Category Archives: Women

JP back on bench after veil uproar

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The magistrate reprimanded for refusing to deal with a Muslim woman because she was wearing a veil says he is delighted to have returned to sit on the bench.

Ian Murray, of Bath Crescent, Cheadle Hulme, was back at Manchester Crown Court last week following an absence of more than six months. But he says the furore surrounding his decision to walk out when faced with niqab-wearing Zoobia Hussain – who subsequently complained – has not diminished his appetite to be part of the judicial process.

He is currently awaiting the outcome of his own complaint over the treatment he received during a probe into his actions, which resulted in a formal reprimand and training on “appropriate judicial guidelines”.

Stockport Express, 20 February 2008

The Independent on Sunday’s misleading report

Posted on by Bob Pitt

17000 attacks on women every yearThe Independent on Sunday (IoS) of 10th February 2008 had an article under the headline “A question of honour: Police say 17,000 women are victims every year“. It chose this headline with a picture of a Muslim woman implying that 17,000 ‘honour’ crimes are taking place within the Muslim community.

The paper quoted Commander Steve Allen as stating “We work on a figure which suggests it is about 500 cases shared between us and the Forced Marriage Unit per year,” he said: “If the generally accepted statistic is that a victim will suffer 35 experiences of domestic violence before they report, then I suspect if you multiplied our reporting by 35 times you may be somewhere near where people’s experience is at.”

The MSF has been in discussions with Commander Allen and has established that during the conversation with the journalist from the IoS he had made it clear that these figures were only indicative. Yet the IoS still chose to use this in an inflammatory manner.

“The Independent on Sunday article simply multiplied the 500 cases that are reported to police by a factor of 35 and used the answer to write a headline. It was never intended that my comments should be interpreted in this literal way.” Said Commander Allen.

He further states, “ACPO is also very clear, and repeats in all its guidance on the subject, that Forced Marriage and Honour Based Violence are not connected to any particular religion or set of religious beliefs. They are cultural phenomena that cut across a wide range of communities from around the world.”

The MSF is saddened to have seen IoS run an article on an important issue such as this in this irresponsible way. With all the vitriolic Islamophobic reports in certain sections of the Media, we never expected the IoS to have joined in to the foray.

We hope that the Independent will look at clarifying this matter and not damage its good reputation with this kind of Islamophobic reporting in the future.

Muslim Safety Forum, 14 February 2008

It’s all very well to be sensitive to Islam, but …

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“There may no longer be much in the way of ideological enthusiasm for what can be described as multiculturalism. But in practice it gathers pace anyway, and there remains an unwillingness to take even a normative stance against it. Tony Blair may have declared that he considered the veil to be ‘a sign of separation’. But there is little sign of any appetite for issuing any formal guidance that might suggest that such dress is not in keeping with the values and aspirations of modern British life.”

Deborah Orr in the Independent, 13 February 2008

Orr’s sentiments are enthusiastically endorsed by Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch.

Independent On Sunday

Posted on by Eddie Truman

Lenin’s Tomb has a brilliant deconstruction of an Independent On Sunday front page and story:

“The three basic elements of Islamophobia mentioned above are all present in the hysteria about what Muslim women wear: resentment (why should you get to hide your face?); fear and loathing (what have you got to hide?); and patronising ‘concern’ (that veil hides bruises and tears, sister, so kindly allow whitey to liberate you).”

Richard also deals comprehensively with the appalling reality of domestic abuse in the UK, 89% of which is directed at the female spouse.

Veil to be banned on Dutch buses?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

De Volkskrant has the latest on the continuing political saga of whether, and to what extent, burqas should be banned in the Netherlands. Despite the fact that there’s only a limited number of women wearing this type of garment, the issue keeps stirring up strong political sentiments.

Earlier, the cabinet agreed that burqas would be banned for government workers and at schools. On Friday, the government is expected to announce that burqas will also be banned from public transport. And for those of you cynical enough to believe that all of this has anything to do with Islamophobia, the ban, if introduced, will also apply to balaclavas and crash helmets.

De Volkskrant writes that a ban on burqas was first proposed by Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders in 2005, but the previous cabinet never got round to it as a result of internal divisions.

The current government coalition has decided against a general ban on burqas, arguing that a ban is only justified when the garment in question “seriously hampers integration and communication”.

However, when this is the case, societal interests outweigh religious freedoms such as the wearing of burqas. It will come as no surprise that the Freedom Party does not think the ban is going far enough, and has submitted a bill banning the wearing of burqas not only in all public spaces, but also at home.

Expatica, 7 February 2008

Muslim mums win discrimination appeal

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Two Muslim mothers have won a court appeal against a municipal pool in Gothenburg that required them to take off their veils and body-covering clothing. The Court of Appeal for western Sweden found the City of Gothenburg guilty of ethnic discrimination and ordered the authorities to pay the women 20,000 kronor ($3,000) each in damages.

The women, Houda Morabet and Hayal Eroglu, were at the pool separately on two different occasions in April 2004, accompanying their young children but not to swim themselves. Both were wearing veils, long pants and long-sleeved tee-shirts because their religion does not allow them to reveal parts of their body in public.

In its judgment, the court said that the actions of the swimming pool lifeguards, who insisted that the women should change into tee-shirts, could be deemed discriminatory even if this had not been their intention.

The nature of Sweden’s discrimination laws mean that it was up to the City of Gothenburg to prove that the request for the women to remove some of their clothing had nothing to do with their religion. “In the view of the Court of Appeal, the City of Gothenburg did not succeed in doing this,” the court said in a statement.

Continue reading →

Joan Wallach Scott in London

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Politics of the VeilPublic Lecture

FRENCH GENDER EQUALITY AND THE ISLAMIC HEADSCARF

with Professor Joan Scott

Date: Thursday 24th January 2008
Time: 6.30 pm – 8.00 pm
Venue: New Theatre, East Building, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE

Professor Scott takes a critical look at one aspect of the ban on Islamic headscarves enacted in 2005 in France. She will examine ‘a clash of gender systems’ as a way of trying to understand some of the force of the reaction to Islam there. Joan Wallach Scott is a Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Politics and History at Princeton, NJ. She is author of Gender and the Politics of History and, most recently, The Politics of the Veil. The event will be chaired by Professor Anne Phillips. Free admission and open to all. Entry is on a first come, first served basis.

For more information please contact:
Tel: 020 7955 6043
E-mail: events@lse.ac.uk

Britain is a Christian country says minister

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A new “tool kit” for universities issued today by Bill Rammell, the Universities Minister, advises universities to draw up a national watch list of guest speakers who should be banned from speaking on campus. It also suggests that universities consider setting up multi-faith chaplaincies instead of separate prayer rooms for different faiths, to promote integration and prevent pockets of extremists forming.

Mr Rammell was adamant that Muslim students – particularly those coming from overseas – did not have the right to demand special treatment from British universities. “Britain technically is a Christian country with many secular features. It’s those two things. It’s not anything else. If you expect that you would have the same response to your faith needs in Britain as would happen within a Muslim or Islamic country, [you] would be disappointed,” he said.

His comments follow fears that some Islamic societies and prayer rooms in universities had become no-go areas for the authorities, where extremists may be free to preach hatred and violence to vulnerable students.

Times, 22 January 2008

See also “Extremists turn attention to Muslim women” in the Daily Telegraph and “Extremists are ‘grooming’ female students, security officials warn” in the Daily Mail.

BNP flyers circulated in Burnt Oak

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BNP changing face of london leafletThe Hendon & Finchley Times has reported that racist leaflets promoting the far-right British National Party have been distributed in Burnt Oak and Colindale in north London.

The flyers contrast a scene from 1950s Britain with three women in Islamic veils. Under the 1950s picture of an all-white street party the leaflet states: “… this is the way London used to be… If you would like London to be like this again, then support the British National Party.”

The paper states that the likely source of the flyers is the BNP presence in Harrow, where the fascists stood a candidate in a council by-election in December. Their candidate, Howard Studley, received 56 votes and finished last.

As Henry Grunwald of the Board of Deputies pointed out, the BNP’s aim in contesting that election was to win support within the Jewish community on an anti-Muslim programme, and their leafleting in Barnet may well have the same objective.

The Hendon & Finchley Times quotes Shakil Ahmed, of the Hendon Mosque, as saying that relationships between different communities in Barnet are good, but that there are always concerns about such views spreading.

He told the paper: “We don’t know what affect this is going to have. The worry in view of the nature of the flyer is that the hatred is going to be targeted at Muslim women on the streets dressing in this particular way. I don’t think we’ve had that many incidents in Barnet, but I’ve heard of things in Brent, where women in headscarves have been attacked for nothing. That’s not far away, so it is a concern.”

Barnet councillors have said that they will investigate whether the BNP flyers breach anti-racism laws.