The candidacy of New Anti-capitalist Party activist Ilham Moussaïd caused controversy in France because she chooses to wear a hijab. She spoke to Jim Wolfreys about challenging capitalism and Islamophobia.
See also Tariq Ali’s analysis in Counterpunch, 25 February 2010
A ban on headscarves for city council workers and in all institutions and clubs which get local authority money will be the most important point in the PVV’s negotiations to join governing coalitions in Almere and the Hague, says party leader Geert Wilders.
Speaking to RTL news, Wilders said the ban would be central to talks to form new local authority executives in the only two cities where the party is contesting the March 3 local elections. The ban will apply to “all council offices and all other institutions and clubs which get even one cent of council money,” he said.
The PVV is tipped to emerge as the biggest party in Almere and second biggest in the Hague.
Wilders brought up the ban again in a speech to supporters in Almere, where he entered the room to the Rocky theme tune Eye of the Tiger.
The ban will not apply to other religious items such as Christian crosses and Jewish skull caps because these are symbols of our own Dutch culture, Wilders said in his speech, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.
School bus drivers have been accused of racism after failing to stop for pupils wearing Muslim hijabs.
Young girls have claimed they are being bullied on board for dressing in the traditional veil which covers the head. To avoid trouble, “cowardly” drivers are allegedly ignoring pupils who wait at bus stops wearing the headscarf.
Following a police investigation, officers will now be drafted on to board the buses to protect the students from “racist” taunts of other passengers.
The problems centre on Merseytravel and pupils attending West Derby’s Holly Lodge Girls’ College in Merseyside, where 10 per cent of the 11,274 11 to 18-year-old students are from ethnic minorities.
Members of the Muslim community said the issue was a long-running one. Amina Ismail, who works at Liverpool John Moores University, was approached by the victims. She said: “They said people driving past were being abusive because they were wearing the hijab.”
Ms Ismail said bus drivers refusing to stop were “cowardly” and that “they should not push their own personal prejudices on young people”. She urged people to “see past the scarf or skin colour and look beyond this”.
A Muslim woman has lodged a complaint with federal officials after she said she was fired from her job at a San Mateo clothing store for refusing to remove her hijab, or head scarf.
Hani Khan, 19, of Foster City said she was fired Monday at the Hollister clothing store at the Hillsdale Shopping Center. She was dismissed a week after a district manager visited the store, called her into a meeting and said she was not supposed to wear the scarf while at work, said Khan, who is of Indian and Pakistani descent.
A representative from human resources joined the meeting by phone, and Khan said she had been told that she was in violation of the store’s “look policy.”
“I thought it was quite unfair,” Khan said in an interview. “It was really surprising, especially in the Bay Area, because everybody’s so open-minded and accepting of everybody. It’s really surprising to see blatant discrimination against someone who is of an Islamic state who is wearing a hijab.”
Khan contacted the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group. On Tuesday, the organization filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Abercrombie & Fitch, which operates Hollister stores.
Zahra Billoo, a spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Khan’s firing was “unconscionable.” “Firing someone explicitly for a religious reason or practice is, in our view, against the law,” Billoo said.
In September, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Abercrombie & Fitch for allegedly discriminating against a 17-year-old Muslim in Oklahoma by refusing to hire her because she wore a hijab. The case is pending.
San Francisco Chronicle, 26 February 2010
See also Tracy Clark-Flory, “Abercrombie hates your hijab”, Salon.com, 25 February 2010
And “Fired Calif. Muslim Abercrombie employee threatened”, CAIR news release, 25 February 2010
A Muslim woman has lodged a complaint with federal officials after she said she was fired from her job at a San Mateo clothing store for refusing to remove her hijab, or head scarf.
Hani Khan, 19, of Foster City said she was fired Monday at the Hollister clothing store at the Hillsdale Shopping Center. She was dismissed a week after a district manager visited the store, called her into a meeting and said she was not supposed to wear the scarf while at work, said Khan, who is of Indian and Pakistani descent.
A representative from human resources joined the meeting by phone, and Khan said she had been told that she was in violation of the store’s “look policy.”
“I thought it was quite unfair,” Khan said in an interview. “It was really surprising, especially in the Bay Area, because everybody’s so open-minded and accepting of everybody. It’s really surprising to see blatant discrimination against someone who is of an Islamic state who is wearing a hijab.”
The former French justice minister, Rachida Dati, has condemned the wearing of the burka, saying that it “does not correspond” to European values.
Ms Dati, the first person of North African descent to serve in the French cabinet, is in the UK to visit the Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency.
In a rare interview, she told Today programme reporter Zubeida Malik that “it’s important to remind what helps citizens live together and have a common destiny and living together and having a common destiny means having principles and values in common.
“And it’s true that the burka does not correspond neither to our values nor to our principles whether French or British and not even European. So it is important to say no to this expression that is not a religious expression.”
Ms Dati rejected suggestions that banning the burka and other face veils would make them more popular. “We have to remember that often women who wear the burka are either doing it out of ignorance or others are motivated by an activism linked to the creation of a new identity,” she said.
“And to those for whom it represents the expression of an identity, it is important to say that in our countries there can’t be any confrontation of identities. There is one single identity based upon common values and principles shared by our countries.”
See also “French politician defends veil ban call on trip to Blackburn”, Lancashire Telegraph, 19 February 2010
The Guardian of all papers endorses the myth of the “hijab gates” in Brick Lane. Even the Daily Express had the honesty to at least quote the architect, David Gallagher, who was responsible for designing the arches, as saying:
“We were briefed to design something that celebrates the demographic changes of the area. The arches were not designed to look like hijabs. Huguenot and Jewish women wore headscarves. The arches are just modern curves and they will have symbols on them reflecting the different immigrant communities. Having the Star of David on them is one option we have considered, but no decision has been made yet.”
Update: See also “Tracey Emin leads protest at ‘hijab gates’ for Brick Lane”, Evening Standard, 16 February 2010
Further update: The relevant section of the Design and Access Statement can be consulted here.
Another update: See Lutfur Rahman, “These are not ‘hijab gates’ – they represent the whole community”, Guardian, 26 February 2010
Olivier Besancenot, the postman-turned-revolutionary at the helm of France’s anti-capitalist movement, has been fiercely criticised from all sides of the political spectrum for fielding a headscarf-wearing candidate in forthcoming elections.
Ilham Moussaid, a 21-year-old Muslim woman who describes herself as “feminist, secular and veiled”, is running for the far-left New Anti-Capitalist party (NPA) in the south-eastern region of Avignon. But, despite her insistence that there is no contradiction between her clothing and her political role, Moussaid’s candidacy in the regional vote due in March has angered other feminists and politicians.
In an echo of the controversy raised by recent moves to ban the full, face-covering veil in public places such as schools, hospitals and buses, critics have said that the young activist’s headscarf, which conceals only her hair, goes against values of laïcité – secularism – and women’s rights.
Today, in a sign of how deep concerns are running, a leading feminist group announced it would file an official complaint against the NPA’s list of candidates in the Vaucluse département to protest against what it called an “anti-secular, anti-feminist and anti-republican” stunt.
“In choosing to endorse ‘open’ laïcité, the NPA is perverting the values of the Republic and suggesting we reread them in a manner which conforms with regressive visions of women,” said the Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissives) association in a statement.
Others have expressed their shock at Besancenot’s attempt to field a candidate who sees no problem with making an overt statement about her religion in the public sphere, a practice considered taboo.
Immigrants should sign a “no burka” contract before being allowed to live in France, the country’s families minister has said.
It would be added to an “integration agreement” that all newcomers already have to commit to, which also bans forced marriages and polygamy.
Nadine Morano said: “Equality between men and women is a fundamental principle of French society. “This applies to polygamy, forced marriages, female mutilation and the full-face veil.”
Her proposal came at a government conference yesterday following a three-month debate on national identity. Last month a government committee said women who wear the garment should be barred from using public transport and outlawed from public buildings like schools and hospitals.
Ms Morano has the backing of many prominent MPs in her call to have immigrants who wear burkas banned from staying in France.
French interior minister Brice Hortefeux said in December that both women who wear veils and their husbands should be “systematically refused” French residents’ permits. And President Nicolas Sarkozy has branded face veils “a sign of debasement” and said they were not welcome in France.
Banning women from wearing the burka on the streets of Britain would be a waste of police time, Justice Secretary Jack Straw said today.
He told MPs he did not think police should be instructed to remove the garments from women who wore them for “religious or cultural reasons”. Mr Straw, who has in the past raised concerns about Muslim women wearing the veil, said he would “strongly recommend against a change in the law”.
At Commons question time he said: “All of us may have views about the wearing of the burka, but I do not believe that this is a matter which should be the subject of the criminal law in which we were expecting the police to remove these items of apparel from women who choose for religious or cultural reasons to wear them. That should have no part of the system of law in the United Kingdom.”