Category Archives: Hijab

Denmark’s veiled soccer star

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Zainab al-KhatibODENSE — Zainab al-Khatib commanders the attention of the women national soccer team fans not just with her unmistaken talents, dribbling skills and spectacular goals but also her colorful hijab. “I’m so glad that I set a precedent in Denmark,” 15-year-old Khatib, the star of the national team for girls under 16, told IslamOnline.net.

She was recently chosen to join the team after receiving permission from the Danish Football Association (DBU) to be the first ever hijab-clad girl to play for a national team, not only in Denmark but across Europe.

Khatib, who only started her professional football career two years ago, is now the striker for the national team. She has led her team to an impressive victory in their latest match against Sweden, scoring a wonderful goal.

“Zainab has a strong personality and her attitude is always positive and inspirational in and outside the court,” her coach Troels Mansa told IOL. “She is one of my best players and I am so glad to be her coach.”

Khatib believes all the fuss over hijab is meaningless. “It is always wonderful to be able to strike a balance between your religious duties and your hobbies.”

She says her teammates are very supportive. “They have welcomed me into the team and I faced no obstacles. During our match with Sweden, some players were surprised to see my hijab but nobody commented.”

She wants her contribution to the team to demonstrate the willingness of Danish Muslims to integrate into society. “I see myself as a Danish Muslim who effectively contributes to her society and will be proud to represent my country abroad.”

Islam Online, 25 June 2008

John Rentoul on the Bushra Noah case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Everyone thinks that the tribunal’s decision is absurd, lunatic, political-correctness-gone-mad. Everyone, that is, with the exception of a tiny minority in that strange alliance of political Islamism and revolutionary Marxism, which condemns the popular reaction as Islamophobia…. hairdressers should be free to choose whom to employ, even on strange criteria, and even on criteria that depend on what people look like…. the Liberal Democrats are best placed to lead this great liberal cause: that the law, while protecting people from racism, should have nothing whatsoever to do with the ‘injury to feelings’ sustained by the holding of religious beliefs about clothes and hair. Nick Clegg: over to you.”

Independent on Sunday, 22 June 2008

The ‘politics of inclusion’ takes a hit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hebba Aref and Shimaa AbdelfadeelA disgraceful thing happened at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena earlier this week.

Americans were discriminated against by other Americans who thought head scarves would send the wrong message about their candidate’s religious affiliation. In other words – the soft bigotry of Islamophobia is finally ready for its close-up in the Obama campaign.

Hebba Aref was born in the United States 25 years ago to Egyptian immigrants. She is a lawyer and a taxpaying citizen. Ms. Aref is also an American Muslim, though there is some debate in this country whether her religious affiliation undermines her claim to be a “loyal American.”

Ms. Aref and her friend, Shimaa Abdelfadeel, were among the 20,000 Americans who made the pilgrimage to downtown Detroit to cheer for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in person.

For months, Mr. Obama has been traveling the country, assuring audiences that the success of his campaign is proof America is turning the corner on the politics of racial and religious suspicion. Mr. Obama promises that he’ll be an exemplar of a more inclusive politics. He insists that the old divisions of race, gender and religion that polarize our politics today will not find favor during an Obama administration.

So the question must be asked: Why were two Muslim women wearing hijabs told by Obama campaign workers that they couldn’t sit behind the candidate during a televised speech because of the “sensitive political climate”? On what planet would such cowardice and discrimination be consistent with a politics of inclusion?

The Obama campaign issued an apology as soon as the incident was reported: “It is offensive and counter to [our] commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run,” the campaign statement read. “We sincerely apologize for this behavior.”

Fair enough, but how did lowly campaign workers decide that Muslim head scarves weren’t ready for prime time with Barack Obama? Could it be that the Obama campaign’s almost pathological fear of being associated with Islam when so many Americans continue to believe the candidate is a “secret Muslim” has trickled down to the ushers?

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 20 June 2008

See also “Obama calls 2 Muslim women to apologize for snub at rally” in the Detroit Free Press.

Meanwhile the inimitable Debbie Schlussel is witch-hunting Hebba Aref and Shimaa Abdelfadeel with accusations of terrorist sympathies and antisemitism.

Bushra wins!

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bushra Noah“Discrimination in all its forms is unacceptable. The Zeitgeist is Islamophobia and given this fact we applaud young Bushra Noah’s determination to seek justice.

“A lot of nonsense has been said by people who ‘wouldn’t get their hair cut from a hairdresser who’s hair you can’t see’. Well there are a lot of bald hair dressers out there such as Trevor Sorbie and you don’t see customers fearing they are about to shave their heads.

“The attacks on Bushra are nothing other than Islamophobia unleashed against a young Muslim female trying to earn an honest living.”

MPACUK, 17 June 2008

Over at the increasingly demented Harry’s Place Brett Lock of OutRage! offers his entirely predictable take on the case:

“Why should a hairdressing salon carry even the risk of losing business because an irrational third party who as [sic] decided that showing hair is sinful and thus must be covered up at all times wants to work in the trade? Surely the the person making bizarre lifestyle choices based on their irrational fears and superstitions should carry the consequent risks and inconveniences – and and not expect someone else to?”

Lenin’s Tomb hails Bushra’s victory as “a boost for workers everywhere, particularly female workers who are often the target of sexist dress code policies that insist they wear a skirt and so forth. Previous challenges to such policies have been difficult to sustain, but this lays down a precedent. So, not just a victory against blatant employer Islamophobia, but also something that working people will find useful if they want to challenge their employers on discriminatory dress codes.”

Muslim stylist wins £4,000 payout

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bushra_NoahThe owner of a hair salon has been ordered to pay £4,000 compensation to a Muslim stylist who was turned down for a job because she wears a headscarf.

Bushra Noah accused Sarah Desrosiers of religious discrimination when she failed to offer her a job at her Wedge salon in King’s Cross, central London. An employment tribunal panel dismissed the 19-year-old’s claim but upheld her complaint of indirect discrimination.

Ms Desrosiers said she needed stylists to showcase alternative hairstyles.

During the hearing Ms Noah, who lives in Acton, west London, told the tribunal that she was “devastated” that she was not offered the job of assistant stylist “due to my headscarf”.

Ms Desrosiers, 32, told the panel that Ms Noah lived too far away, but was persuaded to give her an interview in May last year.

When the applicant arrived for the interview she claimed the Canadian salon owner was clearly shocked by the fact she wore a headscarf. Ms Desrosiers told the tribunal she was surprised it had not been mentioned earlier and expected her staff to reflect the “funky, urban” image of her salon.

The panel found that Ms Noah had been badly upset by the 15-minute interview. She was awarded £4,000 damages for “injury to feelings”.

In its judgment, the panel stated: “We were satisfied by the respondent’s evidence that the claimant was not treated less favourably than the respondent would have treated a woman who, whether Muslim or not, for a reason other than religious belief wears a hair covering at all times when at work.”

It added: “There was no specific evidence before us as to what would (for sure) have been the actual impact of the claimant working in her salon with her head covered at all times.”

Speaking after the ruling the salon owner said: “I never in a million years dreamt that somebody would be completely against the display of hair and be in this industry. I don’t feel I deserve it.”

Ms Noah refused to comment on the matter.

BBC News, 16 June 2008

Ireland: intercultural adviser warns against hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Banning the hijab or other religious symbols which are important to minorities is “likely to result in tension with those communities where no tension existed before”, according to the director of the State’s advisory body on intercultural affairs.

In a detailed intervention in the debate over whether Muslim pupils should be allowed wear the headscarf in State schools, Philip Watt of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism said most schools had already found their own “sensible and sensitive compromise” by allowing it to be worn provided the colour was consistent with the school uniform.

Mr Watt suggested that those advocating a ban on the hijab “may, or may not, have fully considered the consequences of such a ban, for example in respect of all religious symbols and obligations in Irish schools”. While much of the focus had been on the Muslim headscarf, other religious symbols were worn in Irish schools, including the Sikh kara (a bangle), the Sikh patka (a scarf worn by boys and young men), the Jewish kippah or skullcap and Christian crucifixes. The pioneer badge, the sacred heart and crucifixes are worn by some teachers.

“The banning of religious symbols or obligations solely aimed at one religious community or indeed all religious faiths is potentially discriminatory and likely to be tested in Irish law,” Mr Watt said. “In 2004 the French government considered the issuing of a ban on the wearing of the hijab in French schools, but after legal considerations decided that the only way that such a ban would be legal would be to ban virtually all religious symbols and obligations, including large crucifixes.”

Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes and his Labour counterpart Ruairí Quinn said separately last week that they opposed the wearing of the hijab in the country’s secondary schools, though Mr Hayes made a distinction between State-run VEC schools and those run by religious orders, which decide their own rules. “There is enough segregation in Ireland without adding this to it. Segregating in this way is not helpful to Muslims and not helpful to anybody,” Mr Hayes said.

In yesterday’s statement, Mr Watt also sought to correct the impression that all Muslims are recent immigrants. Just under a third of the 32,500 Muslims in the Republic are Irish.

An Irish Times/ TNS mrbi poll conducted last week found that 48 per cent of people feel the wearing of hijabs should be allowed in State schools. Some 39 per cent disagree and 13 per cent have no opinion.

Irish Times, 10 June 2008

Ireland: 48% support right to wear hijab in schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Almost half of people feel the wearing of hijabs or headscarves by Muslim students should be allowed in State schools, according to the latest Irish Times /TNS mrbi poll. While 48 per cent agree with their use in State schools, 39 per cent do not and 13 per cent have no opinion.

A breakdown of the figures show that while a clear majority of younger people agree with the use of hijabs, older people are more likely to be opposed.

Green Party voters are among the most likely to agree (69 per cent), followed by Sinn Féin and Independents (57 per cent) and Fianna Fáil (48 per cent). Labour and Fine Gael voters are split evenly.

Women are more likely to agree (55 per cent) compared with men (42 per cent).

People are also divided on whether the Government should produce guidelines on the wearing of hijabs in State schools. A total of 49 per cent agree that the State should provide guidelines, while 41 per cent feel the State should not get involved in the issue and 10 per cent have no opinion.

The poll was conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday among a representative sample of 1,000 voters in face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all 43 constituencies.

Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe has said that the Government will consider whether to issue guidelines on the wearing of the hijab in schools when it drafts an intercultural education strategy later this year.

Some teachers’ groups and the State’s advisory body on interculturalism have signalled that national guidelines should be avoided and the issue should be dealt with on a case by case basis.

The poll indicates that there is little difference on the issue between rural and urban areas. When broken down by social class, people from better-off backgrounds were more likely to agree with the use of the headscarf or hijab.

Irish Times, 9 June 2008

BNP jibe at lawyer who opposed veiled judges

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A barrister who argued that Muslim judges in Britain should never wear the veil in court has been accused by a fellow barrister of deploying the arguments of the British National Party. Barbara Hewson was commenting on guidance issued to judges earlier this year by the Judicial Studies Board. Miss Hewson, writing in the Bar Council’s magazine Counsel, said it was worrying that the board’s advice contemplated the possibility of veiled judges. Describing the guidance as “astonishing and subversive”, she said: “The United Kingdom is not a sharia state.”

Responding in the magazine, Fatim Kurji wrote: “As for veiled judges and the suggestion that the ‘United Kingdom is not a sharia state’, this is what I call ‘the BNP argument’. It implies a woman who wears a niqab comes at the erosion of British values. Such an astonishingly offensive remark undermines the long-enduring libertarian values.” Miss Kurji said she was no fan of niqab but even less so of a legal system “that restricts access to justice on the basis of religious expression”.

Daily Telegraph, 6 June 2007

We don’t have access to a copy of Counsel, but a correspondent informs us that Hewson’s article is a rehash of the piece published in Spiked back in February, though from the quotes in the Telegraph it would appear to be even more hardline and offensive.

Update:  Thanks to a supporter in the legal profession we have the text of Barbara Hewson’s Counsel Magazine article.

Continue reading →

‘Symbolism of hijab’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Remember this article calling for the hijab to be banned from Irish schools? And this report that Ireland’s opposition parties backed the proposal? As a contribution to the “debate” the Irish Independent has published a letter from a US reader in support of a ban: “Like it or not, the hijab is a symbol of a culture that promotes the murder of innocents and mutilation…. The culture of the hijab is against the liberal principles of Western culture…. Ireland has an opportunity to take an early stand against a culture that threatens the West with violence and aggression.”