Category Archives: Hijab

Australia: judge orders witness to remove niqab in court

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Australian judge has ruled that a Muslim woman must remove her full veil while giving evidence before a jury in a fraud case. The judge in Perth said she did not consider it appropriate that the witness appear with her face covered.

The prosecution said the woman – identified only as Tasneem – would feel uncomfortable without her niqab, which would affect her evidence. But the defence said the jury should be able to watch her facial expressions. The 36-year-old woman’s wish to wear the veil was a “preference”, said defence lawyer Mark Trowell QC and was “not an essential part of the Islamic faith”.

The woman is a witness in a case against the head of an Islamic school accused of gaining work funding by inflating student numbers. She has lived in Australia for seven years and has worn the niqab since the age of 17, only removing it in front of her family and male blood relatives.

BBC News, 19 August 2010

Disney restaurant worker files complaint over hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Imane Boudlal3

A Muslim woman who works as a hostess at a Disney-owned restaurant filed a discrimination complaint against the entertainment giant Wednesday, saying they have repeatedly sent her home without pay for refusing to remove her headscarf at work.

Imane Boudlal said she has worked as a hostess at Storyteller’s Café in Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa for two years and began wearing her hijab Sunday but was told she would have to remove it or take a job working out of public view.

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Dawkins compares the veil to a bin-liner, says he feels ‘visceral revulsion’ when he sees women wearing it

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Richard DawkinsThe outspoken atheist Professor Richard Dawkins has re-ignited the furore over the burka, describing it as a “full bin-liner thing”. The 69-year-old author and scientist told of his “visceral revulsion” when he sees women wearing the controversial Islamic clothing.

Professor Dawkins made the comments in an interview with Radio Times discussing his forthcoming documentary about the dangers of faith schools. Last night he stood by his remarks and told the Daily Mail: “I do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the oppression of women.”

Seyyed Ferjani, of the Muslim Association of Britain, said of Professor Dawkins’ comments: “I think it is ignorant and Islamaphobic. This kind of thing has been on the rise for some time. Britain is a diverse and free society. It is a woman’s choice if she wishes to wear a burka, a niqab or not. Why does it matter to this man what a woman is wearing? We should be encouraging respect and understanding for each other.”

It is not the first time Professor Dawkins, who is the author of books including The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, has attracted criticism for his views on Islam. In 2008, he said: “It’s almost impossible to say anything against Islam in this country, because you are accused of being racist or Islamophobic.”

Daily Mail, 10 August 2010

Unfortunately, accusations of racism and Islamophobia haven’t had the slightest restraining effect on Dawkins. His website recently featured a vile video rant against the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” in New York by UKIP-supporting “comedian” Pat Condell, of whom Dawkins (along with many BNP members) is a great admirer. Rejecting complaints about the video by visitors to his site, Dawkins wrote: “I think it is well arguable that Islam is the greatest man-made force for evil in the world today. Pat Condell is one of the few with the courage to say so.”

Schools and universities should have power to ban veil says Swedish education minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The leaders of Swedish schools and universities should be allowed to ban students from wearing clothes that cover their faces, including Islamic veils such as the full-body burqa and the full-face niqab, Education Minister Jan Bjorklund said Wednesday.

“Education is based on an interaction between teacher and students. You have to be able see each others’ faces,” Bjorklund said. “I think that it is questionable if the school can fulfil its task if a student wears clothing that covers the face, like the burqa and niqab.”

The Left Party’s education spokeswoman, Rossana Dinamarca, said the proposal would “force more girls with full-face veils to (religious) independent schools” and criticized the proposal as populistic, noting the upcoming elections in September.

DPA, 4 August 2010

Racist thug jailed for attack on Muslim woman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A racist thug who ripped off a Muslim woman’s religious veil and threw it on the ground was jailed for two years yesterday.

Brute William Baikie grabbed the veil from 26-year-old Anwar Alqahtani as she was on her way to catch a train from Glasgow’s Central Station. Miss Alqahtani, who wears the hijab to protect her modesty as part of her religion, had to use another piece of clothing to cover her face after the veil was ripped as Baikie pulled it from her. Baikie, 26, ran off but was later arrested by police after being identified on CCTV.

Miss Alqahtani, who had come to Scotland from Saudi Arabia to study for a masters degree, has quit her studies and is afraid to leave the house as a result of the attack.

Sentencing Baikie at Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Lindsay Wood told the racist what he did was an “absolute disgrace”. Sheriff Wood added: “The offence you committed was a shameful one. You are a man who has a number of racist convictions and you knew full well how offensive the act would have been to the lady.”

Daily Record, 27 July 2010

Hollobone could face legal action, warns Liberty

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philip HolloboneA Tory MP has been warned he could face legal action if he follows through on a threat to refuse to meet constituents wearing the veil.

Lawyers for Liberty have written to Philip Hollobone insisting that his stance is unlawful and that they “will be happy to represent any of your constituents that you refuse to meet because they are veiled”.

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Muslim women told to get off London bus because they were a ‘threat’ to passengers

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two Muslim women have claimed they were refused a bus ride because one had her face covered by a veil.

The 22-year-old students, of Slough, Berkshire, were in London and boarded a Metroline bus from Russell Square to Paddington on Tuesday. But they said when they presented their tickets the driver told them they were a “threat” to passengers and ordered them off the bus. An investigation has been started by the firm as a matter of “urgency”.

The pair, who have made a formal complaint to the bus company, have asked the BBC not to reveal their full names.

Yasmin, who was wearing a hijab, and Atoofa, dressed in a niqab – which covers the face – were in London to hand in university work and would usually have taken the Tube, but because Yasmin’s feet were hurting they opted to travel by bus.

Yasmin said at first she boarded the bus by mistake when it was not in service to ask if it was going to Paddington station, but was told by the driver to get off.

“My gut reaction was just to laugh because I thought it was hilarious to be told to get off the bus,” she said. “About 10 minutes later… the passengers started getting on. When I went forward to show my ticket he said, ‘Get off the bus’. I presumed he was still angry because I got on the bus before.

“He said, ‘I am not going to take you on the bus because you two are a threat.’ I realised it wasn’t due to me getting on the bus, this may be a racist attack.” The student said the driver told her and her friend that they were a “threat” to both him and his passengers.

She asked for his contact details but when he refused she began to film him with her mobile phone and he covered his face with a magazine. “I said, ‘it’s OK for you to cover your face on my recording but it’s not OK for my friend to cover her face out of choice?’ There was no point arguing with him, we got off the bus and by then my anger turned into emotion. I stood there and my gut reaction was to cry.”

Atoofa, who had her face covered by the veil, said she hoped the driver would be educated about why women wear the traditional Islamic dress, rather than being sacked. “I think more than anything, I would like him to understand why we wear it and I think I would like an apology,” she added. “I think being sacked is a whole other league. I want him to sit there and talk to me about why he felt the way he felt and maybe to understand where we are coming from.”

BBC News, 23 July 2010

Memorial to Marwa El-Sherbini vandalised

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Marwa El-Sherbini memorial

Vandals have attacked an art project erected in honor of Marwa El-Sherbini, a pregnant headscarved Egyptian woman who was murdered in a German court room, organizers said Friday.

The Citizen.Courage group, which sponsored the display in the eastern city of Dresden, said that a few knife-shaped columns used in the open-air show had been knocked over several times and signs explaining the project were stolen.

“Citizen.Courage assumes this was a malicious, politically motivated attempt to destroy the project,” group chairman Christian Demuth said in statement. To warn against everyday racism, we will not restore the destroyed installations. But we will continue the project.” A police spokeswoman said authorities had opened an investigation.

During a trial last July, a Russian-born defendant suddenly attacked Sherbini – who was Muslim and wore a headscarf – plunging an 18 centimetre kitchen knife at least 16 times into her while she was three-months pregnant with her second child. Her son, Mustafa, three years old at the time, watched her bleed to death at the courtroom.

Sherbini’s husband, Egyptian geneticist Elwy Okaz, rushed to her aid but was also stabbed repeatedly and then shot in the leg by a police officer confused about who was attacking whom.

The 28-year-old assailant, who was sentenced to life in prison, attacked her out of revenge after she pressed charges against him for calling her a “terrorist”, “Islamist” and “whore” during a dispute over a playground swing.

The killing, and the initially muted reaction of Germany’s politicians and media, sparked outrage in Sherbini’s home country, as well as in the wider Muslim world. Many newspapers dubbed her the “veil martyr” after her headscarf.

The “18 Stabs” installation, unveiled on the first anniversary of Sherbini’s death on July 1, featured 18 knife-shaped concrete pillars erected throughout the city with signs condemning racism and xenophobic violence.

AFP, 23 July 2010

Catalan mayor closes ‘too popular’ mosque, tells Muslims to ‘pray at home’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Spanish mayor has told Muslim worshippers to “pray at home” and closed the town’s mosque because it was too popular. Angel Ros, the socialist mayor of Lleida, in the northeastern region of Catalonia, complained that the mosque was too full and closed it on Wednesday until further notice.

The building, a former garage used to service trucks, was often filled with crowds exceeding a thousand people, the council said, when the authorised limit for the venue is 240. A new mosque is under construction on the outskirts of the town but work had been stalled because of a lack of financing during the economic crisis.

“The municipality has no obligation to provide places of worship,” Mr Ros said in response to complaints from the town’s Muslim population over the closure. “Those that wish can pray at home, as I do,” he added.

The move follows a recent ban on women wearing the burka or niqab in municipal building in the Catalan town. In June Lleida was the first town council in Spain to introduce a ban, which has since been adopted by half a dozen other councils, including Barcelona, the capital of the region.

Abdelwahab Houzi, the local imam, said the mosque closure had added to the Muslim community’s sense of “persecution” by authorities.

Daily Telegraph, 23 July 2010

Leicester: Muslim women who wear veils suffer rise in hostility and abuse

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim women who wear face veils say they are seeing a rising tide of hostility and abuse because of the way they dress. Women spoke out as police reported a sharp rise in crimes, ranging from verbal abuse to physical attacks, against Muslims in the past year.

Two women who wear the niqab, a veil which leaves only the eyes showing, said Leicester had become more “hostile” since the French Government said it planned to ban the garment and the burka, which covers the entire body.

The women also believe publicity surrounding Conservative MP Philip Hollobone’s decision to refuse to meet constituents wearing veils had deepened public hostility.

Mr Hollobone, an MP in Northamptonshire, also attempted to introduce a private member’s bill in the House of Commons to pave the way for a law similar to that being considered in France.

One of the women, a 29-year-old from Leicester’s Clarendon Park, said: “There is a more hostile than usual atmosphere at the moment. I have been called names like ”Taliban” and ”terrorist” and one man, who was drunk in the middle of the day, told me to go back to where I came from.

“I just want to live my life in accordance with my faith, I don’t see what harm I am doing by wearing the niqab.

“People talk about women who wear these garments being outside of society in some way. I was born and brought up in this country and don’t want to live anywhere else. I have been to university and I have a well-paid job, I live by the law and I love my family. How am I not taking part in society?”

Another woman, aged 32, from Evington, Leicester, said: “Women are saying that they feel intimidated by some of the comments they hear in the media or in the street. There seems to be this feeling now that women who choose to dress this way are some kind of threat to the British way of life.”

Police in Leicester have seen the number of cases of Muslims being verbally abused or physically assaulted rise in the past year. Between April 2008 and March 2009, officers in the city recorded 25 offences. In the following 12 months, it rose to 42.

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