Category Archives: Women

‘Honour killing over hijab gets life term in Canada’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Thus the headline to a report that the father and brother of a young Canadian woman named Aqsa Parvez have been sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder in 2007.

The report begins: “Just days after a Punjab man was jailed for life in honour killing of his daughter-in-law, a Pakistani father, along with his son, here too faces life behind bars for honour killing of his young girl for her refusal to wear the hijab.”

But it seems clear that Aqsa Parvez’s tragic death did not in fact result from “her refusal to wear the hijab”. Though this has been the media spin put on her murder, it is a distortion.

The friend at whose house Aqsa was staying after leaving her own home stated that, at the time of Aqsa’s murder, her rejection of her father’s demand that she wear a headscarf was not a major cause of conflict between Aqsa and her family.

According to one report, the issue of the hijab had arisen in 2006 but had been resolved after Aqsa left home on an earlier occasion: “Upon her return, her mother took her shopping for Western clothes and she was allowed to attend school in non-traditional clothes.” Another report confirms that, following this dispute, Aqsa’s father “relented, and allowed her to wear urban-style jeans and T-shirts to school”.

The conflict would appear to have been a much broader one between a young woman who wanted to live a westernised lifestyle and culturally conservative male relatives who regarded her behaviour as an attack on the family’s honour. Such notions of honour are a feature of many backward rural societies across the world and are not associated with any particular faith.

So why was media so intent on depicting the hijab as the main motive for Aqsa’s killing? The reason is is not hard to identify. It was an attempt to pin the blame on Islam as part of an ongoing campaign against Muslims and multiculturalism.

Spanish government announces plans to ban veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Cruzada contra el burkaSpain’s government plans to ban the use of the Islamic burqa in public places under a proposed new law on religious freedom, the justice minister said Tuesday.

“We believe that there are things like the burqa which are hard to reconcile with human dignity and which especially pose problems of identification in public places,” Francisco Caamano told reporters. The new law “will have to include measures on these symbols which impede identification in public places” for reasons of “security”, Caamano said.

His remarks came a day after the mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, announced it would be the first large city in Spain to ban the use of the full-face Islamic veil in public buildings.

Two other towns in the northeastern region of Catalonia, Lerida and El Venrell, have recently imposed bans on the use of the Islamic veil in public buildings. Two more, Tarragona and Gerona, are considering similar measures, as is Coin in the southern region of Andalucia.

AFP, 15 June 2010

Ban on hijab in Norwegian courts rejected

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Norwegian judges and other court officials are to be allowed to wear religious dress including the Muslim headscarf or hijab during court sessions, the board of the National Courts Administration said Monday.

However, if a party in a case has objections to the use of such attire – which also includes the Sami national costume – the person wearing such clothing could be recused – in other words excused from the case – the board said.

The National Courts Administration had initially proposed that all religious attire be banned in court rooms but revised its proposal after hearing opinions from various agencies.

Current guidelines for judges stipulate that “a judge has to act in such a manner that there can be no reason to question the judge’s impartiality.”

The discussion about the attire in court rooms was linked to a similar debate within the Norwegian police force. A year ago, the justice minister dropped plans to allow women police officers to wear the hijab as part of their uniform. The Norwegian Police Federation said it opposed any form of religious headwear, saying the police force had to be viewed as neutral.

DPA, 14 June 2010

Barcelona to ban veil in municipal buildings

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Barcelona is to become the first major Spanish city to bar the use of face-covering Islamic veils in municipal buildings.

City Mayor Jordi Hereu announced the measure Monday but insisted it was not specifically religious. He says it is aimed at all dress that impedes identification, and thus includes motorcycle helmets and ski masks.

Lleida, also in the Spanish region of Catalonia, last month became the first Spanish city to regulate use of body-covering burqas or face-covering niqab garments.

Barcelona town hall said the measure was largely symbolic given that it is unusual to see women wearing burqas or niqabs in the city, which has a population of 1.5 million.

Associated Press, 14 June 2010

See also Reuters, which reports that a Partido Popular councillor has complained that the ban does not go far enough: “The mayoral decree is a half-measure, because as well as forbidding the burqa and niqab in public installations, it is necessary to forbid it on the street.”

‘Artificial debate’ on veil in Spain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Very few Spaniards have ever seen a Muslim woman dressed in a burqa – an all-body veil – walking on local streets.There are no more than an estimated few dozen burqas in the country of 46 million residents, yet the garment has become the object of a heated debate.

Seven municipalities have announced or are considering bans on the burqa, a conservative party is taking the matter to the senate, and some Muslim leaders have vowed to take legal action to reverse the bans. “This is an entirely artificial debate, with political motives behind it,” Encarnacion Gutierrez, secretary-general of Madrid’s Islamic Culture Foundation (FUNCI), told the German Press Agency dpa.

Spain has about 1.3 million Muslims. Most of them are of Moroccan origin. It is not rare for Muslim women in Spain to wear the Islamic headscarf or hijab, which covers the hair. Yet very few of them wear the niqab, a garment covering all but the eyes, and even fewer don the burqa, which includes a semi-transparent veil hiding the eyes.

The burqa, which is worn mainly in Afghanistan, and the niqab are thought to have a pre-Islamic origin. Yet opposition to all-body veils in the West has encouraged some Muslim women to claim them as a sign of their religious identity. In the north-eastern Spanish city of Lleida, for instance, some women reportedly started wearing the niqab after the municipality became the first in Spain to ban all-body veils from public buildings in May.

El Vendrell followed Lleida’s example on Friday, and five other north-eastern municipalities are considering similar bans. Muslim leaders from 11 mosques in the region intend to defend women’s “democratic” right to wear the burqa or niqab at the Constitutional Court.

“I cover myself to feel closer to Allah,” said Zohra Nia, a 38- year-old Moroccan woman who wears the niqab. “My goal is to hide my beauty” from men other than her husband or close relatives, Nia told the daily El Pais in Tarragona, one of the municipalities which are expected to outlaw the burqa and the niqab.

Spain’s main opposition conservative People’s Party (PP) is taking the debate to the senate, which it wants to adopt a motion calling on Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government to ban all- body veils from public places. “Most Spaniards regard the use of these garments as being discriminating, harmful and contrary to the dignity of women,” conservative senator Alicia Sanchez-Camacho said. The burqa is also a security issue, because its wearer cannot be identified, she pointed out.

Zapatero’s Socialist government has not taken a clear stance on the issue. Spain does not even have nationwide rules governing the use of the hijab, with some schools allowing pupils to wear it, while others expel girls who refuse to remove it in class.

Gutierrez says she opposes the use of the burqa, but sees bans as doing more harm than good. Debates on subjects such as the burqa could become “explosive” in Spain, which created an “anti-Muslim” Christian identity after expelling the last of its former Muslim rulers in the late 15th century, she said. It was contradictory for Spain to allow women to wear extremely scanty clothing, but to question women’s right to cover their bodies, Gutierrez said.Covering women’s bodies in a sign of chastity is not only an Islamic concept, but forms part of Christianity and other traditions as well, she pointed out.

DPA, 13 June 2010

Belgian school sacks teacher for wearing veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Belgian high school on Tuesday sacked a Muslim maths teacher after she insisted she would continue to wear the burqa while taking classes.

At the start of the academic year authorities at the school in Charleroi, south of Brussels, told the Turkish-born teacher to remove her full-face Islamic veil, which she had been wearing during class for two and a half years. The teacher refused and took her case to court.

In the first instance the Charleroi tribunal backed the school board, citing the religious “neutrality” of the schools serving Belgium’s francophone community. However, in March the appeals court ruled that the school in question came under the jurisdiction of Charleroi, which had not issued rules on the banning of religious insignia. The Muslim teacher therefore returned to school, but the municipality soon afterwards introduced its own ban on the wearing of “all religious or philosophical symbols”.

On Tuesday officials at the school, after auditioning the teacher in presence of the mayor, decided to sack her for her continued refusal to leave her burqa at home, according to a statement issued by the town hall.

AFP, 8 June 2010

Update:  See Islam in Europe which points out that “Nuran Topal, the teacher in question, wears a headscarf, not a face-veil”.

Canadian court to rule on ‘veil’ testimony

Posted on by Bob Pitt

An Ontario court is considering whether an alleged rape victim may testify with her face covered, which defendants say would call her truthfulness in question.

At a preliminary hearing last year, a judge ordered the 32-year-old woman to remove her niqab, or burqa, so defense lawyers could assess her claims of being molested. She resisted, saying her religion bars her from exposing her face to non-family members, the Globe and Mail reported Tuesday.

The defendants – a cousin and uncle of the woman – argue the truthfulness of her testimony cannot be determined if her face is hidden.

Some legal experts claim veils provide a convenient shield for a lying witness, while others reject the idea of facial expressions being a reliable guide to honesty, the newspaper said. The Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund says disallowing veils would drive Muslim women from the justice system.

The case is currently before an Ontario appeals court.

UPI, 8 June 2010

Another Catalan town council to consider veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The full council of El Vendrell (Tarragona), in line with the motion adopted in Lleida, will examine in the second week of June a proposal from CiU, to prohibit the use of the burqa and niqab in public facilities in the municipality.

To date, the CiU initiative has not been seconded by any other relevant council of the Tarragona region, although the PP de Catalunya is “gathering information” in the capital of Tarragona, and its leader, Alejandro Fernandez, advanced to meet the mayor, Josep Felix Ballesteros to reach a consensus position on this matter, “without trying to draw political benefits of such a sensitive issue.”

Fernandez made no secret that he would be in favour of banning the burka “not only in public facilities but also in public places” because “the standard bearer for the progressive multiculturalism has a very clear limit on human rights.”

Barcelona Reporter, 2 June 2010

See also “Spanish towns consider Islamic veil ban: reports”, Expatica, 2 June 2010

Lerida bans veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Spanish town of Lerida has become the first in the country to ban the Burka in municipal buildings.

The town council voted to prohibit the “use of the veil and other clothes and accessories which cover the face and prevent identification in buildings and installations of the town hall.”

The vote, by 23 to one with two abstentions, is the first of its kind in Spain, a country where Islamic veils and the body-covering burqas are little in evidence despite a large Muslim population.

The move is aimed at promoting “respect for the dignity of women and values of equality and tolerance,” the town hall said in a statement.

Daily Telegraph, 29 May 2010

Catalan town council to vote Friday on veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Spain’s northeastern town of Lerida is to vote Friday to ban the wearing of the burqa in municipal buildings, the mayor’s office said, in an apparent first for the country.

A proposal was being drawn up and the majority socialists were behind the push to ban the face-covering Islamic veil in the municipality’s buildings, a spokesman for the mayor’s office said Wednesday.

The town had asked its legal services to look into the possibility of banning the garment in all public spaces in the name of the fundamental rights of women, the official said.

“We cannot regulate the usage of the burqa in the road, but we can do that in municipal buildings,” he said.

Few women wear the full veil in Lerida, a town in the Catalonia region that has about 140,000 residents, one-fifth of whom are immigrants including from North Africa.

AFP, 26 May 2010