Category Archives: Hijab

German state imposes veil ban on civil servants

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Civil servants in the central German state of Hesse are now forbidden from wearing burqas. The announcement came Wednesday after a city employee in Frankfurt communicated that she would not reveal her face when she returned from maternity leave.

“Civil servants may not be veiled, especially those who have contact with citizens,” Hesse’s Interior Minister Boris Rhein said Wednesday after the woman’s attorney and the city agreed she would not return to work on Tuesday and would remain home until the situation was sorted out. Rhein added that, while a headscarf was allowed, the donning of a burqa could be perceived as “hostile to Western values.”

The city of Frankfurt had told the mother of four – who previously did not wear a burqa to work – that she must choose between the veil and her job. City staff department head Markus Frank justified the decision, saying “our employees show their faces. That is a basic requirement for building trust.”

Deutsche Welle, 2 February 2011

Brussels: court acquits Muslim woman charged with wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A court in the Brussels borough of Etterbeek has acquitted a Muslim woman who was taken to court for wearing the niqab, local media reports said today. The magistrate ruled that a fine for wearing the niqab was not in proportion to the offence.

Last year Belgium’s lower house of parliament passed a legislation banning the full veil, or burqa, but because of the current political crisis in the country the bill is yet to go before the Senate for its approval.

It is estimated that only about 30 Muslim women wear the burqa in Belgium which has a population of a about 450,000 Muslims.

KUNA, 31 January 2011

See also “We need a law to ban the burqa”, Islam in Europe, 31 January 2011

Update:  See “Local ‘burqa ban’ violates human rights (according to Belgian judge)”, Strasbourg Observers, 16 February 2011

Dutch school can impose headscarf restrictions, equal opportunities commission rules

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A secondary school in Utrecht was within its rights to set demands on how Muslim girls wear their headscarves, the equal opportunities commission said on Tuesday.

However, the commission said the ruling only applies to pupils who started at the school this academic year, after the rule was introduced, the Telegraaf reports.

In June, the Gerrit Rietveld College told girls who wear Islamic headscarves they must make sure at least 90% of their face is visible. In particular, headscarves should not cover their eyebrows and chin, which makes communication with teachers difficult, the school said.

Some 50 pupils refused to comply and the school itself took the issue to the commission.

Dutch News, 25 January 2011

See also RNW, 25 January 2011

Idaho: Muslim harassment case referred to district court

Posted on by Bob Pitt

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) – A south-central Idaho judge has ruled there is sufficient evidence to move to district court the case of a man accused of threatening a Muslim woman at a Twin Falls Wal-Mart.

Fifth District Senior Judge Roy Holloway on Friday ruled the case against 42-year-old John C. Larsen can go forward. Larsen faces a felony malicious harassment charge.

Police say that on Dec. 22 Larsen approached the woman, who was wearing a traditional Muslim head covering, in the store and asked if she was Muslim. When the woman said yes, police say Larsen told her he had served in Iraq and had friends killed there and that she didn’t belong in the United States.

Prosecutors on Friday submitted as evidence a gun confiscated from Larsen by a Twin Falls police officer who responded to the store.

Associated Press, 22 January 2011

Maryland: basketball player sidelined for wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A middle school girl was kept out of the first half of a basketball game Saturday because a referee ruled her religious headscarf, called a hijab, was a safety hazard.

Thirteen-year-old Maheen Haq of Hagerstown, Md. was sidelined until Lou Bachtell, the Mid-Maryland Girls Basketball League regional director, arrived to the court at halftime, called league President Jim Shannon and got an exemption approved.

Haq’s parents were upset, though they didn’t protest the referee’s decision. Other parents watching the game volunteered to pull their daughters out of the game and walk out in protest, but Haq’s mother Anila, declined the offer. “My daughter’s heart was broken and I didn’t want to break other hearts as well,” the mother said.

Haq’s parents had to agree to assume liability for any injuries that might occur from their daughter’s traditional Muslim headscarf, before she would be allowed to play, Shannon said.

League coordinator Daphnie Campbell said the official was “right to make that decision” to keep her out of the game because headscarves could be dangerous in sports if not properly secured. “If a child’s hand comes down and grabs it, it very possibly could snap her neck or break the other person’s hand,” Campbell said.

Campbell said she will meet with Haq’s parents Saturday to sign off on a letter stating that they will assume responsibility for any injuries that could occur because of the hijab.

“I am going to approve it that she is able to play in any game that she wants to play in. No questions,” Campbell said. At the spring coaches meeting Campbell said she will re-evaluate the uniform rules. “I really don’t see that as an issue,” she said. “We’re probably going to see more kids with these things on their heads because of their religion.”

ABC News, 19 January 2011

Catalan court suspends veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Catalunya High Court has suspended the ban on the Burkha in public places imposed by Lleida city council in October. The verdict, passed on Tuesday, January 12, says the ban will be lifted until a decision has been made by a judge on the appeal put forward by the Muslim association Watani.

On October 8, 2010, the city council forbade the wearing of not only Burkhas but also other Muslim headgear such as the niqaband the hiyab – which only cover the wearer’s hair – in any public building. This means indoor markets, public transport, community centres and council-owned buildings. When the prohibition came into full effect on December 9, it made Lleida the first town in Spain to have taken such a radical step.

But members of Watani say this is discrimination on religious grounds, since many women choose to wear niqabs and hiyabs, rather than being forced to by their husbands or male relatives. Watani’s lawyer, Carlos Antolí, believes the association has a strong case on these grounds.

thinkSPAIN, 17 January 2011

Netherlands: Catholic school discriminates with headscarf ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Catholic high school in Volendam is guilty of discrimination on religious grounds for banning a Muslim pupil from wearing a headscarf, the equal opportunities commission said on Friday.

The girl started wearing a headscarf this school year and was banned from attending lessons, prompting her father to make a complaint.

The commission said school pupils should, in principle, be free to wear a headscarf, Jewish skullcap or Christian cross.

Dutch News, 7 January 2011

Amsterdam police chief will not order his officers to arrest women wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Amsterdam police chief Bernard Welten will not order his officers to arrest women wearing a burqa when the government introduces a ban, he told a tv show.

Police officers should always be sensible, Welten said. “I do not always consider myself an instrument of the government who should immediately do what I am told”, he is quoted as saying. It is “a very complicated dilemma”, he said, adding that the role of the police is to protect freedom, equality and justice.

Hero Brinkman, a former policeman and MP for the anti-Islam PVV told the Telegraaf Welten’s comments are unacceptable. The police should be subject to the government’s will, he said, “otherwise we live in a banana republic”.

Dutch News, 5 January 2011

Update:  See “Coalition furious at police chief’s burqa comments”, Dutch News, 5 January 2011

Non-storm over Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘burka’ stunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Prats in niqabsThe pathetic decision by Jeremy Clarkson and his co-host Richard Hammond to dress in niqabs during a Top Gear programme from Syria (this is what passes for humour in such circles) has provoked an outbreak of mass Muslim outrage, if the right-wing populist press is to be believed.

Yesterday’s Daily Mail featured a lengthy article headlined “Top Gear stars cause religious row after dressing up in burkas on Boxing Day special” and the Daily Star went with “Clarkson in Burka gear storm”, while the Daily Express warned of “Protest fears over Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear stars in burkhas”.

Today the story has been taken up across the world, in countries where Top Gear presumably (if inexplicably) enjoys an audience. A report in Australia’s Herald Sun is headed “Top Gear burka sketch sparks outrage” and the Sydney Morning Herald has “Top Gear stars cause row after burqa-style stunt”. In South Africa the Independent Online covers the story as “Top Gear slammed for burka stunt”, while the Hindustan Times opts for “Top Gear stars spark religious row”.

But even a cursory examination of the Mail and Star reports reveals that this is an entirely confected controversy. Not a single leading Muslim organisation or individual in the UK has even bothered to comment on the issue, still less express outrage. The papers were reduced to approaching Anjem Choudary, the head of a tiny group of nutters who are repudiated by the entire British Muslim community, to ask for a quote. Needless to say, he obliged: “The burka is a symbol of our religion and people should not make jokes about it in any way.” And the story is padded out by citing a handful of comments culled from Twitter and internet discussion forums.

We had the same nonsense inflicted on us last July when the Mail carried a story headlined “Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson sparks fury over ‘burka babes’ underwear joke” (now amended to “Jeremy Clarkson outrages viewers by announcing on Top Gear he’d seen saucy underwear beneath Muslim woman’s burka”). In that case the “outrage” consisted of seven complaints to the BBC and a tweet by Lily Allen.

This is of course all part of a right-wing narrative about intolerant Muslims reacting with “fury” to any slight against their faith. In reality, it seems clear that the Muslim community, like the writer of this post, find it difficult to work themselves up into a state of indignation over the puerile antics of a man widely dismissed as a reactionary sexist bore.

Dutch may introduce veil ban as early as 2011, says Wilders

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Netherlands could ban the burqa, the full-body covering worn by some Muslim women, as soon as next year, Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders told Reuters in an interview Thursday.

Wilders’ populist Freedom Party is the third largest in parliament and provides crucial support to the minority ruling coalition in exchange for the government taking a tougher line on Islam and immigration from non-Western countries.

His party has grown in popularity largely because of his outspoken criticism of Islam, which he describes as “a violent ideology.”

“There are not too many people who are willing to fight for this cause. It’s a big responsibility. It’s not only a Dutch problem, it’s a problem of the West,” said Wilders.

He has been charged with inciting hatred against Muslims for comparing Islam to Nazism. The case is due to start over again following a request for new judges.

“We are not a single issue party but the fight against a fascist ideology Islam is for us of the utmost importance,” said Wilders, who argues his comments about Islam are protected by freedom of speech.

Wilders said immigration from Muslim countries “is very dangerous to the Netherlands. We believe our country is based on Christianity, on Judaism, on humanism, and we believe the more Islam we get, the more it will not only threaten our culture and our own identity but also our values and our freedom.”

The burqa ban, which his party agreed as part of a pact with the minority coalition, is due to come into force within four years and possibly as soon as next year or 2012, he said.

With no clear winner in the elections in June, Wilders emerged as a kingmaker and won considerable influence for his Freedom Party over government policy. He promised support for the minority Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition in return for a tougher line on Islam and immigration, especially from non-Western, or predominantly Muslim countries.

Reuters, 16 December 2010