Category Archives: Hijab

St. Louis County Jail changes search policies to address Muslim religious concerns

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The St. Louis County jail has decided to change its search policies after hearing from Muslim leaders who were upset over the forced removal of a woman’s religious headscarf earlier this year.

From now on, a woman wearing a hijab will be allowed to go into a private room to have the headscarf searched, then will be allowed to put it back on for the rest of the time that she is held at the jail — at least for as long as jailers are processing her arrest. The jail is still researching how to handle the issue with inmates who are housed there long-term.

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Florida: school football team wear hijab in solidarity with captain

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Irum KhanCheering up their Muslim teammate, a Floridian high school football team decided to don hijab before their season finale game to show solidarity with their Muslim captain who has been taunted repeatedly over her religious outfit.

“Everybody looked at us weird,” West Broward senior Marilyn Solorzano told Sun Sentinel website on Friday, April 20. “I understand now everything she went through and how hard it must have been.”

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Police hunt man who ripped off Muslim woman’s face veil in Solihull

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Solihull CCTVDetectives are hunting a man who grabbed a Muslim woman by the head and pulled off her face covering in a packed shopping centre.

The thug approached the woman from behind in Touchwood shopping centre, Solihull, on Saturday March 3 at 2pm. As she walked past the Disney Store he ripped the veil from her face and threw it on the floor before walking off.

Cops today released CCTV of the man they believe is responsible in an effort to track the thug down. Chief Inspector Kevin Doyle, from Solihull Police, said:

“Reports of crimes like this are exceptionally rare both in Solihull and the wider West Midlands. We are treating this incident as a hate crime as we believe the woman was deliberately targeted because of her faith, symbolised by her attire. I would urge anyone who recognises the man captured on camera to contact us as a matter of urgency.”

Anyone who recognises the man should contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Birmingham Mail, 17 April 2012

Muslim woman forced to remove headscarf at St. Louis County jail

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Basra Noor, 23, felt violated after a St. Louis County police officer and jail worker forcibly removed her head scarf, or hijab, after her arrest, and now wants an apology and pledge that it won’t happen to any other Muslim women.

STLtoday.com, 17 April 2012

See also CAIR press release, 17 April 2012

Update:  See “Muslim’s arrest spurs policy review”, STLtoday.com, 18 April 2012

France’s ‘burqa ban’ enforcing not solving inequality

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“It is now a year since the French government implemented a ban on the wearing of face coverings in public spaces, aimed at women who wear the full-face veil, popularly and incorrectly referred to as the ‘burqa’. Advocates of the ban argued it would protect gender equality and help maintain public order. A year later, it has done neither.” Hélène Irving reports.

Open Society Blog, 12 April 2012

299 women reported under veil ban law says French interior ministry

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Kenza Drider arrestOne year after France introduced a law banning women from wearing full-face veils in public, officials report that around 300 have been fined reported.

The ban on wearing the niqab in any public place was introduced on April 11th 2011. It is illegal for any woman to wear the veil except when they are at home, worshipping in a religious place or travelling as a passenger in a private car. Wearing the veil can lead to a fine of €150 ($200) and forced attendance at a citizenship class.

Interior ministry officials reported that “in one year there have been 354 police checks and 299 fines issued reports made,” reported Le Parisien newspaper.

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France: young woman in veil assaulted, called ‘dirty terrorist’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lqi6H0dfoL8

On 26 March 2012 at Juvisy-sur-Orge (in the Essonne department) a young woman wearing a veil was attacked. She was leaving a branch of the state employment agency Pole Emploi and returning to her car. She was violently asssaulted, threatened with a knife and insulted as a “dirty terrorist” and “dirty Arab”, while the individual tried to tear off her veil and steal her watch. Although the attackers could be identified by a DNA test, the prosecutor refused, because it “costs too much money”.

Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France, 3 April 2012

Via LoonWatch

Sydney Islamophobes confronted over ‘burqa’ stunt

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Sydney burqa stunt

Ugly scenes erupted between a group of burqa-clad protesters and a Muslim man outside NSW State Parliament in Sydney today.

A group of men dressed in the veiled female garb as a publicity stunt to try and get the outfit banned. Members of the group Faceless ventured into a Sydney CBD courthouse, pub and bank without drawing much reaction, but faced a stronger backlash later outside parliament. “It’s got no place in Australia – it’s an affront to a civilised country like Australia,” Faceless member Nicholas Folkes said of the burqa.

Nine News filmed a man outraged by the protesters, shouting in their faces and pulling off their veils. “That’s what I think of you,” the man said after spitting on the ground. The argument became more heated when a man connected to Faceless referred to the prophet Mohammed as “a rat”.

9 News, 2 April 2012

Folkes (who lost his veil during the confrontation) is the Sydney organiser of the far-right Australian Protectionist Party. Another of the “burqa” demonstrators was APP supporter Sergio Redegalli, the man responsible for the notorious “Say No to Burqas“/”Say No to Fiona Byrne” mural.

See also 7 News, 2 April 2012

Rowan Williams defends veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Archbishop of Canterbury believes that British Muslim women can “help assert themselves” by wearing a veil. Speaking at The Sunday Times Literary Festival in Oxford, Rowan Williams questioned the view that women hid behind veils and warned against “what we sometimes think of wrongly as stereotypes”.

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