Category Archives: Hijab

FIFA lifts ban on Iranian girls football team

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) overruled an earlier verdict banning Iran’s female footballers from observing Islamic code of dressing in the Olympic Games in Singapore, and allowed Iranian women footballers to wear Islamic dress during the competitions.

Earlier in March, FIFA had banned the Iranian women football squad wearing Hijab from participating in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which will be held from August 14 to 26 in Singapore.

Following the announcement, Head of Iran’s Football Federation Ali Kaffashian along with Member of the Federation’s International Relations Omid Jamali travelled to Switzerland to meet FIFA President Sepp Blater and FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke on April 14.

The Iranian side could convince Blater and Valcke that the Iranian girls’ new wearing would not violate FIFA rules, noting that the entire world should respect Muslims’ rights and consider Islamic rules and values as a crucial factor when dealing with the Muslim countries’ women football teams.

Following the discussions in Switzerland, FIFA wrote a letter to Kaffashian, announcing its agreement with the Iranian girls’ Islamic code of dressing.

In its letter, FIFA said that if the hat covers the hair without violating the game’s rules and the girl footballers can use it, participation of the Iranian girls in the Olympic competitions in Singapore will be unimpeded.

FIFA also ordered the relevant bodies to take all the requirements to register the Iranian under-15 female footballers, stressing that there is no problem for the participation of the Iranian girls in the Singapore Olympic games.

FARS news agency, 1 May 2010

German MEP calls for Europe-wide ban on veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Koch-MehrinAfter Belgium’s parliament voted to ban Islamic full-face veils, the German vice-president of the European Parliament has called for a ban of the burka throughout Europe.

Silvana Koch-Mehrin called the full-body veil an attack on the rights of women in a guest editorial in the Bild am Sonntagnewspaper. “I would like to see all forms of the burka banned in Germany and in all of Europe,” wrote the politician, a member of Germany‘s pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP).

She called the burka a “mobile prison,” saying that those who veil women take away their faces and therefore their personalities. “The complete veiling of women is a blatant acknowledgement of values that we here in Europe do not share,” she wrote.

The Local, 1 May 2010

Veil ban is part of campaign to stigmatise French Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims in France say the government’s plan to fine women for wearing the Islamic veil is one in a string of political ploys that stigmatise them and pander to anti-Islamic prejudice.

Extracts from the law leaked on Friday propose to fine women 150 euros (200 dollars) for wearing a full-face veil in public, while anyone who forces a woman to wear one would face a year in jail and fine of 15,000 euros.

Some say giving police the power to fine Muslim women in the street is part of a worrying trend, after the government’s “national identity debate” and its targeting last week of a man accused of polygamy and radicalism.

Amid the polygamy controversy, bullets were fired at a mosque in Istres, southern France, and a halal butcher in Marseille. A French Muslim group, CFCM, said this signalled “a rise of racism and Islamophobia.”

“It’s getting tougher and tougher. It’s as if people have had something against us for a long time and now that the politicians are saying it, they are letting it all out,” said Mamadou Alpha Diallo, 73, outside a Paris mosque.

Muslims in France “have the impression that Islam is on trial,” added Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist and high-profile commentator on Muslim affairs.

AFP, 30 April 2010

Anger at Belgian face veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslims, academics and human rights groups have hit out at a looming public ban in Belgium on the full face veil, following a decision in the country’s parliament to make the wearing of the article of clothing illegal.

“I think they’re trying to wind us up,” Souad Barlabi, a young woman wearing a simple veil, said outside the Grand Mosque in Brussels, the Belgian capital, around the time of Friday prayers. “We feel under attack,” she said.

Amnesty International, a human rights group, said the measures must be reviewed by the upper house of parliament as they raise concerns about whether Belgium is in breach of international rights laws.

“A complete ban on the covering of the face would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear  the burqa or the niqab,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty’s expert on discrimination in Europe. “The Belgian move to ban full face veils, the first in Europe, sets a dangerous precedent.”

In Le Soir, a French newspaper, Michael Privot, an Islamic scholar, said Belgium “now joins Iran and Saudi Arabia in that exclusive but unenviable rare club of countries to impose a dress code in the public domain”.

Al Jazeera, 30 April 2010

Ed Balls jeered by BNP supporters for rejecting veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ed Balls at Morley hustingsSchools Secretary Ed Balls received a frosty reception from voters as he went head to head with the British National Party in a soapbox debate in West Yorkshire today.

Mr Balls, who has a notional majority in the seat of Morley and Outwood, was jeered and booed by some members of the public in Morley town centre as he answered questions.

Four other candidates – Chris Beverley for the BNP, Anthony Calvert for the Conservatives, James Monaghan for the Liberal Democrats, and David Daniel for the UK Independence Party – joined Mr Balls as they mounted soapboxes to address voters directly. A microphone was passed round the crowd during the 40-minute event, organised by The Independent newspaper, and questions were asked on issues including schools, the economy, jobs and immigration.

A question posed from a male member of the crowd regarding Belgium’s decision to ban the burka led to one of the biggest responses from the audience. He asked the candidates: “They’re doing this (banning the burka) in the interest of women’s rights, social inclusion, anti-terrorism and security. What I want to know is which of the parties are going to have the gumption to take an issue like that and really address it?”

Mr Balls answered: “We have people here who are Christian and Muslim and Jewish, and I think British values of tolerance and fair play and mutual respect mean that you don’t say to people that because of their particular religion, or the colour of their skin that they are second class.”

Some members of the audience clapped and cheered in support of Mr Balls while others booed and held aloft BNP posters.

Yorkshire Post, 30 April 2010

See also BBC News, 30 April 2010

Belgian parliament votes to ban wearing of veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Belgian lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a bill to ban wearing the full Islamic face veil in public, a move that could make Belgium the first European country to make the practice a criminal offence.

The draft law, cast as a security measure by proponents, was overwhelmingly backed by 136 lawmakers. Just two abstained.

The bill, which would ban all clothing that covers or partially covers the face, could become law in the coming months as the upper house, or Senate, is not expected to block it.

However, the collapse of Belgium’s coalition government last week and the prospect of an imminent election could cause a delay because parliament would have to be dissolved.

Belgium’s French-speaking liberals, who proposed the veil law, argued that an inability to identify people who have hidden their faces presents a security risk and that the veil was a “walking prison” for women.

The bill’s chief promoter, Daniel Bacquelaine, said local mayors could suspend the ban during festivities such as Carnival when people traditionally wear costumes, including masks.

Reuters, 29 April 2010

See also BBC News, 29 April 2010

Poll: half of Europeans oppose headscarf in schools

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Just over half of Europeans surveyed opposed allowing Islamic headscarves in schools but backed the presence of crucifixes in classrooms, according to a Spanish study obtained by AFP Wednesday.

A total 52.6 per cent of those polled in 12 European Union member states along were “opposed” or “totally opposed” to the use of the garment in schools, according to the study carried out by the research department of BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank. Opposition to the veil was highest in Bulgaria with 84.3 per cent against and France with 68.7 per cent opposed and it was lowest in Poland with only 25.6 per cent against followed by Denmark with 28.1 per cent opposed.

By contrast 54.4 per cent of those polled were in favour of classrooms displaying crucifixes. In Spain and Italy, two nations with a strong Roman Catholic tradition, support for the use of crucifixes in classrooms stood at 69.9 per cent and 49.3 per cent respectively. Support for the use of crucifixes in classrooms shot up to 77 per cent in Britain and 78.8 per cent in Denmark.

AFP, 28 April 2010

Jack Straw apologises for 2006 ‘veil’ comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Take Off Your VeilAs the burqa debate raged in France this weekend, with the imposition of the first instant fine to a woman found wearing the burqa in a public place in Nantes, here in the UK former Justice Minister, Jack Straw, publicly apologised for having sparked controversy in October 2006 over making public his views that he would prefer Muslim women not to wear a face veil – or niqab – when visiting his MP’s surgery.

At a pre-election hustings event organised in Blackburn yesterday (Sunday 25th April) by ENGAGE, Jack Straw, addressing a packed hall of local Muslim residents, expressed his regret at having caused a negative media storm which he acknowledged may have adversely impacted on the Muslim community.

He said: “To be blunt, if I had realised the scale of publicity that they [his comments] received in October 2006, I wouldn’t have made them and I am sorry that it has caused problems and I offer that apology.

“Can I just say, this is about an issue of communication (you understand). I wasn’t raising it to say it [the burqa] should be banned – quite the opposite. Let me say, I’m not responsible for those in France or Germany or in this country pursuing this. That is their business. I am fundamentally opposed to what they are doing.

“But if you ask me the specific question: Do I regret the fact that it [my comments] had then got taken round the world and taken out of context? Yes of course I do and I go on seeing people – Muslim women, wearing the full veil in my constituency advice surgery. I wouldn’t dream of treating them other than with respect and I think they know from me that I do give them respect and I give them as much help as I give anybody else whatever their faith. And I am really glad to have had that opportunity to clear that up.”

ENGAGE press release, 26 April 2010

See also the Daily Mail, which reports Islamophobic rentaquote Tory MP Philip Davies as saying:

“This seems like a shameless effort to muster up some Muslim votes in his constituency. Jack Straw was more than happy to milk the publicity at the time, but now he has realised that his comments have not gone down too well with is own constituents. It is pretty desperate stuff to be apologising on the eve of a General Election when he has had plenty of opportunity to do so in the past.”

This is the same Philip Davies whose response to a 2007 legal ruling that Muslim women would be allowed to wear the veil in court was: “People are entitled to see what is going on. All this pussy-footing around, judges have no comprehension of the damage they’re doing for community cohesion by coming out with this barmy stuff.”

Europe ‘too soft’ on Muslims, says Jerusalem Post

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Jerusalem Post offers its take on moves across Europe to ban the wearing of the veil:

Those who support such legislation realize that an easygoing multiculturalism works only when there are basic shared values and a willingness to integrate. But European multiculturalism has deteriorated into rudderless moral relativism and a pusillanimous reluctance to criticize radical Islamic customs for fear of being branded an Islamophobe.

Sadly, some Jewish leaders, such as Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi of Moscow and leader of the Conference of European Rabbis, have helped foster such unfounded fears. “Sixty-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz,” wrote Goldschmidt in the New York Times in February, in an op-ed opposing the idea of bans on the burka, “Europeans can permit themselves to be squeamish about how things start and how things, if left unabated, can end.” As a rabbi, he added, “I am made uncomfortable when any religious expression is restricted, not only my own.”

Goldschmidt has got it wrong. Europeans have a right to feel uncomfortable. But not, as Goldschmidt argues, because Europeans are being too hard on Muslims. Rather, because they are being too soft.

French government continues to incite Islamophobia over veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The fining of a French Muslim woman for driving whilst wearing a niqab, or face veil, has somersaulted, in the space of a weekend, from political embarrassment to political windfall for President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Controversy raged yesterday after the Government alleged that the husband of the fined woman was a suspected polygamist and social security fraud with possible links to an extreme Islamist organisation. The interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, who made the allegations in a letter released to the press, was accused by moderate Muslim groups and left-wing politicians of cynical “exploitation” of the affair for political gain.

The media spotlight instantly switched over the weekend to Anne’s husband, Lies Hebbadj, 35, an Algerian-born butcher and taxi operator, said to be living in three bungalows near Nantes with his 12 children and four or maybe three, fully-veiled women.

In a letter to the immigration minister, which was released to the press, Mr Hortefeux said that “according to information at my disposal”, Mr Hebbadj belonged to a radical Islamist group called Tabligh. The minister said that Mr Hebbadj was “thought to be living in a polygamous situation with four women”. Each woman was “believed to be” claiming benefit as a single mother.

Mr Hortefeux said that he had asked for an investigation into “possible polygamy and social security fraud”. He urged the immigration minister to consider action to revoke Mr Hebbadj’s French nationality (acquired when he married Anne in 1999).

By associating the veil with extremist movements, polygamy and fraud, the government evidently hopes to seize control of a “burqa” debate which had threatened to spin out of its control. It was announced last week, after months of indecision, that the Government would use emergency procedures to push through a complete ban on the burqa (full-length veil) or niqab (detachable face veil) in public places by July.

According to an opinion poll yesterday, only 33 per cent of French people support a ban. Another 31 per cent approve of banning burqas and niqabs from public buildings like hospitals and schools. The decision to push ahead with a full ban – against official advice – has been widely interpreted in the press as an attempt by Mr Sarkozy to prop up his failing presidency by pleasing his core, hard-right supporters.

Hence the scarcely concealed Government glee at the alleged activities of Mr Hebbadj, the husband of the veiled driver of Nantes. In a statement yesterday, the combined mosques of Nantes said that all Muslims were being “stigmatised” by the “exploitation” of an “insignificant event, which is not representative of the Muslim majority”.

The mayor of Nantes, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who is the leader of the Socialist main opposition group in the National Assembly, accused the Government of “dramatising and exploiting” the affair. “This man’s situation has been known for some time to the services of the State … Why was nothing done about him? Why are they pretending to discover the facts now?” Mr Ayrault asked.

Independent, 26 April 2010

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