Category Archives: Women

Czech Interior Ministry rules that spa town must respect Muslim dress codes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

TepliceThe Czech Interior Ministry has decided that the north Bohemian town of Teplice cannot issue a decree banning people from covering their faces in connection with the Arab clients of the local spa, daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) writes in its regional supplement today.

The Teplice town hall was considering introducing such a ban in order to make some Arab tourists more respect “European rules” and keep public space tidy.

“A decree cannot regulate the covering of faces,” the ministry writes in a letter to Teplice Mayor Jaroslav Kubera.

The ministry says such a public notice would affect Muslim women who cover their faces in accordance with their religious belief and this would go against the Czech Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, the paper writes.

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Skaters come to aid of Muslim women attacked in a bigoted tirade

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Newcastle anti-racist skatersMeet the anti-racism heroes who came to the aid of two Muslim women as they were being attacked in a bigoted tirade in Newcastle.

The friends, who were skating at Newcastle West when they intervened to help the mother and daughter on Monday night, say more people need to take a stand against “weak” and “cowardly” vilification.

Scott William Papworth, 27, has denied verbally attacking the women and threatening to kill those who came to their aid, claiming he was only one of numerous people in the vicinity and that he had been acting in self-defence against the skating group. It’s alleged he swore at the women and told them: “We are Westerners and you’re not meant to be here.”

Mr Papworth, of Bingleburra outside Dungog, pleaded not guilty to five charges in Newcastle Local Court on Tuesday, including that he intimidated and stalked the women, assaulted one of the men who came to their aid and stole two mobile phones. Mr Papworth was refused bail after magistrate Ian Cheetham described the verbal assault as “made on a racial basis upon persons who were innocently going about their business”.

Prosecutor Sergeant Karl Moir urged the magistrate to consider the charges “in the present climate”. “We are not just looking at a vacuum here,” he told the court.

In a statement tendered to court, police alleged the two women were wearing traditional Muslim hijabs as they drove along Smith Street about 7pm on Monday. A man allegedly approached their vehicle and said, “We are Westerners and you’re not meant to be here” and then he punched the driver’s side wing mirror.

The daughter drove five metres and got out to fix the mirror. But as she tried to get back in the car, police allege the man forced the left side of his body into the car, took hold of the steering wheel and put his foot on the accelerator for about 10 seconds. The car was in park and didn’t move.

The statement said Patrick Burgess, James Turvey and four other men saw what had happened and became concerned for the women’s safety.

As they approached the car they heard the man yell out “you Musi c—s”. Police allege the man turned on the six friends and threatened to kill them. The man allegedly stole two of their mobile phones and ran off but was struck by a skateboard thrown by one of the friends. He later allegedly punched Mr Burgess.

“He was saying the worst things [to the women], racist profanities [then] he started swinging at each of us while we were trying to defuse situation as best we could,” Mr Burgess told the Newcastle Herald.

Mr Burgess said he felt “so disgusted” the women had been subjected to the abuse. “People need to know that this is not OK,” he said. “The way this situation has gotten is so not acceptable, and people need to start taking action and actively condemning this sort of activity. It’s the indifference of good people that is bringing us down.”

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Brisbane man charged with threatening to set Muslim woman’s headscarf on fire

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A Brisbane man has been charged after allegedly threatening to set a Muslim woman’s head scarf on fire.

The 26-year-old woman left an Islamic centre in West End on September 9 and was walking down Boundary St when three men outside a pub approached her, police say. One then allegedly threatened to set her head scarf on fire.

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No bail for man accused of abusing Muslim women

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A man has been refused bail after pleading not guilty to verbally attacking two Muslim women as they drove through Newcastle, north of Sydney.

Scott Papworth, 27, is accused of yelling abuse about Islam and punching a side-view mirror as a woman, 26, and her mother sat in a car in the city about 7:00pm (AEDT) last night. Police say Papworth followed the pair as they drove away and continued the abuse after they pulled over to fix the car’s mirror.

Papworth is also accused of punching a man who tried to help the women, and stealing mobile phones from two people who intervened, before being apprehended by members of the public.

In Newcastle Local Court this afternoon, Papworth pleaded not guilty to two counts of intimidation, two counts of larceny, one count of assault and one count of malicious damage. Police prosecutor Karl Moir told the court it was “a racially provoked attack on innocent people” and the allegations were very serious given the “present climate” relating to Islam in Australia.

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‘Take if off and hang yourself with it’: Muslim students racially vilified

Posted on by Bob Pitt

SUMSAA number of Muslim students have experienced serious incidents of racial vilification on University of Sydney campuses in recent weeks.

In one incident, a female Muslim student was told to take her hijab off her head and hang herself with it while walking to Redfern Station.

Members of the Sydney University Muslim Students Association were also abused while promoting their annual Islamic Awareness Week.

A SUMSA member, who had asked another student not to rip down posters for the festival, was asked “What are you going to do, behead me?” – a reference to the recent, highly-publicised executions of Western citizens by extremist group ISIS.

In a similar incident, students handing out fliers for the festival were told that they were “trying to make 9/11 happen all over again,” and the University would be better if it had no Muslim students.

Several Muslim students at the University’s Cumberland campus have also reported being spat on in recent weeks.

SUMSA spokesperson Mohamad Raad says that Muslim students have been deeply troubled by this spate of Islamophobic attacks.

“As Muslims, we’re obviously aware that there are a lot of tensions out there at the moment, but you don’t expect these sorts of things to happen on an Australian university campus,” he said.

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Canberra Muslim woman stopped wearing hijab for fear of being attacked

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nurcan BaranCanberra Muslim woman Nurcan Baran says she has stopped wearing her hijab for fear of being attacked.

On Thursday Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry approved new interim rules to force Muslim women who cover their faces to sit in a separate glass-enclosed public gallery in Federal Parliament. But Prime Minister Tony Abbott stepped in and asked Ms Bishop to reconsider the ruling.

Mrs Baran said the increasingly strident debate has stirred unease with Canberra’s Muslim community.

The 22-year-old mother and part-time law student at the University of Canberra began thinking about wearing a hijab at 13, but did not start wearing one until she was overseas in 2012 aged 19. The self-proclaimed “proud Muslim feminist” emphasised she chose to wear the hijab and was not forced.

“They say it is meant to stop men looking for you. It is not,” she said. “It is for that woman’s own modesty and I think instead of being viewed as a tool of oppression it needs to be viewed as a woman’s choice.”

But Mrs Baran said she chose to stop wearing the hijab in December 2013 because of negative treatment she was receiving in Canberra. She told 7.30 ACT she was worried she would be attacked while out with her daughter and felt forced to take off the hijab in order to feel safe.

She said there was no difference between those forcing women to cover up and those forcing women to uncover. “I don’t think men have the right to tell women how to dress whether you are Western or from the Middle East,” she said. “I think we really need to make it clear that they really don’t have that right.”

But despite her stance Mrs Baran made her own decision to not wear her hijab in Canberra. “I didn’t feel self confident. I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want to take my daughter for walks,” she said. “I didn’t want to go back to uni, and I just kept on thinking to myself, ‘how can I become a lawyer and help people if I can’t even face the world?’ And that’s what I felt as a hijabi woman in Canberra.”

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Supreme court to rule on Abercrombie & Fitch ‘religious bias’ over hijab

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The US supreme court has agreed to hear a case accusing the American clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch of refusing to hire a Muslim woman who wore a headscarf.

The suit, brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleges that Samantha Elauf was not hired because she wore a headscarf that would have required a religious exemption from the company’s “look policy”.

Elauf interviewed at the company’s Abercrombie Kids store in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2008 for a position as a “model”, the equivalent of a part-time sales worker, when she was 17. The hiring manager, Heather Cooke, 23, interviewed Elauf and initially gave her a score that recommended hiring her.

Elauf wore a black hijab during her interview. She is a practising Muslim who has worn a hijab since she was 13 years old.

However, after consulting with a district manager, Cooke gave Elauf a low score in the “appearance and sense of style” category, after specifically asking about Elauf’s headscarf. The manager told Cooke that employees were not allowed to wear “hats” at work, and so declined to hire her, even though Cooke told the manager she assumed Elauf wore the scarf for religious reasons. Cooke told the district manager she did not ask about religion during the interview, in accordance with EEOC guidelines.

The EEOC sued on Elauf’s behalf, and a federal judge ruled against the company. The 10th US circuit court of appeals reversed that decision.

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‘Burqa ban’ in Australian parliament

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Parliament House, CanberraAnyone wearing “facial coverings” who wants to enter the galleries of federal parliament will be made to sit in a separate shielded section, according to new rules announced on Thursday.

The new regulations, sent out to MPs, senators and parliamentary staff, do not specifically mention burqas but it follows days of heated debate about allowing women to wear the Islamic garment into public areas of parliament house.

A campaign to ban the burqa at parliament had been led by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, who has been calling for a public ban on the garment for years. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop, who has previously called for a ban on the hijab in schools, has asked Asio and the federal police to assess the security risks of people wearing full facial coverings coming into the public area of parliament house.

The Department of Parliamentary Services emailed around the new rules in an “information circular” on Thursday, but the measures were approved by the presiding officers of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Bronwyn Bishop and Senate president Stephen Parry.

The email said the review was being undertaken, and advice sought from security agencies. In the meantime it announced three additional security measures, including the separating of people who wished to watch the House of Representatives or the Senate from the public galleries.

“Persons with facial coverings entering the galleries of the House of Representatives and Senate will be seated in the enclosed galleries,” read the email. “This will ensure that persons with facial coverings can continue to enter the Chamber galleries, without needing to be identifiable.”

Two other changes to the pass policy in the building were made, including a freeze on renewing or issuing sponsored passes, and the requirement of photo ID for all adult visitors. “Procedures are in place to ensure that DPS Security manage any cultural or religious issues relating to this in a sensitive and appropriate manner,” it said.

Comments by the prime minister on Wednesday that he did not support a ban but wished women did not wear them were slammed as divisive and harmful.

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Melbourne: Police accused of ignoring attack on Muslim women on a train… until witness started Twitter campaign to force them to act

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Dana Affleck and tweet

A young woman who witnessed three Muslim women being threatened on a Melbourne train claimed police were reluctant to investigate the incident and only took it seriously when she vented her anger on Twitter.

Law student Dana Affleck, 24, was on a train in Melbourne last Thursday just before 6pm when she witnessed a man screaming, threatening and banging on a window when he saw three elderly Muslim women wearing veils.

“He was standing up and screaming abuse the entire time he was on the train, as soon as he saw the three women in veils,” Ms Affleck told Daily Mail Australia. “He was a big, imposing figure. An Aussie, Anglo guy. He was enraged and seemed unstable. There was spit flying out of his mouth.”

Ms Affleck had boarded the train at the same time as the women, two of whom appeared to be in their seventies and the third in her fifties. They were all wearing veils and long dresses, according to Miss Affleck. “The man was screaming from the second he saw them. We were terrified. He was way past being stood up to,” said Miss Affleck.

Ms Affleck said the three Muslim women and another passenger left the train as soon as it came to the next stop, North Richmond Station. The man continued his raging tirade after the train doors closed. “He came up on the window and started bashing on the glass and screaming abuse at them. We were all scared. I was just waiting for the glass to smash because there was so much force.”

Ms Affleck, who is not Muslim, says that the victims of the abuse did not seem shocked and believed calling police would be futile. “I was apologising profusely, worried if they were okay,” said Miss Affleck. “They didn’t appear shocked, they seemed to take it as a given. The fact they were so accustomed to it really frightened me.”

Ms Affleck called the closest police station, East Melbourne, to report the incident, prompted by Victoria Police Commissioner Ken Lay urging members of the public to report instances of Islamophobic abuse in the wake of last week’s shooting of a known extremist.

“Ken Lay told Australia to come forward and report instances of where Muslims are being abused, but is that message reaching the officers at the local police stations who take the calls?” she said. “The police officer who answered the phone would not transfer me or pass the message on to anyone. He said there’s nothing they can do unless the victims come forward.”

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Anti-Muslim hate crime soars in London, according to new police figures

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Muslim hate crime in London has shot up by almost 65% in twelve months, with spikes in violence linked not to Islamic State beheadings, but to incidents closer to home like the Rotherham grooming scandal.

Metropolitan Police figures show that incidents of hate crime rose from 344 to 570 in the last year, and women are key targets because of their identifiable Islamic dress. Fiyaz Mughal, director of the Islamophobia monitoring group Tell MAMA, said that he had been expecting an increase of between 30-50%, and had not predicted such a dramatic rise.

“It’s certainly linked to current events, but the severity of the reports we get vary, depending on what is happening in the news,” he told HuffPost UK. “When there’s an IS beheading, or there’s a terror threat made against the UK, you’ll find a bombardment of online abuse and threats. And it will be a discernible spike, increasing for a short period and then dying down.”

It was national scandals, like the grooming of young girls in Rotherham by groups of Pakistani men, or the alleged “Trojan horse” plot by hardline Muslims in Birmingham to “take over” some of the city’s state schools, that had the most impact on the figures, Mughal said.

“The most significant rise in numbers came after the killing of Lee Rigby last year, that was extremely prolonged. But it did die down and life became more peaceful. It was just a dull background noise until the ‘Trojan Horse’ coverage. That led to a longer period of threat, and more violence, with direct threats and attacks against mosques. The worst this year has been linked to Rotherham, and mosques in particular have experience many threats.”

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