Angus Mackinnon examines the rise in discrimination against Muslims in France, justified as a defence of laïcité.
Category Archives: Women
Maryam Namazie calls for ban on niqab … with assistance of Channel 4
For reasons best known to themselves, the producers of Channel 4’s 4thought.tv slot decided to give Maryam Namazie a platform to demand a ban on the niqab. You can watch it here.
Namazie was allowed to present herself as an ordinary ex-Muslim who turned against the niqab as a result of her experiences in Iran (where, in fact, there is no legal enforcement of the face-veil). There was no indication that Namazie is a leading figure in the Worker-Communist Party of Iran, a crazed far-left sect with a long history of Islamophobia.
French veil law: Muslim woman’s challenge in Strasbourg
A young Muslim woman is challenging France’s full-face veil ban at the European Court of Human Rights, based in the French city of Strasbourg. The woman argues that the niqab, and the burka body covering, accord with her “religious faith, culture and personal convictions”. She denies being under any pressure from her family to wear them.
A leading French feminist group has urged the ECHR to uphold the ban, arguing that it liberates women. “The full-face veil, by literally burying the body and the face, constitutes a true deletion of the woman as an individual in public,” the head of the International League for Women’s Rights, Annie Sugier, said in a letter to the court.
Baby-Loup hijab ban upheld by appeals court
A French court has upheld the controversial sacking of a childcare worker who wore a headscarf to work.
In a case that has gripped France for five years, a Paris appeals court ruled on November 27 that the dismissal of nursery worker Fatima Afif was legal.
Baby-Loup, the crèche employing Fatima Afif in the multicultural Parisian suburb of Chanteloup-les-Vignes, fired her in 2008 after she refused to remove her Islamic headscarf at work.
Secular France bans religious signs in public educational institutions. But the Court of Cassation ruled last March that privately-owned Baby-Loup had discriminated against its employee on religious grounds. France’s highest court then sent her case to the Paris appeals court for retrial.
The judge followed the advice of the state prosecutor, who had asked for the sacking to be confirmed in the name of France’s secularism. Wednesday’s ruling states that the crèche had a “public service mission” and had a right to “impose neutrality on its personnel”.
California: Muslim woman told she can’t wear head scarf to work
A woman in El Dorado Hills said she was given the okay to wear a hijab, a scarf worn by Muslim women that covered their head and chest, to work. But the very next day, Rosemary Hassan was told to take it off.
Hundreds of Muslims attend conference to eradicate Islamophobia
Several hundred Muslims were in Atlanta this weekend to tackle two big issues: how do you overcome people’s fear of Islam, and how should the Muslim community address issues facing Muslim women. Those issues were the focus points of this Islamic World International Conference held near the Atlanta Airport.
The event space of the hotel was filled with a variety of tables from people selling Hijabs to outreach programs and academies for Muslim children.
French veil ban before Europe rights court
European judges will on Wednesday hear the case of a 23-year-old French woman who claims the country’s highly contentious ban on full-face veils violates her rights.
The Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hear arguments in the case brought by a plaintiff known only by her initials SAS, with a ruling expected in early 2014.
Minister condemns hate mail sent to Irish Muslim community, says gardaí will take ‘appropriate action’
Justice Minister Alan Shatter has condemned the sending of hate mail to the Muslim community, and said he is bringing the matter to the attention of Garda Commissioner.
An unsigned letter, which features an image of Michael Collins, was posted to a number of schools and mosques recently, threatening extreme violence if building plans for a new mosque in north Dublin get underway.
The Minister said in a statement that he utterly condemned “racism and religious bigotry in all of their forms” and that he was “appalled by the nature of the letters. He added: “Religious intolerance has no place in our society. Incitement to hatred and incitement to violence are offences under our laws.”
The letter states that: “Your very presence in our country is destroying our heritage and culture and we are calling on our countries’ people to attack any Muslim they come across in shops, taxis or mosques or any other place they come across them.”
Sydney conference hears Australian Muslims experience higher rates of racism
An international conference on what it means to be an Australian Muslim has heard that most Muslims experience much higher rates of racism than the average Australian.
The two day conference has been organised by Charles Sturt University’s Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation, along with the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy Australia.
The Centre’s director, Mehmet Ozalp says the inaugural conference is needed to examine what it means to be an Australian Muslim in the 21st century. He says there is a focus on young people, including the impact of the internet and radical forces.
“There is an identity crisis that always comes with being young but also being a young Muslim makes it even deeper and more profound”, he said. “There are people pulling in different directions but what we found in our research is that by and large Muslims want to integrate into Australia.”
Muslim women more likely to suffer Islamophobic attacks than men – study
Muslim women are more likely to be subjected to Islamophobic attacks than men, especially if they are wearing the niqab or other clothing associated with their religion, a study has found.
Maybe We Are Hated, a report on the impact of Islamophobic attacks, written by Dr Chris Allen, a social policy lecturer at the University of Birmingham, will be launched in the House of Commons on Wednesday. It is intended to look beyond the statistics and, for the first time, give a voice to the female victims of Islamophobia.
One of the women featuring in the report, Rachel, 28, was run over by a man after she asked him to move his car, which was blocking the drive of her house. Before attacking her, he said: “I’m gonna pop you, Muslim.”
In another case, four decomposing pigs’ heads were placed outside a woman’s house. Shareefa, 33, told how she was repeatedly abused by a group of young people calling her names such as “ninja” and had fireworks posted through the letterbox of her home.
“I was scared to go out on the street or into the area on my own,” she told Allen. “It made me think continuously that I need some sort of self-defence class so I know now to defend myself and protect my children. You start linking everything as being anti-Muslim, and that may well not be the case. For example, some people give you a look, which may be nothing.”
Allen interviewed 20 women aged between 15 and 52 about their experiences. One was called “Mrs Osama bin Laden” and told to “go back to Afghanistan” while at the gym. Another, on her way home after dropping her children at school, was followed by a woman with a pushchair, who spat in her face and asked her: “Why do you look so ugly? Why are you covering your face?”