Category Archives: Hijab

FIBA to review ‘discriminatory’ ban on headgear

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Bilqis Abdul-QaadirFacing claims that Muslim and Sikh players are being discriminated against, basketball’s governing body will review its ban which prevents players wearing headgear for religious reasons.

FIBA said Friday that its policy-making board will review the issue at an Aug. 27 meeting in Sevilla, Spain, ahead of the World Cup.

“FIBA’s Central Board, which is ultimately responsible for changes to the Official Basketball Rules, will review these requests and decide how to proceed in the best interest of the sport,” the 214-nation governing body said in a statement.

The United States Olympic Committee and India’s government had this week called for an end to the ban.

“We take seriously American athletes’ right to compete and believe that reasonable steps can be taken to accommodate athletes of all religious beliefs,” said the USOC, which was urged to intervene by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

India’s sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal responded after two Sikhs on the national team had to remove their turbans before FIBA-sanctioned Asia Cup matches in China this month. The minister said he was “shocked and outraged,” and asked the IOC to send guidelines to Olympic sports federations.

Current FIBA rules prevent players wearing “headgear, hair accessories and jewelry,” allowing only a 5-centimeter headband to control hair and sweat.

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Bristol Muslim woman’s shock at being spat at and verbally abused

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Hasina KhanA Muslim woman was left shocked and in tears when she was verbally abused and spat at by a stranger ranting about the Middle East.

Hasina Khan, who was born in Bristol, was on her way to work when she was attacked by a man in Cabot Circus at about 9am on Monday. Saliva ended up on her hijab and her left hand.

The 36-year-old, who lives in Horfield, said: “I’ve experienced hostility and racism many times, from being called Paki in the street to having alcohol thrown at me.

“I remember during the 1990 Iraq invasion being pushed by a boy at school followed by ‘haha we are bombing you’, to more recent years when the world turned to topple Libya and I experienced yet again a rise in racism. In fact, every time there is aggression towards Muslims outside of the UK, I experience aggression from within the UK.

“However, nothing could prepare me for what happened on Monday. Because of Israel’s bombardment of the mainly-Muslim population of Gaza, was I again being targeted?

“I had just past Pret A Manger and a man came charging towards me with such aggression I thought he was going to punch me in the face. He was ranting and he spat in my face. I felt it fall onto my left hand.

“I was in shock at what was happening. I asked him what his problem was, but he continued to rant and said something along the lines of ‘your people are killing’ and something about ‘Middle East’ and ‘killing Christians’. He spat at me again. It was terrifying. I thought he was going to attack me at any second.

“Then my defence mechanism just kicked in and I started to shout at him. What a coward – he then started to back away. He tried to say something else, but I continued to shout at him until he left Cabot Circus. I’ve read so many reports that hate crime towards Muslim women is increasing in the UK, but nothing really prepares you for what to do if it happens and how humiliating, terrifying and dirty it makes you feel.

“I hope he is caught so he cannot terrorise and traumatise other women.”

The attacker was white, with short-brown hair and a short beard, a dark-green T-shirt with a white pattern or writing on the front, and he had two silver necklaces with silver coin-shaped pendants.

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Long Beach police investigate attack on woman wearing hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Long Beach hate crime suspectPolice in Long Beach are investigating a possible hate crime committed against a woman wearing Muslim garb. The incident occurred earlier this month, authorities said.

A 32-year-old female Long Beach resident, wearing a traditional hijab, was attacked in a parking lot in the 4000 block of Atlantic Avenue. Police said the woman was wearing a black hijab, the head covering Muslim women wear to conceal their hair and necks.

As the woman loaded items into her car, she said she was approached by a man from behind. He grabbed the hijab and began cursing at the woman, police said. Authorities said the man called the hijab by its name, indicating he had knowledge of the Muslim culture.

Police said the man tried to remove the hijab from the woman’s head, pulling and twisting it as she resisted. The victim was choked by his action and received scratches and abrasions to her neck. The man fled on foot, southbound down an alley, with the hijab in his hand.

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Muslim women thrown out of French swimming pool for wearing ‘burkinis’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Rives des CorbieresTwo Muslim women were ordered to leave a swimming pool in a French holiday village on the southwest coast for wearing body-covering “burkinis”. The women had plunged into the pool at le Port Leucate wearing full body swimsuits, including a head-covering hijab veil, but were immediately told to get out of the water.

The women at the Rives des Corbieres holiday camp were told to leave as they had breached the camp’s rules allowing only conventional bikinis or one-piece swimsuits “for hygiene reasons”.

Police received conflicting accounts of what happened next. The pool’s lifeguard filed a complaint saying the husband of one of the women threatened him with a bowling ball. The husband filed a complaint claiming security personnel beat him up.

Marie-Paule Bardeche, a regional government official said: “This is above all an issue stemming from the holiday centre’s internal regulations, in place for hygiene and sanitary reasons. Access to the swimming pool is reserved for ordinary swimsuit wearers.”

The holiday camp where the burkini incident took place is run by a staunchly secular organisation called the “Aude federation of secular works”.

Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2010

See also the Daily Mail, 22 July 2010

Here are some comments from the Mail (bear in mind that they have been “moderated in advance”):

“Hooray for the French. If burka-wearers are so extreme in their islamic views, then why don’t they go back to their islamic countries?”

“Well, France always was the pioneer of common sense … now it is, hopefully, paving the way for the rest of Europe regarding the encroachment of Islamofascism.”

“Stupid women in stupid outfits, taking orders from stupid men with stupid ideas. End of story. Well done to France for having the backbone to ban these idiots.”

“The French are finally fighting back after decades of being intimidated by the enormous mass of their immigrant population from North Africa. Immigrants which were brought in by the millions by previous misguided politicians, as a permanently loyal voter base – except they turned out not to be loyal at all. Now the French have to cope with riots in the streets by the disaffected immigrants’s children. With unmanageable crime rates. With crippling Welfare costs. And with the slow but sure disintegration of their culture, institutions and way of life. Does that sound familiar?”

“Well done France – a nation prepared to fight for their heritage and culture in the face of the coloniser’s onslaught.”

“GOOD, they deserve to be kicked out … this thing were we in the west pamper to the wims of these fanatics should stop.”

“It would never happen in this country, we the British would be asked to leave before muslims.”

“You have to admire the French, they don’t stand for any nonsense unlike the British who pander to anyone who is not British.”

“Why should radical Muslims think they can have special treatment. In fact far too many people are kowtowing down to these radicals demand.”

“if Muslims don’t like the way we do things in Europe then it’s quite simple they should go and live in a Muslim country. This would stop the tension for Muslims and non-Muslims.”

“GOOD! Bravo France. Its about time people in the West stood up to this. If they dont like our laws, rules and beliefs and have no respect for them then fine, go and live in a Muslim country that does.”

“Well done France! If women still decide to wear this form of attire then they have no right to be in a Western country.”

Lansing: Muslim woman attacked in mall

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A civil liberties group said Monday that an incident in which a woman was assaulted at the Meridian Mall on Saturday should be investigated as a possible hate crime.

Meridian Township police confirmed that officers responded to an assault that occurred at the mall Saturday but would neither confirm nor deny the description of events offered by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI).

Dawud Walid, executive director for CAIR-MI, said two white men and a white woman surrounded a 26-year-old Muslim woman and tried to pull off her face veil and abaya, a full body dress worn by some Muslim women. They knocked her to the ground and shouted expletives at her, he said.

“We urge state, local and federal law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for this troubling incident and to make every effort to bring the alleged perpetrators to justice,” said Walid.

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City in Tarragona passes bylaw banning burqas and niqabs in public places

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Alicia Alegret with Carles PellicerThe Reus city council, in the Catalan province of Tarragona, on Friday approved new bylaws that will ban people from wearing a burqa, niqab or any other kind of full face veil in public places.

The measure is the first to go so far in Spain, given that other such local legislation had only banned such clothing on municipal-owned premises.

The measure was passed thanks to votes from the coalition government in the city council, made up of the conservative Popular Party (PP) and the Catalan nationalist bloc CiU. The opposition parties – including the Catalan Socialists, PSC – all voted against the measure.

The local government had called for the prohibition based on criteria of “security” and “coexistence.”

CiU and the PP initially wanted to introduce fines of €750 for wearing this clothing, but the mayor, Carles Pellicer (CiU), and the deputy mayor, Alicia Alegret (PP), [pictured] admitted that they would not be able to apply such penalties. The police will simply have powers to identify anyone who has their face covered in public spaces.

“According to a sentence from the Supreme Court from February 13, 2013, municipal powers do not allow for fines for people with their face covered due to religious reasons,” a juridical report commissioned by the PSC reads. “If the municipal authority does not observe this limitation to its powers to levy fines, it could be committing the offense of perversion of justice.”

Reus says that it is backed by a recent sentence issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which backed a similar ban in France.

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Muslim girl spat at and racially abused in Bristol city centre – and no one came to help

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Corn Street BristolA teenage girl walking home from school through Bristol’s city centre was spat at in one of the busiest streets in the centre – a place where she should have been safe. And while the incident took place, leaving the 17-year-old feeling humiliated, nobody stopped to intervene or help.

Now councillors in the inner city ward where the girl lives say they fear there could be a backlash in Bristol if more “Islamophobic” incidents occur.

The girl, who has asked not to be named, was walking in the city centre along Corn Street wearing a headscarf when a man approached and started hurling insults at her. She tried to take the abuse in her stride, but the tirade got worse. The man began spitting in her face and all over her clothes and school bag.

The Bristol Post understands that he was swearing and shouting insults against Islam and her supposed birth place – even though the girl was born in Bristol, has never lived outside the city and considers herself British. Eventually the girl ran off and phoned her father who immediately came to pick her up. He took her to Trinity Road police station and made a formal complaint.

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Revealing report on anti-Muslim racism in Ireland

Posted on by Bob Pitt

AMR reportAn informative report by Dr James Carr on racism and bigotry against Muslims in Ireland has been published by the University of Limerick. Based on a survey of Irish Muslims on their experiences of anti-Muslim hostility, complemented by one-to-one interviews and focus group discussions, the report found that 36% of respondents felt they had been targeted on the basis of being identified as Muslim.

Dr Carr writes: “The manner in which this hostility manifested varied. Participants reported experiencing physical assaults (22%) ranging from being struck, having hijabs forcibly removed, to being pushed, spat at; some reported being threatened or harassed (20%). A white Irish male revert to Islam recalls his experiences of physical forms of abuse: ‘I have been pushed and have had people spit in my face, for being Muslim’. Fewer participants (14%) indicated that they had property damaged. Those who detailed how this manifested referred to tyres being slashed, having eggs thrown at their home inter alia.”

The survey found that women, who were more easily identified as Muslim because of their dress, experienced higher levels of anti-Muslim hostility (44%) and discrimination (40%) than men (28% and 22% respectively). Women interviewees also reported their frustration at being subjected to anti-Muslim stereotyping and regarded condescendingly as passive victims of male oppression.

Dr Carr adds: “The discourse of oppressed Muslim women also serves to ‘legitimise’ the deployment of ‘liberation tactics’ by those would be ‘liberators’ of the oppressed. The impact these ‘tactics’ have on the Muslim female participants in this study includes shock, depression, feelings of fear and vulnerability. Jada explains how she was told to ‘take that thing rag off your head you you’re too good looking for that’ by a patient in the hospital she works in.”

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Legal challenge to French mayor’s ban of Muslim hijab on beach

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Affiche wissous plageAfter two mothers wearing Muslim hijabs, or headscarves, were refused access to a beach in the French municipality of Wissous, its regional government of Essone on Saturday legally challenged Wissous’ ban on the wearing of religious symbols.

The Versailles Administrative Court, approached in an urgent joint application by Essone and by the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), was due to give its decision late Saturday afternoon.

Wissous Mayor Richard Trinquier, of the right-wing UMP party, had been at the beach the previous Saturday and had made the decision to turn the women away. Wissous is about 30 kilometres south of Paris and is a popular summer leisure spot.

Trinquier told the hearing the beach rule protected France’s commitment to secularism. He said it was in no way an obstacle to the practice of religion, but that there had been an increasing presence of religious symbols in public, which were “an obstacle to living together”.

The applicants argued that the by-law forbidding religious symbols on the beach established by the mayor amounted to “religious discrimination” that “violates the principles of the Republic”.

The rule “violates a fundamental freedom, the freedom of religious belief”, argued the lawyer for the CCIF, Sefen Guezguez. He said it showed a misunderstanding of the law.

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