Category Archives: Women

Will France ban the veil?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Secularism is the religion of contemporary France. And the enforcers of that faith have a new target. ‘Today… we are confronted by certain Muslim women wearing the burqa, which covers and fully envelops the body and the head like a moving prison,’ said Andre Gérin, a Communist Party legislator who joined 57 others Wednesday in signing a motion for a parliamentary committee to study possible legislation to ban the wearing of the traditional costume in public….

“But what about the rights of Muslim women who honestly feel faith-bound to voluntarily don a burka? Or those prohibited by law from attending public school with the headscarfs they wear everywhere else? Why is no one ranting about nuns’ habits being ‘degrading’ (as Gerin called the burqa), just as no one lashed out at creeping extremism when then-First Lady Bernadette Chirac covered her head during Vatican visits?

“Probably because Catholicism has deep roots in French history and culture, and is not viewed as a foreign faith the way Islam is ….”

Bruce Crumley in Time, 19 June 2009

See also “Muslim council slams call for burqa inquiry”, AFP, 18 June 2009

‘No, madam, it’s you who have offended MY values’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daily Mail pollWriting in today’s Daily Mail, Allison Pearson introduces us the the concept of “Burkha Rage”, defined as shorthand for anger directed against Muslim women “taking the mickey out of our country and its tolerant ways”.

According to Pearson, Muslim women continue to exploit “our” tolerance, “despite a growing acceptance that multi-culturalism has been deeply damaging to race relations”. That would be as distinct from the positive contribution to race relations made by the Daily Mail and its columnists, would it?

Speaking of which, arising out of Pearson’s column, the Mail is today running a poll on “Should immigrants be forced to respect British culture?”

See also ENGAGE.

Muslim waitress awarded £3,000 for being made to wear low-cut dress

Posted on by Bob Pitt

5128243W009 FataLemes02.JPGA Muslim waitress has been awarded a £3,000 pay out for sexual harassment after being made to wear a revealing red dress for work. Fata Lemes, 33, quit her job after claiming that the low-cut dress was “disgusting” and made her look like a “prostitute”. Miss Lemes, a Bosnian Muslim, had told an employment tribunal that she “might as well have been naked” in the dress.

The Central London Employment Tribunal awarded Miss Lemes damages after pointing out that only women – and not male staff – were required to wear the summer uniform at the bar in Mayfair, London. The outfit was described as “brightly coloured, figure hugging garb”.

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Antwerp: Vlaams Belang protest against mosque

Posted on by Bob Pitt

VlaamsBelangprotest2

Vlaams Belang held a protest yesterday against the mosque at the Sint-Bernardsesteenweg in Antwerp.

According to the party, with an area of 4,000 sqm, this would be the biggest in Flanders and would also have a koran school and imam training.

In recent days the VB gave out 50,000 flyers against the mosque which according to them would be a symbol of the Islamization of Antwerp and Flanders.

According to VB leader Filip Dewinter, the Jisr Al Amana mosque is everything but a good idea. “Islam is like a cuckoo which lays its eggs in our European next. We hatch them and will in the end be cast off,” he said.

The party walked through the local market with three women dresses in a burka with the slogan “Islam can harm your freedom”.

Islam in Europe, 5 June 2009

‘Fears of Muslim anger over religious book’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Does God Hate WomenAn academic book about religious attitudes to women is to be published this week despite concerns it could cause a backlash among Muslims because it criticises the prophet Muhammad for taking a nine-year-old girl as his third wife.

The book, entitled Does God Hate Women?, suggests that Muhammad’s marriage to a child called Aisha is “not entirely compatible with the idea that he had the best interests of women at heart”.

It also says that Cherie Blair, wife of the former prime minister, was “incorrect” when she defended Islam in a lecture by claiming “it is not laid down in the Koran that women can be beaten by their husbands and their evidence should be devalued as it is in some Islamic courts”.

This weekend, the publisher, Continuum, said it had received “outside opinion” on the book’s cultural and religious content following suggestions that it might cause offence. “We sought some advice and paused for thought before deciding to go ahead with publication,” said Oliver Gadsby, the firm’s chief executive. The book will be released on Thursday.

Sunday Times, 31 May 2009

Sounds to me like a cynical attempt by the authors, Ophelia Benson and Jeremy Stangroom – who are associated with the notoriously Islamophobic website Butterflies and Wheels – to boost sales of their book, which has already been turned down by Verso.

The report concludes with a quote from a Muslim critic: “No one will swallow talk about child brides. It would lead to a huge backlash, as we saw with The Jewel of Medina.” And who is the individual the Sunday Times has chosen to approach as a representative voice of British Muslims? Wouldn’t you know it, it’s Anjem Choudary, leader of the minuscule gang of provocateurs who previously traded under the name of Al-Muhajiroun.

Which only goes to show that, when it comes to depicting the UK Muslim community, the “serious” press often shows the same irresponsibility and contempt for accuracy as the worst of the tabloids.

Update:  See also Benson’s opinion piece in the Observer and Yusuf Smith’s response (“The article left me wondering how a respectable liberal Sunday broadsheet can print such a shoddy article containing such obvious generalisations and faulty logic”) at Indigo Jo Blogs.

‘Please uncover your face. It’s our custom’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Would it be wrong to try to convey to communities in Britain who adopt the full hijab that, though it is a woman’s legal right to dress as she chooses, she should recognise that she’s in a country where many people will find a masked face disturbing, and that (without meaning to) she is acting in a culturally inappropriate manner, which may offend?”

Matthew Parris poses the question, in the Times, 28 May 2009

See also ENGAGE, 29 May 2009

ACLU asks court to allow Muslim women to wear veils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a group of domestic violence and religious organisations yesterday asked the Michigan supreme court to change a proposed rule that would allow judges to bar Muslim women wearing veils from testifying in court. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for 12 May.

“Judges should not deny anyone access to justice because of his or her religion,” said Michael Steinberg, legal director for the ACLU of Michigan. Steinberg said the ACLU and other groups asked the supreme court to add a sentence to the rule, saying “that no person shall be precluded from testifying on the basis of clothing worn because of a sincerely held belief”.

Steinberg said his request yesterday was signed by religious organisations including the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the American Jewish Congress and Michigan Conference of the United Church of Christ. A group of domestic violence organisations also signed the request in order to allow women who have been sexually assaulted, for instance, to have their day in court without abandoning their beliefs.

Guardian, 1 May 2009

See also Michigan Messenger, 30 April 2009

Tory MP calls for end to Sharia councils

Posted on by Bob Pitt

General ElectionMark Pritchard, Tory MP for The Wrekin, blogs at ConservativeHome.

And yes, it’s the usual stuff about the supposed threat from a “parallel legal system” which undermines women’s rights and social cohesion.

Needless to say, as is invariably the case with this sort of attack on Sharia councils, Pritchard makes no mention of the Beth Din courts that operate on exactly the same basis in the Jewish community.

The Centre for Social Cohesion recently published a study of the Beth Din (pdf here). In answer to the question “Is the Beth Din a recognised legal court – does it offer a parallel legal system?”, the CSC report stated:

“No, in neither arbitration cases nor religious judgements, is the Beth Din recognised as a legal court nor does it offer a parallel legal system; Beth Din rulings or advice can only be reflected in UK law if both parties freely agree and the decision is approved by the civil courts.”

As is the case with Sharia councils too. Indeed, we look forward to a report from the CSC which presents a similarly balanced analysis of faith-based arbitration in the Muslim community.

And if Pritchard is worried about women’s rights (not a traditional Tory concern, it must be said) he might take this up with the Sephardi Beth Din which in July 2008 divorced a Jewish woman without her consent, on the grounds that she “dressed provocatively in public, worse than a common harlot” and “danced in nightclubs late into the night”.

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Egg thrown at woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A woman wearing a hijab was hit above the eye by an egg thrown from a passing car in what police in Surrey described as a racially-aggravated assault. It happened as she walked past the Children’s Centre, in Church Road, Frimley, at about 2100 GMT on 22 March.

She told police that a light blue Peugeot 206 drove past her and tooted, but when she turned round one of several young men inside threw the egg. She suffered a small bump above her eye but did not require medical treatment.

BBC News, 3 April 2009