Category Archives: Hijab

Muslim woman wearing niqab is attacked on Tyne and Wear Metro

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A young Muslim woman has spoken out after being attacked on the Metro for wearing her burka and face veil.

Yasmin Bint Shafiq, 22, was travelling on the Tyne and Wear Metro close to Manors Station when a man tried to pull her face veil from her head. Other passengers were visibly uncomfortable with the situation but noone stepped in to help her.

Yasmin, from Whitley Bay, said: “There was a person behind me who I didn’t notice. There was a man about late twenties who came and sat next to me, he goes ‘I want to see your face.’ I didn’t say anything so he put his arm around me, grabbed me and tried to pull, physically pull, my headscarf and my face veil off. His friends had to come and pull him off.”

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‘I don’t want any veiled women in my town’, says French mayor

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Orty Gym owner Lynda Ellabou poses in font of her new all-women's gym on the outskirts of Paris, in Le RaincyLE RAINCY, France — A pink and orange all-women’s gym has become an unlikely focus of a very French row over Muslim integration, secularism and what some view as blatant populism in the run-up to France’s municipal elections.

The gym, which opened last month in the up-market Paris suburb of Le Raincy, is owned by a French Muslim couple who say their religion and appearance – she wears a headscarf and he a long beard – are the reason the mayor wants to shut them down.

The squabble has erupted five months before conservative mayor Eric Raoult, who says safety is his only concern, seeks re-election in nationwide municipal polls in which the anti-immigrant National Front is expected to gain ground.

“‘I don’t want any veiled women in my town,’ he told us,” said gym manager Nadia El Gendouli, who sports a piercing in her nose and plunging neckline. “‘You’re a fundamentalist!’ he told me.”

At the town hall on Thursday, Raoult denied the allegation that he did not want women wearing Muslim veils in Le Raincy. “These are fundamentalists, they lie!” he shouted. “They consider because they’re Muslims they’re victims and they consider they have more rights,” he said.

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EDL ‘foot soldier’ fined for racist assault on Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tracy DaviesA woman from Charlton has been fined £150 pounds and ordered to pay £100 compensation after assaulting a woman wearing a burka in an unprovoked attack.

Tracy Davies has been found guilty of racially aggravated common assault. Her victim – a 55-year-old Somali woman – was shopping with her daughter in Woolwich when the 46 year old from Charlton Lane shouted racist remarks before hitting and punching her several times. Davies denied having carried out the attack – but a number of witnesses claimed otherwise.

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Muslim women in hijabs increasingly the target of abuse since Quebec charter was introduced

Posted on by Bob Pitt

R des centres de femmes du Québec

For a project that has been framed by its authors as an important step toward equality of the sexes, the Charter of Quebec Values is managing to upset a lot of women.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of the organization representing provincial women’s centres to issue a stark warning about the damage the charter proposals are causing before they even become law. The group, R des centres des femmes du Québec, said that the debate over the charter, which would ban such religious symbols as the Muslim hijab and Jewish kippa from the public service, is provoking violence against Muslim women.

At a meeting last week, the organization representing 97 centres across the province heard of dozens of recent incidents in which Muslim women wearing headscarves were targeted. “Women are being shoved, insults, denigrated,” the group said in a statement. “Some have even been spit on in the face. The impacts of the debate over the charter are undeniable.”

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Appeals court overturns discrimination judgement against Abercrombie & Fitch

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A federal appeals court has dismissed claims by an Oklahoma woman who says she was not hired by retailer Abercrombie & Fitch because her headscarf conflicted with the company’s dress code, which has since been changed.

A federal judge in 2011 sided with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Samantha Elauf. The EEOC alleged that Elauf wasn’t hired in 2008 at an Abercrombie store in Tulsa’s Woodland Hills Mall because her hijab violated the retailer’s “Look Policy.”

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62% in Quebec oppose firing public servants for wearing religious symbols

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Montreal protest against PQ charter
Demonstration against the ‘Charter of Values’ in Montreal last month

A majority of Quebecers – 62 per cent – oppose firing public servants who insist on wearing religious symbols at work, according to a poll conducted for CTV News.

The Parti Quebecois’ proposed Charter of Quebec Values would ban public employees from wearing prominent religious symbols, such as headscarves and turbans, in the workplace – although it has not said what the consequences of defying the charter would be.

The Ipsos Reid poll found that 38 per cent of Quebecers agreed with, and 62 per cent disagreed, with the statement: “Public servants like teachers, health care workers and others should be fired from their jobs if they insist on wearing religious symbols and clothing at work.”

Across Canada, 72 per cent opposed the statement, while 28 per cent agreed.

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Minnesota woman ejected from event for being Muslim

Posted on by Bob Pitt

On Saturday, September 28, a Muslim woman reported to the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) that she was physically escorted out of the Chisholm Baptist Church for attending the Annual Hibbing Area Women’s Retreat.

CAIR-MN says it will pursue legal options if any federal or state anti-discrimination laws were violated.

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