Category Archives: Hijab

US Christian tells Muslim women what they can wear

Posted on by Bob Pitt

At Comment is Free Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, defends Jack Straw’s offensive and insensitive statements on the niqab:

“Straw defended women’s right to wear less intrusive headscarves; yet he also argued that something is seriously wrong when, in conversation with another person, one cannot engage in face-to-face interaction. Straw was saying that to wear the nijab is a decision to close yourself off from everyone around you….

“As he pointed out, wearing the nijab is not commanded by the Koran and represents a cultural choice, not a religious duty. So long as other ways are available for Muslim women to cover their heads, agreeing not to wear the nijab is a way of signifying one’s membership in a liberal society at minimal cost to one’s religious commitments.”

So, problem sorted then. Though some of us might note the quite stunning arrogance of Christians like Wolfe lecturing adherents of another faith on the nature of their religious duties.

Interviewed in yesterday’s Daily Mail, the Tories’ new shadow minister for community cohesion, Sayeeda Warsi, answered this sort of arrogance rather well: “… when Jack Straw stood up and said, ‘You should not wear the face veil’ I thought, oh my gosh, we now have white men standing up and telling us what to do. And I really thought that men should just butt out of women’s wardrobes.”

US radio host says women in burqas are hateful Nazis who’ll kill your children

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On the July 2 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, discussing the recent terror-related arrests in Britain, radio host Michael Savage said, “When I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi,” adding, “That’s what I see – how do you like that? – a hateful Nazi who would like to cut your throat and kill your children.” Savage also said that when a Muslim woman wears a burqa, “She’s doing it to spit in your face. She’s saying, ‘You white moron, you, I’m going to kill you if I can.'” The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it the third most-listened-to talk radio show in the nation.

Media Matters, 3 July 2007 

Magistrate walks out over Muslim woman’s veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A magistrate is facing an inquiry after refusing to deal with a defendant wearing a full Muslim veil, the Judiciary of England and Wales said yesterday.

Ian Murray walked out of the case at Manchester magistrates’ court yesterday because Zoobia Hussain, 32, of Crumpsall, Manchester, was covered by a hijab. Hussain’s lawyer, Judith Hawkins, said her client was “shocked and distressed” and found Mr Murray’s treatment of her “insensitive and unacceptable”.

Miss Hawkins said she would submit a formal written complaint to the court on Monday. When the complaint is received, the judiciary will launch an internal investigation into Mr Murray’s behaviour, a spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Ramadhan Foundation said: “It is despicable that the judiciary is ignoring the guidelines about the wearing of the hijab set out only in February by the Judicial Studies Board. They require that magistrates and judges be ‘sensitive’ to a woman’s religious requirement to wear the hijab and work around it when possible.”

Daily Telegraph, 29 June 2007

Mr Murray does however receive the support of the BNP who opine: “Those pushy Muslims never let up trying to change the way we have done things in this country for centuries.”

Update:  See “Veil row magistrate reprimanded”, BBC News, 8 January 2008

Hijab ban red-cards Muslim team

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scotland hijab banScotland’s first female Muslim football team has been prevented from playing competitive matches after soccer chiefs imposed a worldwide ban on wearing religious headdress during games.

Ansar Women’s FC, from the east end of Glasgow, were looking forward to their first league games this summer, until it became clear they could not play while wearing their hijab headscarves.

The decision was taken by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game’s ultimate decision-making body, and part of FIFA. Law 4 of the sport’s regulations restricts a player’s kit to a shirt or jersey, shorts, socks and footwear.

Zuby Malik, a Glasgow-based sports worker and coach of the team, said it appeared to end hopes of Ansar Women’s FC being admitted to the Scottish Women’s Football Association league. Malik said:

“It is ridiculous that I will have to tell the girls that they won’t be able to join the league because of this nonsensical ruling. The majority of the girls in our team wear the hijab and it is completely unfair to ask people to choose between their faith and sport. Quite rightly their religion will always come first.”

Malik said London giants Arsenal had already expressed an interest in one of their players. “There is so much talent in the Asian community in Scotland, but this sends out the signal that football is not for them. Asians are already woefully under-represented in Scottish sport and this is another huge blow.”

The 27-year-old coach said there was no justification for banning headscarves and turbans. “There appears to be no logic at all behind this ruling. I don’t see how anyone could be injured through wearing a hijab or a turban or how it affects their game in any way.”

Scotland on Sunday, 24 June 2007

Muslim officer is first on the beat donning hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rukshana Begum is, without question, one of a kind. This week, the 23-year-old will become the first police officer ever to wear the Muslim hijab, or headscarf, on duty in Cambridgeshire. And she can’t wait. “I’ve struggled to get where I am,” she admits. “But I feel that my generation is the one which is going to break barriers. I hope that people will look at me and think, ‘If she can do it, so can I’.”

Cambridge Evening News, 18 June 2007

Wearing a headscarf in Detroit

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“You have nuns totally covered … and no one questions it. But when a Muslim does it, we’re from outer space.” The Detroit Free Press interviews Muslim women who wear the hijab.

One reader is not impressed: “There is no comparison between a covered nun and Islamic hijab. No one living in a Christian community has to worry about armed gangs breaking into a family home to threaten, beat or kill them because their daughters haven’t become nuns. Islamic women have to worry about that daily in the Islamic world, and even in European countries Islamic women are subject to ‘honor killings’.”

US judge: Police can ban religious Muslim garb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philadelphia PoliceA Philadelphia police officer has no right to wear a head covering as required by her Muslim faith when she is in uniform, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

The Police Department’s uniform code “has a compelling public purpose,” Judge Harvey Bartle III wrote in deciding against Kimberlie Webb, an officer since 1995. The uniform code “recognizes that the Police Department, to be effective, must subordinate individuality to its paramount group mission of protecting the lives and property of the people living, working and visiting the city of Philadelphia,” Bartle wrote. Furthermore, the department’s uniform code, known as Directive 78, maintains “religious neutrality,” the judge said.

The ruling countered a finding by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2003 that the department had violated Webb’s rights in barring her from wearing a hijab, also known as a khimar, over the top and back of her head.

The case began in February 2003, when Webb, a mother of six, filed an EEOC complaint after being denied a request to wear a hijab. In August 2003, Webb was sent home three times after showing up at roll call wearing the hijab despite being told not to do so. She also was later suspended for 13 days.

Police officials initially defended their actions by saying, in part, that Webb could have been hurt or restrained by somebody grabbing the hijab. In subsequent statements and legal arguments, the department, which was represented by law firm Cozen O’Connor, said its sole reason was fostering “obedience, unity, commitment and esprit de corps” with a uniform dress policy. Detracting from that policy would cause the department “undue hardship,” it said.

Philadelphia Daily News, 14 June 2007

Pro-hijab rally in Brussels

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Residents in the Belgian capital have gathered to demonstrate their support of Islamic hijab as a freedom of choice for Muslim European women. Demonstrators took part in protests in Brussels Saturday against a decision by several school authorities to ban hijab, the Al Alam news channel reported.

Among the protestors were members of Islamic organizations, independent human rights groups and Muslim students. The demonstrators condemned what they said is an anti-Islam stance taken by officials in Belgium and supported the right of Muslims to freely practice the customs of their religion.

Press TV, 10 June 2007