Category Archives: Women

Woman in veil ‘sparks fury’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Channel 4 has sparked fury by planning an “alternative” Christmas Day message delivered by a Muslim woman in a veil.

Radical Khadija Ravat, who lectures on Islam, will appear on its screens while the Queen is giving her traditional afternoon speech on the other channels. Mrs Ravat’s talk is expected to focus on the heated debate about the veil following the recent case of teacher Aishah Azmi losing her battle to wear it in the classroom.

Evangelical lobby group Christian Voice’s Stephen Green said the alternative message will “put people’s backs up”. He added: “The niqab is a veil of separation between Muslims and the indigenous Christian community. This will expose multi-culturalism for what it is – a bias against the Christian population.”

Tory MP Philip Davies, who represents Shipley, West Yorkshire, said: “It seems Channel 4 is being provocative towards Christians. I would recommend listening to what the Queen has to say. Kick Channel 4 into the long grass. You would think that for one day of the year, during what is still just about a Christian festival, they could leave political correctness alone.”

Mrs Ravat, 33, a radical Islamist from Leicester, spoke out about the veil after ex-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw declared it made community relations more difficult.

Daily Express, 6 December 2006

Call me an old sceptic, but given Channel 4’s past record in stoking up Islamophobia you suspect this is the exactly reaction they set out to provoke.

‘The hidden truth of the veil: it’s all politics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Britain, for all its faults, is not a society in which women are pestered or harassed as a matter of course. When we walk outside we have to contend with a tuneless wolf whistle at worst. For a woman here to argue that simply uncovering her face will automatically inflame the men around her to dangerous levels of lust is absurd: indeed, it is ostentatious modesty inflated to the point of vanity. To feel compelled to wear the full veil in Britain is the sexual equivalent of attending a Quaker meeting accompanied by three heavily-armed bodyguards.

“Behind this absurdity lurks something rather more worrying, however: the persistent agenda of a minority of Islamic fundamentalists to emphasise difference and push the boundaries of secular society. The arguments over Muslim women’s clothing have really been thinly disguised political battles, such as the 2002 attempt by the schoolgirl Shabina Begum to force her school to permit her to wear a cumbersome garment called the jilbab in contravention of school uniform. Begum’s brother, who was extremely vocal in court, was a reported member of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb-ut Tahrir….

“A clear, constant distinction between the sartorial obligations of private time and work time would surely relieve us all of mounting irritation, and deprive these wearisome attention-seekers of the substance they seem most eager to breathe in through the niqab: the oxygen of publicity.”

Jenny McCartney in the Sunday Telegraph, 3 December 2006

A school with a progressive attitude to the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last month Tony Blair said the veil row was part of a necessary debate about the way the Muslim community integrates into British society. He said the veil was a “mark of separation” which makes people feel uncomfortable. But Charlie Taylor, deputy head of Turton high school arts and media college, Bolton, does not share the politicians’ concerns. “I should know about face covering,” he laughs from behind a generous beard. “Communication is more than just facial expression; mostly you know whether pupils are taking something in from what they say and how they say it. We don’t see the veil as an issue here.”

For the past two or three years, a small but growing number of Turton’s female Muslim sixth formers have chosen to wear the niqab – which covers the face – and staff have chosen to respect their choice. These students are not retiring violets. Indeed, they are among the feistiest students in the sixth form. Like many young women who have taken up the niqab in the UK, they wear it proudly, an outward sign, they say, of their deep faith, and a statement of their cultural identity.

Turton, in the largely white, northern suburbs of Bolton, close to the Pennine foothills, is the last place one would expect to find students wearing the niqab, given that most schools in northern towns, even those with a largely Muslim intake, allow students to wear the hijab (the headscarf), but stop short of the veil. But Turton’s sixth form of 500 draws from diverse cultures, and John Porteous, the head, is proud of the mix: “I think, increasingly, Asian heritage students and particularly Muslim girls are attracted to the sixth form because they find it a sympathetic place to be.”

All of Turton’s upper sixth Muslim girls – whether veiled, headscarf wearers, or bare-headed – who agreed to speak to The TES regard themselves as fully integrated into British society. They also respect each other’s choice of dress, believing it expresses their differing piety. They were all taking A-levels and plan to study for careers ranging from optometry to politics. Their dress, they say, is about their faith and cultural identity, not about wanting to be separate.

TES, 1 December 2006

BNP on banning the ‘burka’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The British National Party has posted the resolutions adopted at its conference in Blackpool last weekend. This is the one on the “burka” – presumably it is directed at the niqab too – which was “passed by a large majority”:

“The British National Party is the party of freedom and democracy. We are also, however, the party of the British people, of British culture, of British heritage, of British traditions and of the British way of life. The wearing of the burka is not a religious requirement and is not stipulated in the Koran; it is, instead, a symbol of the wearer’s repudiation of traditional Britain. Furthermore, the burka has been used as a disguise which has enabled suspects wanted by the police in connection with serious terrorist offences to evade capture. The wearing of the burka is therefore both a political act of hostility to Britain and a serious security risk. Banning the burka will not inconvenience the indigenous British people and will increase their security and freedom from terrorism. We therefore believe this is an entirely sensible and proportionate policy.”

BNP news article, 29 November 2006

Blair considering veil ban, Mirror claims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Tony Blair has held secret talks about banning Muslim women wearing veils in public.

Leaked documents seen by the Mirror reveal the Prime Minister has already had meetings with Islamic scholars about the controversial issue. He is considering new measures to stop the Niqab – the full face veil – being worn in public buildings such as schools, courts and hospitals.

It comes as a survey published yesterday revealed one in three people supports a total ban on veils which completely cover womens’ faces. The BBC survey said 60 per cent of people backed a ban in airports and at passport control, 53 per cent in schools and 40 per cent in the workplace.

Zareen Roohi Ahmed, chief executive of the British Muslim Forum, said there was no religious reason for a full veil to be worn. She added: “If security is at stake, then yes, the veil should be removed.”

Daily Mirror, 30 November

Dutch Muslims protest against face veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

About 80 people protested outside the Dutch parliament on Thursday against a recent government decision to ban Muslim burqas and face veils, the toughest ban thus far in Europe.

Seven women clad in niqabs – a veil concealing the face except the eyes – and loose robes that covered them from neck to toes, and 20 women in headscarves gathered in front of parliament, which was to convene on Thursday for the first time after national elections were held last week. Around 50 supporters carried banners written with the phrases: “Before you judge me, try hard to know me” and “The first lesson of integration: the constitution is for everyone.”

Earlier this month, the outgoing government agreed to a total ban on burqas and other Muslim face veils in public, citing security concerns. Critics said the move was likely to alienate and victimise the country’s 1 million Muslims.

“Every time there is an election, the thing with the burqa comes up,” said Aishah Bayrat, a 41-year-old teacher and mother of five. “The burqa is a religious thing, nobody should interfere with it.”

Clad in a black and blue niqab, 17-year-old Tamara dismissed official concerns that the robe would make it hard for people to identify the wearer or serve as a cover for criminals and terrorists. “What about Santa Claus? He can go out on the streets with his long beard and we can’t recognise him.”

Reuters, 30 November 2006

Survey finds support for veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

One in three people would support a ban on the Muslim face-covering veil in public places, a survey suggests. Asked if the veils should be prohibited in airports and at passport control, six out of 10 agreed. The survey was carried out for the BBC by ICM. Muslim groups say the figures may reflect public unease because of how the media has presented the veil.

Rajnaara Akhtar, of the Assembly for the Protection of the Hijab, said the findings were “positive” because it showed “the vast majority of people … believe women should be allowed to wear what they like”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there was a common misconception that Muslim women who wore the face-covering veil had been forced to do so, whereas in reality only a “tiny, tiny minority” were forced. “What we, as Muslims, need to do is to ensure were are educating people on it and making sure that people do understand it is a choice,” she said. “We are living in Britain, which is a democratic society and the vast majority of people in this country promote that and respect that completely.”

BBC News, 29 October 2006

Generating more heat than light

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma addressing rally“Unfortunately, despite the intentions of its authors, I fear that their focus on attacking the currently dominant faith organisations will generate more heat than light. In conflating HT with the BNP as if they both pose equal threats to race relations; in echoing in all but name the charge of ‘Islamofascist’ against organisations like MCB; in regurgitating, along with the government and rightwing tabloids, the spectre of sinister self-appointed Muslim community leaders who keep the their foot firmly on the neck of their communities; the manifesto only serves to add more layers of confusion than strip them away.”

Salma Yaqoob responds to the “New Generation Network manifesto”.

Comment is Free, 28 November 2006

NSS congratulates BA for having defied ‘the religious lobby’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

There are striking parallels between the BA cross-wearing case and a similar dispute at Denbigh High School last year. There, the Luton school had a uniform policy that was agreed with and respected by all parents and pupils, except that is for one selfish religious extremist who demanded it be changed to cover her more personal statement of her Muslim faith, namely wearing a jilbab.

The Muslim Council of Britain inevitably took her side, placing the chance to advance the religious cause against the school’s common-sense approach which had the agreement of the wider community.

BA has a uniform policy respected and adhered to by all its 34,000 uniformed employees, and one which doubtless has been the subject of discussion and agreement with unions.

Again, one selfish religious extremist wants the rules changed to fit her personal demands. Again, a spokesman for the religion involved, in this case the Archbishop of York, places that demand above the need for the company to apply a commonsense dress code that 33,999 other people appear happy to accept.

BA is to be congratulated for sticking to its guns. No company should have its policies dictated to it by any one religious fundamentalist engaged in silly posturing, nor be intimidated by the religious lobby.

Letter from Alistair McBay of the National Secular Society in the Courier, 27 November 2006

Veil is ‘a symbol of subservience’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“I object strongly to teachers wearing the veil. It is more than a choice of dress. It is a symbol of subservience, everything our parents, grandparents, the suffragettes fought against and we have still not won complete equality and freedom for women.

“The veil is a disguise with no place in school. It may hide a highly educated professional woman, a wealthy woman wearing the latest fashions and marvellous jewellery, a poor woman subjected to clitorectomy, a woman beaten and bruised, a child married against her will, or a woman about to be murdered by her family for loving the wrong man. It could also hide a loving mother and a truly religious woman.

“Seeing a pair of dark eyes, you may be looking at a terrorist in disguise, a murderer who believes in jihad and fatwa. Which of the women behind the veil genuinely represents Islam? How do we know?

“It is anathema to free, Western thinking for children to be taught that it is wrong for a man to see a woman’s face.”

Rose Hacker in the Camden New Journal, 23 November 2006