WUNRN
Please see 2 Parts of this WUNRN
release on the Muslim Veil in France and UK.
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January
26, 2010
A French parliamentary committee released a nearly 200 page report yesterday
that recommends banning face veils in certain public spaces, including on
public transportation and at schools, hospitals, and government offices.
According to the New York Times, only 14 members of the 32 member
committee voted, eight in favor of the report and six against.
According to the BBC, the report said that "the wearing of the
full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable. We must condemn
this excess." As the commission delivered the report, National Assembly
President Bernard Accoyer said, "The full veil represents in an
extraordinary way everything that France spontaneously rejects...It's a symbol
of the subjugation of women and the banner of extremist fundamentalism,"
according to Reuters. Those who oppose the ban criticize it as
xenophobic. Jamel Debbouze, a French comedian with Moroccan ancestry, told a
radio station that, "people who go down that path [of the ban] are
racists."
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his opposition to the burqa, the
head-to-toe garment worn by some Islamic women In a speech to a joint session
of the French Parliament in June 2009. In this speech, he said "The burqa is not
welcome in French territory...In our country, we cannot accept that women be
prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all
identity," reported the Wall Street Journal. This speech, the first
presidential address to the legislature in over a century, urged the Parliament
to examine the practice of Muslim women in France wearing the burqa. In 2004
the French Parliament passed a law banning students from wearing veils and
other religious symbols in public schools.
It is estimated that only about 1,900 women in France wear the full veils that
are the subject of the report.
Additional Source - Human Rights Without Frontiers
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8481617.stm
Should
the |
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A French parliamentary
committee has recommended a partial ban on women wearing Islamic face veils.
So should there be a similar ban in the Just across the In a country where the
separation of state and religion is enshrined in law, a parliamentary
committee report ruled the veil was "contrary to the values of the
republic" and called on parliament to adopt a formal resolution
proclaiming "all of France is saying 'no' to the full veil".
The country banned Muslim
headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious symbols at state
schools in 2004. Despite calls from some
groups for a full or partial ban on veils, there is currently no ban on
Islamic dress in the 'Not British' But could a ban by In January 2010, Schools
Secretary Ed Balls said it was "not British" to tell people what to
wear in the street. But writing in the Independent,
journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who chairs the
group British Muslims for Secular Democracy, said she supported restrictions
on wearing the face veil in key public spaces. "This covering makes
women invisible, invalidates their participatory rights and confirms them as
evil temptresses. "I feel the same fury
when I see Orthodox Jewish women in wigs, with their many children, living
tightly proscribed lives," she writes. She said progressive
Muslims came out "daily" against the burka, which was an
"un-Islamic custom". "During the Hajj
pilgrimage no woman covers her face. The burka makes women more, not less,
conspicuous, and communication is unequal because one party hides all
expression," she claimed. 'Mutual respect'
However, Yvonne Ridley, a
British journalist who converted to Islam after she was captured by the
Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, said the French decision was "driven by
Islamophobia - not the freedom or liberties of women". She said she did not know
anyone who had been forced to wear the niqab (which covers the face apart
from the eyes) or the body-covering burka. Some Muslims chose to wear
the niqab for religious reasons - because they believed it brought them
closer to their faith - she said. She said the UK "would
not tolerate" a move like the one in France. "Muslim women in
Britain are more empowered than their sisters on the continent, largely
because of the amazing anti-war movement which brought secular women
alongside Muslim women." She said she understood why
some people found the veil "unnerving", but insisted "everyone
should have a choice". Only a "tiny
minority" of Muslims - a couple of thousand - wore the niqab in the UK,
and "most of them were white Western converts who you could not say were
quiet, suppressed women," she said. "We can't allow
legislation against the niqab. If we let it go the hijab will be next.
Everyone should have choice. Where would it stop, hair dye, face
piercing?", she said. 'Election tool'
Shaista Gohir, executive
director at Muslim Women's Network UK, agreed the face veil should not be
banned in the UK, but said there needed to be a "internal debate amongst
the Muslim community". "There needs to be
more research on why some women choose to wear the veil and how they think
they are perceived. Muslim communities need to instigate, be proactive,
rather than wait for politicians like Jack Straw to say something and
respond," she said. In 2006, Jack Straw angered
Muslim groups after he said face veils were a "visible statement of
separation and of difference" and suggested they could make community
relations harder. Ms Gohir said she could
understand people might have reservations about the impact the veil had on
integration - and it might prevent women from gaining employment - but a
minority of Muslims felt the interpretation of Islam meant wearing a veil was
part of their religion. She said veils needed to be
looked at "properly" in a "non-racist way". But she expressed concern
that politicians might use "issues like this" in the lead-up to the
elections. Last week ex-UKIP leader
Nigel Farage, who leads UKIP's 13 MEPs in Brussels, said the veils were a
symbol of an "increasingly divided Britain", that they
"oppressed" women, and were a potential security threat - and
called for a total ban. The BNP has already called
for the veil to be banned in schools. "Muslims are obviously
in the spotlight. The BNP and UKIP are playing on an anti-Muslim sentiment;
there is a real concern the face veil and issues like it will be used as an
election tool", said Ms Gohir. "Just because France
are doing something, Britain does not have to follow suit." |
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