Category Archives: Women

New study reveals true extent of anti-Muslim abuse directed at veiled women

Posted on by Bob Pitt

9781137356147.inddA new study has found the true extent to which veiled women bear the brunt of anti-Muslim abuse in the UK. Led by the University of Leicester it offers a unique insight into the experiences of veiled Muslim women as victims of Islamophobia, and the impact of this victimisation upon their families and wider Muslim communities.

Islamophobia, Victimisation and the Veil is a new book by Irene Zempi and Neil Chakraborti from the University of Leicester.

Irene said: “In a post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are vulnerable to Islamophobic attacks in public because they are easily identifiable as Muslims. As with other forms of hate crime, Islamophobic victimisation falls under the police and local authority ‘radar’. The fact that it is such an under-reported phenomenon and under-researched topic means that victims of Islamophobia often suffer in silence.

“Our research reveals how Islamophobic victimisation is experienced as ‘part and parcel’ of wearing the veil, rather than as isolated ‘one-off’ incidents, and how repeat incidents of supposedly ‘low-level’ forms of hostility such as name-calling, persistent staring and other types of intimidatory behaviour place a potentially huge emotional burden on victims.

“The actual and potential threat of Islamophobic abuse and violence has long-lasting effects for veiled Muslim women, making them afraid to leave their house.”

Continue reading →

Philip Hollobone MP calls for British ban on face veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philip HolloboneThe Government should press on with banning the veil in Britain after a French law doing the same was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights, a Tory MP said today.

Kettering MP Philip Hollobone, who has proposed back bench legislation to ban face coverings in the past, urged Commons Leader Andrew Lansley to find time for a Government statement on the issue. Mr Hollobone, a prominent eurosceptic who more typically criticises the European Court, raised the issue at the weekly Commons business statement.

He said: “This week finally, at long last, we have had a sensible decision from the European Court of Human Rights about something.

“Given this week, the court has decided that the ban on Islamic veils in France breaches no-one’s human rights, will you or another member of the Government next week make a statement to the House that Her Majesty’s Government intends to introduce such legislation into this country?

“We will never have a fully functioning, fully integrated multi-cultural society if growing numbers of our citizens go around with their faces covered.”

But Mr Lansley replied: “I did note that court decision… part of that decision was about the issues of subsidiarity and the right of countries to make these decisions for themselves. In that context I don’t anticipate a statement by a minister in the form you seek.”

Continue reading →

ECHR ruling inspires FPÖ proposal for ‘burqa’ ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) is calling for a ban on burqas, after the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) backed France’s rules on religious headgear on Tuesday, when it ruled the country’s law banning full-face veils in public was legal.

The ECHR ruled that France’s ban on the wearing of the full-face veil in public does not violate the human rights of Muslim women. Judges said the law was justified on the grounds of social cohesion.

Freedom Party spokeswoman Carmen Gartelgruber said that in the “wide, conservative circles of Islamic immigration society”, the opinion prevails that women are second-class citizens. One of the many instruments for oppressing women is the burqa, she added.

Continue reading →

Denmark may enact French ‘burqa ban’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pia Kjærsgaard DFA ban on people wearing clothing that covers their face in public, like a burqa or niqab, may find its way to Denmark following a landmark decision at the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday.

Judges upheld France’s burqa law, accepting the argument that veils threatened the right of citizens to live together in society. And now, several legal experts have told Berlingske newspaper that they believe a similar ban could be enacted in Denmark.

Sten Schaumburg-Müller, a law professor at Aarhus University, agreed that the French model could be adopted by Denmark. “It’s obvious that a ban specifically targeting burqas would be hopeless,” he said. “But I believe a ban similar to France’s prohibiting the covering of the face in public could be established here.”

Jacob Mchangama, the head of think-tank Justitia, also believes the law could be recycled on Danish ground. “The defining element in the French legislation is that it isn’t targeted at specific religions, but instead the motivation is to ensure social cohesion and interaction between citizens,” he said.

Pia Kjærsgaard, the DF values spokesperson, thinks a ban on face-covering dress, whether it is specifically targeting Islamic burqas or not, should be introduced in Denmark. “We can’t have women being completely covered so you can’t see their facial expressions or who you have right in front of you,” she told Berlingske.

Continue reading →

Norway braced for new ‘burqa ban’ debate

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Norway’s Labour and Progress parties have stated that they would consider revisiting the issue of a Muslim veil ban in the wake of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that a public ban does not violate the human rights of Muslim women.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday gave support to France’s claim that the statutory public prohibition of clothing which covers the face is within the framework of European human rights.

“We must consider whether we should promote the proposal again, after the court in Strasbourg has now confirmed what we have constantly said: that a ban is compatible with human rights,” said Mazyar Keshvari at the Progress Party (FRP) to the VG daily.

Jan Bøhler of the Labour Party (Ap) also claimed that the ruling of the court puts the Norwegian discussion about the controversial ban in a new light. “When parliament rejected such a ban in 2013, the main argument was that Norway risked being censured in the ECHR. Now that argument falls away. I think we need to take a new discussion about a possible ban,” he told VG.

Continue reading →

European Court of Human Rights upholds French ban on full-face veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ECHRThe European Court of Human Rights has upheld a French law banning the wearing of the full-face veil, the niqab.

The Strasbourg-based court was ruling on a case brought by a 24-year-old French woman, who argued that the ban on wearing the veil in public violated her freedom of religion and expression.

The ruling by the European Court’s Grand Chamber was immediately condemned by a leading UK human rights campaigner for “criminalising women’s clothing”. Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti also linked it to “the rising racism in Western Europe”.

The woman also argued that the law gives rise to “discrimination based on gender, religion and ethnic origin, to the detriment of women who wear the full-face veil”.

The woman was not named in the complaint which was brought to the court in April 2011. The case potentially has important implications for the UK where the possibility of banning the veil has long been discussed.

Continue reading →

Women targeted in rising tide of attacks on Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

More than half of Islamophobic attacks in Britain are committed against women, who are typically targeted because they are wearing clothing associated with Islam, new data reveals.

The figures of anti-Muslim attacks, compiled in the nine months following the murder of soldier Lee Rigby in May 2013, come days after Saudi Arabian student Nahid Almanea was stabbed to death in Essex, with detectives believing that she may have been attacked because she was wearing traditional Islamic clothing.

In a study of calls to the Tell Mama hotline, which records Islamophobic crimes, academics at Teesside University found there were on average two incidents every day over the period.

Victims reported a total of 734 incidents to the hotline between the start of May last year and 28 February 2014, broken down into 599 incidents of online abuse and 135 offline attacks – an increase of almost 20% on the same period the previous year.

One aspect of the figures indicates an apparent lack of trust in police to deal with Islamophobic incidents, with one in six victims choosing not to report the incident to authorities.

The Teesside report, published by the first research unit in Britain dedicated to the study of the far right and its opposition, says more effort is required to foster greater trust between the Muslim community and authorities.

Continue reading →

Paris protest: campaigners demand repeal of Chatel circular

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sticker MTELe Figaro reports that the campaign has been stepped up for the withdrawal of the “Chatel circular” – the policy introduced in 2012 by the then UMP education minister Luc Chatel which proposed, in the name of defending secularism, that Muslim women who wear the hijab should not be allowed to accompany their children on school trips.

The policy has been maintained under the present Parti Socialiste government, despite a ruling by the Council of State last December that the ban was outside the law.

On Tuesday, for the first time, a delegation of Muslim women involved in the campaign against this oppressive policy met with a representative of current education minister Benoît Hamon to discuss the issue. And yesterday a demonstration was held near the ministry of education in support of the demand for an end to the ban.

Continue reading →

Woman killed in attack may have been targeted because of Muslim dress, say police

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A woman who died after being attacked on a footpath may have been targeted because of her Muslim dress, police have said.

The woman, who was in her early 30s, was walking on the Salary Brook trail in Colchester when the incident happened at 10.40am on Tuesday. Paramedics tried to save her but she died at the scene from head and body injuries.

Essex police confirmed she was wearing a dark navy blue abaya, or full-length robe, and a patterned multicoloured hijab headscarf.

A 52-year-old man from the Colchester area was arrested on Tuesday night in connection with the incident. DS Tracy Hawkings said officers were keeping an open mind about the motive of the attack.

However, she added: “We are conscious that the dress of the victim will have identified her as likely being a Muslim, and this is one of the main lines of the investigation. But, again, there is no firm evidence at this time that she was targeted because of her religion.”

Continue reading →

Far right campaigns to ‘ban the burka’ … in Berwick-upon-Tweed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Scottish Defence League (2)Berwick will be the location of another pair of demonstrations this summer as far-right groups announced intentions to march through the town.

Far-right groups the Scottish Defence League and the North East Infidels plan to travel to Berwick in order to hold a protest on July 5.

At a meeting last Friday Berwick Trades Union Council along with local anti-fascist campaigners discussed the two groups’ planned protest.

A statement was released expressing the council’s “revulsion and deep concern at the prospect of these fascist thugs once again invading our community with their messages of hate and division. In February last year Berwick put up a tremendous display of solidarity in opposing the SDL and EDL. The fascists on the other hand chanted racist slogans and caused mayhem in the town centre.”

The statement went on to call for a local response, which will be in the form of a counter demonstration inn the same vein as last year.

“We call on all those who supported the anti-fascist demonstration last year to do the same this year but this time to make it even bigger and stronger. Let’s tell these racist thugs they are not welcome in our peaceful and inclusive community. We have an organising meeting on Friday June 20 open to all those groups and individuals in our community who want to show a collective opposition to the fascists.”

The visiting groups are describing their march as a Ban the Burka event, and are planning to wear balaclavas as a sign of protest.

Continue reading →