Kian Sing Low, student union campaigns officer at Imperial College, writes about the ban on the Islamic veil and other clothing deemed a threat to security.
Socialist Worker, 26 November 2005
See also Daily Mail, 24 November 2005
Category Archives: Hijab
Imperial College bans veil on campus
Imperial College in London has emulated that reactionary little town in Belgium that banned the Islamic veil on the grounds of security – a policy also advocated in the Netherlands by right-wing politician Rita Verdonk. And the logic of Imperial College’s policy is of course to impose a general public ban. If Muslim women covering their faces are a threat to security on campus, are they not equally a threat in wider society?
See Polly Curtis’s report in the Guardian, 23 November 2005
Hijab costs woman French residency
A Moroccan woman living legally in France for eight years has been refused a long-term residence card because she covers her hair with an Islamic headscarf, says her lawyer.
A regional government official wrote in a rejection letter this month that the scarf worn by Chetouani El Khamsa was a sign of Islamic fundamentalism, her lawyer Pascale Torgemen said on Thursday.
Torgemen said El Khamsa planned to appeal and to file a suit for what she contends is a discriminatory, racist and sexist decision. “Does this mean that a man with a beard is systematically Islamist, a fundamentalist?” the lawyer said.
El Khamsa has lived legally in France – where her four children were born – since 1997, employed by her husband’s business. To replace her current residence card, which must be renewed annually, she wanted a residency permit that is valid for 10 years, like the one accorded her husband.
But in a 2 November letter refusing her the 10-year card, Francois Praver, sub-prefect in the town of Raincy outside Paris, noted that during her interview, El Khamsa wore a headscarf “entirely covering your neck and the roots of your hair, comparable to a hijab, sign of belonging to a fundamentalist Islam”.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali supports Netherlands ban on veil
Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has proposed a ban on the wearing of Muslim burkas – full-length veils covering the face – in certain public places, to prevent people avoiding identification. Alarm about Islamist terror has increased in the Netherlands since the Van Gogh murder.
A Dutch MP who campaigned with him against radical Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, defended Mrs Verdonk’s plans in a BBC interview. She told the World Today programme that CCTV cameras, used to help track down terrorists, must continue to reveal suspects’ faces. The CCTV operators “need to see their faces and if you cover your face you cannot be identified”.
She said Muslim women were not obliged to wear the burka, and denied that some burka wearers would be confined to the home.
See also “Women in burkas face benefit cuts”, Times, 14 October 2005
Hate wave hits Muslim women in Australia
Muslim women in Australia are enduring a rising wave of violence and intimidation. Women wearing headscarfs have been spat on, sworn at and assaulted while hate graffiti such as “Kill Muslims” and “Muslims Out” has appeared in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. In the past two weeks, two Muslim women have been attacked in daylight.
In one, a milkshake was hurled at a Muslim woman as she waited at a Sydney Rd tram stop with her three children. In the other a man swerved at a Muslim woman and shouted: “F— off terrorist” while she was crossing the road carrying her baby. There are also reports of Muslim girls being spat at and abused by drivers.
Dutch ban on veil – ‘a victory for secularism and women’s rights’
“In a move applauded by all those seeking an end to religious influence in society the Dutch government has started the process of banning the burkha from all public places in the Netherlands. This follows on from similar rulings in Belgium. France enacted laws late last year to prevent religious symbology in schools and despite early objection from fundamentalist groups this has now become universal. Margret De Cuyper of the Den Haag women’s forum hailed it as a victory for a secular Dutch society and for women’s liberation from male formulated clothes of control. She said, ‘Women have lived for too long with clothes and standards decided for them by men, this is a victory’.”
Holland fears killings over ‘ban on burqa’
Yes, seriously, that’s the headline to a report in the Sunday Times. Matthew Campbell writes: “Holland’s Muslims have responded with outrage to government proposals to ban the burqa [in fact, any form of Islamic veil covering the face], and there are fears that Rita Verdonk, the minister behind the move, will be added to a list of ‘enemies of Islam’ targeted for assassination.”
Campbell adds: “For a country that has legalised gay marriage, prostitution, euthanasia and cannabis, Holland seems in no mood for compromise when it comes to applying tough laws on immigration.” This argument, notoriously promoted by Pim Fortuyn, that it is necessary to crack down on Muslim migrants in order to defend “our” progressive values, is becoming increasingly common. Even the BNP use it on occasion.
Teenage punks behind black hijabs
“The unsmiling girl in the black hijab defined her identity thus: ‘I am a Muslim of Arab origin, living within British society.’ Hadil, 18, could not attend a more racially integrated school than Quintin Kynaston in West London where, according to its Ofsted report, ‘the wealth of cultures and faiths is valued, respected and appreciated’.
“Hadil, along with a number of fellow pupils, had taken part in a documentary called ‘Young, British and Muslim’ and here she was up on stage, giving her views to an audience at the National Film Theatre. Yet in reply to the question ‘Do you feel British?’ Hadil shrugged and said: ‘I look at British culture and see no moral values which appeal to me.’
“And it was hard not to bristle, not to think unbecoming, angry thoughts such as: ‘Why endure our repulsive morality a moment longer? Wouldn’t you simply be happier in a Muslim country?'”
Janice Turner in the Times, 24 September 2005
See also Daniel Pipes blog, 24 September 2005
German state plans hijab ban for teachers
Female Muslim teachers in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia will be banned from wearing hijab at schools from next summer, according to a German press report. Officials in the State told Wednesday’s edition of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung that the hijab ban would take effect from August 2006, Reuters reported.
“Female and male teachers are not allowed to express any world views or any religious beliefs, which could disturb or endanger the peace at school,” North Rhine-Westphalia schools minister Barbara Sommer said. “That’s why we want to forbid (female) Muslim teachers at state schools from wearing headscarves.”
The type of cover-up freedom lovers need not fear
“Whenever the spotlight turns on the Muslim community, it is usually in relation to a negative act: terrorism, local crime or accusations of Islamic demagogy. Muslims seem to find themselves at the centre of every problem – the obscure or negative is magnified and, like in some grotesque circus show, Muslims become the ‘other’. Once again, Muslim women’s dress, and in particular the hijab, is under attack. Bronwyn Bishop labelled it an act of defiance, and then in the same breath opined that women who wear the hijab are as free as slaves.”
Amal Awad in the Sydney Morning Herald, 31 August 2005