Category Archives: Women

Timothy Garton Ash tells Islamophobes to stop whingeing

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The most tiresome argument in this whole debate is that the niqab makes white, middle-class English people feel ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘threatened’. Well, I want to say, what a load of whingeing wusses. Threatened by drunken football hooligans or muggers – that I can understand. But threatened by a woman quietly going about her business in a veil? As for uncomfortable: myself, I feel uncomfortable with a certain kind of pink-faced Englishman wearing crimson braces, a white-cuffed pinstriped shirt and a bow tie. Their clothing is a fair predictor of the views that will come out of their mouths. But I don’t ask them to take off their braces.”

Timothy Garton Ash in the Guardian, 12 October 2006

Veil is ‘an invitation to rape’ – BHL

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The JC interviews French philospher Bernard-Henri Levy:

“Our time is almost up, but BHL becomes the most animated I have seen him when I ask him about Jack Straw’s intervention on Muslim women and the veil. ‘Jack Straw’, he says, leaning close to me, ‘made a great point. He did not say that he was against the veil. He said it is much easier, much more comfortable, respectful, to speak with a woman with a naked face. And without knowing, he quoted Levinas, who is the philosopher of the face. Levinas says that [having seen] the naked face of your interlocutor, you cannot kill him or her, you cannot rape him, you cannot violate him. So when the Muslims say that the veil is to protect women, it is the contrary. The veil is an invitation to rape’.”

Jewish Chronicle, 12 October 2006

Abolish Muslim veils, says Harman

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The strongest condemnation yet of the Muslim veil from a Government minister was made today by Harriet Harman.

She called for a campaign to abolish it because it kept women down and “hid” them from society. “How can you [live an equal life] if you can’t get a driving licence or a passport,” she said. “The veil is an obstacle to women’s participation, on equal terms, in society.”

The Constitutional Affairs Minister went further than Commons Leader Jack Straw who said the veil made him feel uncomfortable. She told the New Statesman: “If you want equality, you have to be in society, not hidden away from it.”

Ms Harman – who is bidding to become Labour’s deputy leader with a strong pitch for women’s votes – said she was dismayed to see “the young women whose mothers fought against the veil, and who now see their daughters taking it up as a symbol of commitment to their religion”. She said she wished the abolition debate was being led by Muslim women – but there were none in the Commons.

Ms Harman defended Mr Straw’s intervention but said it was “depressing” that some people had accused Mr Straw of speaking out for electoral gain.

Evening Standard, 12 October 2006

Rabbi condemns Straw’s veil comments

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Ilford rabbi yesterday condemned Jack Straw after he said he would prefer it if Muslim women did not wear the full veil.

Writing to the Chair of the Ilford Islamic Centre, Ilford Federation Synagogue’s Rabbi Alex Chapper said: “I feel his comments were totally unacceptable and display, at best, insensitivity to, and at worst, an ignorance of the laws, customs and practices of Islam. It is nonsense to suggest that, ‘women who wore veils made community relations more difficult’, rather it is remarks such as these that create divisions and intolerance in Britain.”

Rabbi Chapper told the Jewish News: “If you’re going to single out for condemnation, or even ban, one style of dress where do you draw the line? Could the kipah or sheitel be next, are they divisive in Mr Straw’s eye?”

TotallyJewish.com, 12 October 2006

Women with nose-bags over their faces have no place on British streets

Posted on by Bob Pitt

allison pearson“Since Jack Straw ignited a national debate by saying constituents who wear the niqab, leaving only their eyes exposed, made him uncomfortable, Muslim women’s views have got extensive and respectful coverage. They claim Mr Straw has saddened and insulted them. But what about the way the veil makes the majority of British women feel?

“A fortysomething mother in a practical Boden skirt and short-sleeved top sitting on a train opposite a woman in the full veil can suddenly be made to feel as tarty and sexually provocative as a Page 3 girl. It’s not a nice sensation – to feel judged for wearing your own clothes in your own country.

“The truth is that females who cover their faces and bodies make us uneasy. The veil is often downright intimidating. It implies a submission that is upsetting when women here fought so hard to be free. No one I know objects to a Muslim headscarf. But as for all the other restrictive clothing, I just don’t like seeing them on British streets.

“Nor do I want to see another newspaper provide, as it did this week, a cut-out-and-keep fashion guide to the different types of veil: ‘And here we see Mumtaz, or rather we don’t see Mumtaz because the poor kid is wearing a nose-bag over her face, modelling the latest line in female-inhibiting shrouds from the House of Taliban’.”

Allison Pearson in the Daily Mail, 11 October 2006

Brown backs Straw over veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Gordon BrownGordon Brown threw his weight behind Jack Straw last night and declared that it would be better for Britain if fewer Muslim women wore veils.

The Chancellor broke ranks to become the first Cabinet minister publicly to endorse Mr Straw’s call for women to discard the veil, which he described as a symbol of separation.

Tony Blair broke his silence on the issue too, but he stressed that women must be free to choose what they wear. In contrast, Mr Brown threw his weight behind the Leader of the Commons.

Asked by the BBC if Mr Straw had been right to say it would help integration if Muslim women did not wear the veil, he said: “Yes, but I think he is not proposing new laws, he is proposing a debate about the cultural changes that might have to take place in Britain. I would emphasis the importance of what we do to integrate people into our country including the language, history and curriculum.”

Pressed to say if he thought it would be “better for Britain” if fewer Muslim women wore veils, Mr Brown replied: “That is what Jack Straw has said and I support. But I think the important thing is that we have a debate on this.”

Daily Telegraph, 11 October 2006

Islamophobia is part of the ‘war on terror’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SW War and Racism“For many Muslim women in Britain and Europe, the decision to wear a veil is not about ‘internalising oppression’. It is a statement of identity adopted in the face of rising Islamophobia and government demands to step through yet one more hoop to prove you are a ‘good Muslim’.

“Muslim women have been to the fore in the anti-war movement – something that has truly brought people together in common cause and given confidence to Muslim women to speak out.

“It ill behoves middle class Westerners, whether Jack Straw or supposed feminists, to dictate what women should wear. What’s at issue is not women’s rights, but an Islamophobic agenda which is the battle cry of the US led global ‘war on terror’.”

Editorial in Socialist Worker, 14 October 2006

See also “Stop scapegoating Muslims – it’s war and racism that fuel division“, “Jack Straw’s veil comments are ammunition for racists” and “A right wing attack on multiculturalism“, plus reports on the Blackburn demonstration against Straw and the so-called “race riot” in Windsor.

Rammell backs university’s Muslim veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, today weighed into the debate over Muslim women wearing the veil by offering his support to universities that banned the full-face veil.

He repeated the views he expressed on EducationGuardian.co.uk last month after a year of visits to university campuses to talk to Muslim students. Muslim students were entitled to ask for tolerance and consideration but there were limits to what they could and should ask for, argued Mr Rammell.

He said that Imperial College was wrong to attempt to ban women students from wearing the hijab, which covers their heads. The university’s proposed code was amended after protests. But Imperial was right to insist on banning the niqab which covers the face, argued Mr Rammell.

Today he told the Evening Standard newspaper: “I’m not dictating hard and fast rules, as dress codes are a matter for university authorities. But Imperial College recently banned the face veil and I think that this is arguably the best decision. Many teachers would feel very uncomfortable about their ability to teach students who were covering their faces.”

Mr Rammell added: “And I doubt many students would feel it was acceptable to be taught by someone who had chosen to veil their face.”

The National Union of Students (NUS) condemned Mr Rammell’s comments as “unproductive”.

Ruqaayah Collector, the NUS’s black students officer, said Imperial was considered a bad example of how to tackle the issue among other universities. “As a Muslim woman who wears the hijab, I’m worried the debate will go the same way as in France and other countries in Europe. It starts off with this and could move onto other forms of clothing.

“We need the Muslim community on board if we are going to fight extremism. Muslims should feel comfortable going to their MP, however they want to dress. It’s important to respect personal choices. It is a woman’s right to choose how they dress and not be told by men,” said Ms Collector.

Guardian, 11 October 2006

The jackboots of our time

Posted on by Bob Pitt

George Galloway“Sunday saw people gathering to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the great battle of Cable Street. On that day progressive people of all kinds rallied to protect the significant minority of immigrants in London’s east end against the strutting jackboots of a domestic fascism, one of whose very arguments was against the very ‘separateness’ of the Jews who lived there. Their very garb, unusual diets, habits of living in close proximity to each other was a standing affront to the beef-eating Englishness of the Moselyites. ‘Leave the Jews alone’ was the response of the best of the British left. Let them eat dress and live as they want. It is a call that should be echoed about today’s whipping boys, the Muslims.”

George Galloway at the Guardian’s Comment is Free, 9 October 2006