Category Archives: Women

French ‘Socialist’ government targets hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Because of her choice to wear a headscarf, Samia Kaddour, a Muslim, has all but abandoned trying to land a government job in France. Soon, some private sector jobs could be off limits, too.

French President Francois Hollande says he wants a new law that could extend restrictions on the wearing of prominent religious symbols in state jobs into the private sector. His new tack comes after a top French court ruled in March that a day care operator that gets some state funding unfairly fired a woman in a headscarf, sparking a political backlash.

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Hijab controversy dominates Le Bourget

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UOIF Le Bourget 2013

French Muslim leaders opened on Friday, March 29, the Bourget’s 30th annual gathering in a climate of anxiety resulting from the recent controversy about hijab ruling.

“There is a real sense of unease among us,” Ahmed Jaballah, the president of the Union of Islamic Organizations of France (UOIF), told Agence France Presse (AFP). “The latest statements on secularism show that there is a drift away,” he added.

Ahmed was referring to the recent controversy which followed a ruling by France’s top court that the dismissal of a Muslim woman from a private nursery school for refusing to remove her hijab amounted to “religious discrimination”.

In an unusual move, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls criticized the ruling against the nursery school as putting “secularism into question”.

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Indiana: Muslim student told she couldn’t wear hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Attia GrayThe parents of a Muslim student say their daughter was discriminated against when a teacher sent her to the office for wearing traditional Muslim headwear called a hijab, but school officials say the teacher was only following school policy regarding hats and head coverings.

Attia Gray, 15, a sophomore at the Hammond Academy of Science and Technology, said her teacher looked at her hijab on Tuesday and told her she couldn’t wear it. “I said I can’t take it off, it’s for religious purposes. She sent me down to the office.”

Post-Tribune, 29 March 2013

Toronto jogger accused of assaulting, harassing pregnant woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Shawn SableA Toronto man is facing charges after a pregnant woman was allegedly assaulted and harassed numerous times in midtown.

It was reported that the suspect was jogging along Yonge Street near Eglinton Avenue West when he veered towards the victim, who was wearing a hijab, struck her and uttered a comment before running off.

On a second occasion the same jogger struck the woman with both hands and continued to run south on Yonge.

Const. Wendy Drummond told the Canadian Press they believe the man may have targetted the woman because of her hijab.

It is alleged that he also criminally harassed her on five other occasions. The incidents occurred between Feb. 25 and Mar. 25.

Shawn Sable, 43, appeared in court on Monday and was charged with two counts of assault and one count of criminal harassment.

Police believe there may be more victims.

680 News, 25 March 2013

Stavropol court rejects lawsuit against hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Stavropol Territorial Court has rejected a lawsuit against the ban on wearing headdresses to school, including the hijab, a Moscow lawyer said on Friday.

Lawyer Murad Musayev filed the lawsuit on behalf of the region’s Muslim people, who seek to annul the new school uniform requirements introduced last September.

“The court has rejected our lawsuit,” he said. “I believe this ruling was politically motivated. We will find out why the court ruled against our lawsuit in five days when they send the hearing documents to us.” He added that he plans to appeal the decision.

RAPSI, 22 March 2013

Far right ‘fights Islamic bigotry against women’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

ENR Crayford mosque protest adWhen it comes to the ideology of Islamophobia, fascists invent nothing new – they just take their inspiration from the mainstream media. I doubt most of them had even heard of sharia law or halal slaughter until the right-wing press decided to create moral panics over these issues. In embracing received anti-Muslim prejudice, the one contribution the racist far right does make is to give it an additional thuggish twist.

So, with the likes of the Daily Mail having helped to stir up controversy over so-called “gender segregation” at iERA’s recent public meeting at University College London, it was only a matter of time before far-right racists adopted this as their cause.

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France: Nursery worker wins court case over hijab sacking

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Baby LoupA French creche assistant who was famously fired for refusing to remove her Islamic head-scarf had her dismissal annulled by France’s highest appeals court on Tuesday. The court judged the sacking was “religious discrimination”.

Fatima Afif, a nursery assistant sacked in 2008 by the ‘Baby Loup’ creche for refusing to remove her Muslim headscarf at work, won an appeal against her dismissal on Tuesday.

In delivering their verdict judges at Paris’s ‘Cour de cassation’ – France’s highest appeals court – said her firing “constituted discrimination based on religious convictions and must be declared invalid.”

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