever seems almost identical (to a non-fashion attuned person) to the brown or black habits worn by medical nuns in my youth - and as we began our review by noting, the origin of hospitals was, as I recall, in the provision of care by the religious......