Most Britons want full face veils banned in all public places People also admitted to feeling "uneasy," "nervous" and "threatened" by the full face veil. Only one fifth of those questioned in the ComRes study for Channel 4 News said they felt comfortable around people wearing full face veils. Muslim author Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who does not wear a veil or headscarf, insisted most Muslims would agree with the survey's findings. "I bet a lot of Muslims were included in this survey, most Muslims are not keen on this," she said. We live in a society which is very, very complicated and to shut yourself off as if the rest of us are infectious is not right. She added: "The meaning of this is women are dangerous to men and society and therefore must be covered and that's what we cannot accept." But Fatima Barkatulla, director of the Seeds of Change Muslim Women's Conference, who wears the niqab, defended the veil. She said: "My message to the British public is, "You've got nothing to fear" The people who have actually interacted with women who wear the face veil, the people who work with them, have absolutely no problem with it. It is a fear of the unknown. Face veils have been the subject of heated debate in recent weeks since a college was forced into a U-turn after introducing rules which banned students from wearing Muslim face veils. Just days later Muslim defendant won the right to wear her niqab when standing trial as long as she removed it to give evidence. It also emerged a number of hospitals had been ordering frontline staff not to wear the niqab. A massive four fifths of Britons support a ban on full face veils and niqabs being worn in schools, courts and hospitals, while 58 per cent want to see all head coverings abolished in these institutions. The Prime Minister has said he would "back up" schools and courts that ask people to remove Muslim veils but refused to condone a full ban despite pressure from a growing number of Conservative MPs. Speaking on the Andrew Marr programme last month he said: "We are a free country and people should be free to wear whatever clothes they like in public or in private. But we should support those institutions that need to put in place rules so that those institutions can work properly. So for instance in a school, if they want that particular dress code, I believe the Government should back them. The same for courts, the same for immigration. Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said it was up to individual hospitals to decide whether their staff should be allowed to wear face veils but the Government has ordered a review of all health service uniform policies. Schools and colleges are currently given the freedom to set their own policies on uniform. Guidance from the Department for Education states that it should be possible for various religious beliefs to be accommodated within individual institutions" policies. The right to a particular religious dress code is safeguarded by the Human Rights Act and must be followed by schools and colleges, it is claimed.