Category Archives: Hijab

Iran to file complaint over FIFA hijab ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Iranian women's soccer team

Iran is to file a complaint against the FIFA official who banned the country’s women football team from playing in an Olympics qualifier match, over their hijab.

“We have already held talks with the president of the International Federation of Association Football about the participation of Iranian women in matches with full Islamic hijab,” said head of the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) Ali Kaffashian. “Unfortunately, however, I do not know why the official in charge of the matches refused to let our team play,” ISNA quoted the IFF chief as saying on Saturday. Therefore, we will file a complaint to FIFA against the official in charge of the games.”

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UCU conference to discuss motion defending students’ right to wear veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

UCU logoStudents should have the right to wear religious attire, such as burkhas, in colleges and universities, lecturers will be told tomorrow.

Leaders of the University and College Union (UCU) will pledge their support for the right of people of all faiths “to wear the religious head-dress and other religious attire appropriate to their faiths”. The union argues that the move is essential to encourage participation in further and higher education among ethnic minority groups – particularly women.

Delegates will also debate an amendment condemning what it calls “the alarming precedent” of a UK college prohibiting students from wearing the veil in college. Burnley College in Lancashire took the decision last year on security grounds. In 2009, it had also refused a student permission to enrol at the college while she was wearing a veil.

The debate comes on the heels of the French government’s decision to ban the wearing of the veil in public – a move criticised by the union as evidence of increasing Islamophobia. Other countries, such as Austria, are said to be considering similar moves to France if the number of women wearing veils grows.

“Anybody should be free to wear what they choose to follow their beliefs,” said Alan Whitaker, president of the UCU. “That has been a principle of the union. We are a secular union but that doesn’t mean we’re anti-religion.

“We’re in favour of people’s freedom to practise any religion they choose, and to be able to follow the customs of that religion – and that includes what clothing they wear.”

Delegates will cite as further evidence of Islamophobia the Swiss referendum decision to forbid the construction of minarets on mosques.

A further amendment, tabled by lecturers at the London School of Economics, says that “an important principle of education is to combat superstition and prejudice”. The LSE lecturers stress that allowing people of all faiths to wear what they want would help to achieve this. The amendment adds: “People of all faiths, or of none, have the right to dress as they personally consider appropriate.”

Independent on Sunday, 29 May 2011

The UCU conference will also debate a motion from the union’s LGBT members standing committee which warns against rising Islamophobia, “deplores the recruitment of any LGBT people” to the English Defence League and calls for a united campaign “against the EDL, their actions and their message of hate”.

EDL plans confrontation with Muslim community in Tower Hamlets … with help from local Labour MP

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Following their protest against “Muslim paedophiles” in Blackpool next Saturday, the English Defence League have announced that their next demonstration will be in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, which they describe as “the heartland of Islamic terrorism” (see here and here).

Comments about the Tower Hamlets protest on the EDL’s Facebook page have included a call to rip off Muslim women’s veils – from an individual currently on bail over charges arising from an attack on Kingston mosque – and even more explicit threats of violence such as this:

EDL threat to Tower Hamlets

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Belgium: senate gives green light to veil ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Belgium was set Wednesday to become the second European Union country to enforce a ban on public wearing of Islamic face veils, as its senate failed to raise objections against the provision passed last month by the lower chamber of parliament.

The Chamber of Deputies approved the so-called burqa ban law on April 28. The senate had 15 days to interfere with it, but declined to do so, the Belga news agency said, quoting sources from the Belgian Parliament.

Belgian lawmakers had already voted to ban Islamic face veils last year, but the law did not get into the statute books as parliament was dissolved in the wake of a government crisis fueled by a row between the country’s French and Dutch-speaking politicians.

“This time it should go through,” Belga wrote, indicating that the law is set to be enforced ten days after its publication in the country’s official journal.

The measure is supported by all political parties except French- and Dutch-speaking Greens, which either opposed it or abstained in last month’s chamber vote.

The law would punish anyone caught in public places with their face completely or partially covered –thus preventing their identification – with fines between 15 to 20 euros (21 to 35 dollars) and/or up to seven days’ imprisonment.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have criticized it, arguing that it “would violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion” of affected women.

DPA, 25 May 2011

Islamophobia discussed in London conference

Posted on by Bob Pitt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY7Xialu_-8

She may be a criminal in the eyes of French law, but here at a London conference on Islamophobia, Kenza Drider was welcomed as a champion of women’s rights.

Last month, as a French citizen, she made a public stand against France’s new law outlawing the wearing of the niqab or face veil. She’s been arrested twice, but has refused on principle to pay the fine.

She was one of many speakers at a conference on the spread of anti-Muslim hatred across Europe. Academics and activists have noted a change in social interaction as fears of abuse and attacks grew.

There have been many instances of violence against Muslims across Europe. One case which highlights the consequences of leaving Islamophobia unchecked is the story of Marwa Sherbini, now known as the hijab martyr. She was killed after being stabbed 18 times by a man who’d called her a terrorist.

Doctor Robert Lambert has been investigating attacks on Muslims for a decade. He says politicians could do far more to combat the problem. But there was also recognition that bridges had been built across groups and communities in the UK, particularly in London, that strengthened resistance to rise of the far right.

And so while there has been progress in terms of recognising Islamophobia, the threat of anti-Muslim hatred remains serious. The feeling here is that the attitudes of European governments must change first before European societies can deal with the problem, and stave off the increasing incidents of violence against Muslims and the growing prospect of isolated communities.

Press TV, 21 May 2011

See also “Activists condemn Islamophobia”, Daily Mirror, 21 May 2011

Swiss canton to hold referendum on veil ban?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A petition in Canton Ticino could force a referendum on prohibiting women from wearing burqas in public, a first for the country.

A local committee in Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking region, said it has collected 11,316 signatures, over a thousand more the required number to launch a referendum. Canton authorities will check the signatures over the next few days, reports say and could then call for a referendum.

According to local newspaper Corriere del Ticino, as well as banning burqas, niqabs and other Islamic headresses, the initiative also aims to ban the use of balaclavas and other headgear that disguise people’s faces. These are sometimes worn by people attending football matches in Switzerland.

If the referendum goes ahead, it will be the first time in Switzerland that citizens have been asked to express an opinion on burqas. A similar ban came into effect in France recently, causing a hot debate on personal and religious freedom in the country and beyond.

In 2009, the Swiss voted to ban the construction of minarets in a country, a decision that has sparked controversy in the Muslim world and in other European countries.

The Local, 20 May 2011

How the French veil ban is being implemented

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In France, one month after the start of the nation’s burka ban, women wearing face-covering garments are being forced to remove their veil in public to avoid police harassment.

Five women were immediately detained by police for wearing the burka on city streets as they attempted to attend a conference on the effects of the law. The organizer of the conference was forcibly removed after he tried to talk to one of the women, who had become ill during questioning.

The conference was organized by the multicultural association Don’t Touch My Constitution. The group has raised funds to help women pay the 150-euro fine the law calls for, but they say they haven’t spent one cent.

Proponents of the law say the ban protects the country from religious radicalism, as well as France’s principle of secularism, or laicite in French.

Many Muslims have complained that French media coverage consistently ignores the religious convictions of those who wear the burka. Instead, the women are portrayed as mere tools, with domineering men controlling their every move.

The law, which was roundly criticized by police organizations, may not have led to mass arrests, but Muslim groups say they must provide a voice for the many women who have refused to leave the house for fear of embarrassment.

People say the French government is applying the law carefully, but unevenly. It seems they’re largely ignoring the heavily Muslim suburbs, but it also seems that police can still make a big show when they feel it’s necessary.

Press TV, 11 May 2011

See also the New York Times which reports the French Interior Ministry as stating that police have stopped 46 women wearing face-veils in public, 27 of whom have been charged and will be fined about $215 or forced to take an official course on citizenship.

Victoria: minister defends multiculturalism, migrants and right to wear veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim women who choose to wear the face-covering burqa should be entitled to do as they pleased, says Victoria’s multicultural affairs minister.

Nick Kotsiras has also praised the Sudanese community who have come under scrutiny in the aftermath of outbreaks of street brawling after a youth beauty pageant last month. ”We have not got a Sudanese problem in Australia – or in Melbourne. There are 8000 Sudanese living in Victoria, the vast majority are hard-working, law-abiding citizens ” he told The Age.

In a spirited defence of cultural diversity, Mr Kotsiras said isolated incidents of violence were not an example of social disharmony brought on by the latest arrivals from Africa. And while those who broke the law should be punished, ”you cannot say it’s all the community’s fault”.

Weighing into the international debate on banning burqas, taken up by some of his federal Coalition colleagues, Mr Kotsiras said: ”If a person wishes to wear the burqa, then they should be allowed to wear the burqa. I don’t believe that someone should be forced to wear any particular item of clothing, but that’s across all cultures. If someone wants to wear [a burqa], I can’t see what the problem is.”

Mr Kotsiras, who arrived here as a child migrant from Greece in the early 1960s with no English, acknowledged that all new waves of settlers to Australia faced challenges relating to issues such as jobs and youth.

But he hoped an initiative in the state budget for a new unit within the Premier’s Department to help co-ordinate policies for new refugees and migrants across local, state and federal governments would identify service gaps. ”We open our arms to new migrants but now it is about helping them resettle in a new country,” said Mr Kotsiras, who is also the Minister for Citizenship.

A tendency of new arrivals to congregate in certain suburbs such as Dandenong or St Albans should not be characterised as creating ”ethnic ghettos”, Mr Kotsiras said.

”That’s an appalling term,” he said. ”There is absolutely no such thing as ghettos; people will live where they’ve got friends, where they’ve got jobs, where they’ve got a support base.” Mr Kotsiras cited his own experience arriving with his family: ”We went to Fitzroy because of the support base … and relatives. Where else would you expect us to go and live?”

The Age, 6 May 2011