Women’s Hijab Banned: Tunisia Government Crushing Islam

[islamirama]

Women’s Hijab Banned: Tunisia Government Crushing Islam

October 30, 2006

France ban on wearing hijabs (headscarves) in schools and British MP Jack Straw’s comments against veils drew worldwide Muslim condemnation while being widely publicized by the mainstream media. Now Tunisian Government has enforced a law that states women in Tunisia can no longer cover their heads according to Islamic teachings by wearing the hijab! But unlike France or England majority of the Muslims worldwide haven’t even heard about Tunisian Government’s deadly and preposterous ban let alone condemned it.

The Tunisian government has succeeded in keeping the news away from the Muslim masses outside of its borders. As expectable Western Governments or the international media downplayed the Tunisian governments preposterous law that grossly violates basic human rights, fearing of uproar amongst the already frustrated Arab Muslims would fuel the emergence of Islamic governments in place of west dependent despotic Arab regimes. More pathetic was the indifference from few non-Tunisian Muslims privy to the illusive news item.

Owing to its French colonial legacy Tunisia is the most western Arab-Muslim country. This is reflected by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ali enforcing the ban and describing the hijab as “a sectarian form of dress, which had come into Tunisia uninvited!” Observers say recent years have seen an increase in Islamic sentiments among Tunisians and the increasing number of women starting to wear the hijab despite government efforts to stem the revival of Islam had caused them to move towards banning the hijab.

However justifying the hijab ban on “sectarian” grounds is absurd in a society where 98% of the population is Muslim. This ban also violates basic personal freedom guaranteed by the Tunisian constitution which also states Tunisia is an “Islamic country”. Added to this the law brazenly violates the basics rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to freedom of religion and choose the clothes which suit him/her. Most of all the hijab is a religious requirement in Islam and every woman should have the right to practice her religious beliefs.

In fact the Government is crushing Islam in Tunisia while at the same time trying to avoid charges of being un-Islamic. In the 1990s President Ben Ali crushed Tunisia’s Islamic opposition party when fighting erupted in neighbouring Algeria between Islamic movements and the military Government. He has forbidden Dawah activities in Tunisia and stipulated only personnel appointed by the Government may lead activities in mosques and that mosques must remain closed except during prayer times and other authorized religious ceremonies, such as marriages or funerals.

The current hijab debate, which started earlier this year and dating back to a 1981 government circular has ended in a dangerous crackdown on any woman, girl or child wearing a Hijab. It has even included the Hijab-clad ‘Fulla’ dolls, which inspired millions of Muslim girls worldwide. Last month Tunisia security forces raided soft-toy shops across the country to withdraw the ‘Fulla’ dolls.

“Sign here, take this piece of rubbish off your head and go home! Never ever think of going back to school with it. Right now, I am going to attach it to this sheet of paper in which you declared your full compliance with circular 108. Don’t you understand! There is no place in our schools for fundamentalists. We are a modern country!” Fatima the 18-year-old school girl stood as if pinned to the ground in a state of bewilderment, listening carefully to a zealot policeman whose sole mission has been to frighten and punish women, university students and schoolgirls who challenge the hijab ban and force to sign a form, which says they will never ever wear the hijab again.

Many Tunisians are upset by the ban but they fear to protest, as the Tunisian Government does not tolerate dissent.

http://1muslimnation.wordpress.com/2006/10/30/womens-hijab-banned-tunisia-government-crushing-islam/

comment:

Turkey, Tunisia, and now Egypt are some of the so called Muslim countries where the hijab/niqab is banned. Non-Muslim countries have kuffar and the Muslim countries have Hypocrites (kuffar pretending to be Muslim). The oppressed person is one of the people whose dua is not rejected. The oppressed Muslims in these countries should be at least making dua against these people.

[The_Prince]

the good news is that turkey, unlike the other 2, is starting to wake up and is starting to return to its Islamic roots.

[Supreme]

This article is dated 2006.

[islamirama]

This article is dated 2006.

Does not mean the oppressive human rights violating regime of tunisia has changed...

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[glo]

I tried to find a more recent article. This one is from March 2009 in The National.

[...]

“There’s not one single country in the Arab world where women have the rights they have here,” said Khedija Arfaoui, a member of the Association of Tunisian Women for Research and Development, a Tunis-based, non-governmental organisation studying women’s issues.

Tunisian law forbids polygamy, makes 18 the minimum age for marriage and gives women the final word on whom they marry. Contraception and abortion have been legal and available for decades.

As secularism has advanced, religion has retreated. Unlike other Arab capitals, the Tunis skyline of handsome colonial buildings is largely bereft of minarets, and the call to prayer that punctuates Muslim life elsewhere is absent.

But beneath the surface, Tunisia remains a Muslim country. Opposition to the authoritarian rule of Mr Bourguiba and his successor, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has often taken an Islamic tone. When bread riots erupted in the 1980s, cries of “God is great!” rang in the streets.

[...]

“The Quran only mentions that women must wear respectful clothing,” said Fethi Bouajiha, a spokesman for the religious affairs ministry. “Others would like to determine one single model of clothes – hijab, gloves, niqab – but those are only human interpretations.”


The headscarf has been periodically banned from public offices, schools and universities. In 2006, a court found the ban unconstitutional, “but that doesn’t stop the administration from using repressive means of preventing women from wearing the headscarf”, said Mokhtar Trifi, president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights.

Police outside schools and universities regularly forced students to remove headscarves before entering, Mr Trifi said. According to a report last year by Amnesty International, women have reported being harassed in the street or forced by police to sign written commitments to stop wearing the headscarf.

[...]

The smooth curve of the headscarf, drawn tightly over the hair, is an increasingly common sight among the crowds of chic young women on the streets of Tunisian cities.

A few are pressured by family, Mrs al Gharbi said. But many choose the headscarf out of religious conviction, often inspired by the daily barrage of television shows from the Middle East featuring conservative scholars.


“The headscarf confuses religion with political ideology,” said Mr Bouajiha, from the religious affairs ministry. “For these women, if you’re not wearing a headscarf, you’re not a Muslim.”

But Afef tells it differently. For her, the headscarf is a statement of faith, not politics.

“I know that a woman can be a Muslim without wearing the headscarf,” Afef said. “But I think those women have something sleeping inside them which will awake – I have confidence in God.”

[aadil77]

Tunisian govt - just another disgusting example of a 'muslim' govt sucking up to the west, probably for tourism

[aadil77]

From wikipedia

The constitution declares Islam as the official state religion and requires the President to be Muslim. Tunisia also enjoys a significant degree of religious freedom, a right enshrined and protected in its constitution which guarantees the freedom to practice one's religion.[96]

The country has a culture that encourages acceptance of other religions; religious freedom is widely practiced. With regards to the freedom of Muslims, the Tunisian government has restricted the wearing of Islamic headscarves (hijab) in government offices and it discourages women from wearing them on public streets and public gatherings. The government believes the hijab is a "garment of foreign origin having a partisan connotation". There were reports that the Tunisian police harassed men with "Islamic" appearance (such as those with beards), detained them, and sometimes compelled men to shave their beards off.[97] In 2006, the Tunisian president declared that he would "fight" the hijab, which he refers to as "ethnic clothing".[98]

Individual Tunisians are tolerant of religious freedom and generally do not inquire about a person's personal beliefs.[96]

Absolutely disgusting, they claim to have religious freedom but look at their hypocrisy, they'd probably let catholic nuns wear their 'hijab' but would stop muslims, May Allah curse these people who prevent muslims from practicing islam,

[islamirama]

I tried to find a more recent article.
In 2006, a court found the ban unconstitutional, “but that doesn’t stop the administration from using repressive means of preventing women from wearing the headscarf”, said Mokhtar Trifi, president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights.

Police outside schools and universities regularly forced students to remove headscarves before entering, Mr Trifi said. According to a report last year by Amnesty International, women have reported being harassed in the street or forced by police to sign written commitments to stop wearing the headscarf.
.

you don't know the half of it, those rapist oppressive tyrants need to be hanged.

Here is a snippet: “The police will randomly make their way into markets and rip the hijabs from women’s heads as well as take away any fabrics being sold to make hijabs.


“They will also go into factories where women are working and rip the hijabs off women’s heads. This is the least of what they have done.
“I will give you just one example of what these dogs with Arab faces but the hearts of devils, have done to our sisters. They have, at one time ordered a public bus to halt in the middle of the road while two plain clothes detectives went inside. The buses are similar to the ones in the west except they will usually have three times more people inside it.


“They grabbed one women wearing hijab and took her outside of the bus. This was a sister who they had warned before. They brought her into the side of the street and began slapping her across her face and cursing at her with the worst language you could think of.


“They took her hijab off and the main policeman said, “When are you going to stop wearing this ****. She said she would never stop and she was crying. The men took her around the corner by a public bathroom.


“They ripped her clothes off. They grabbed a soda bottle, these bottles are made of glass, and they raped her with it. They were laughing and they were many people around but no one did anything. When they were done they made her wear a short skirt and a sleeveless shirt and made her walk home to her husband like this. I swear by Allah that this is true”.


The time is fast approaching when sisters across the world have to unite and come together in defence of the hijab and in defence of the Muslim sisterhood.


http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=1185

[Argamemnon]

It seems that Tunisia is much more extreme than Turkey, if the above article is true. In Turkey nobody will touch your hijab in buses or factories etc. Nobody will force you to sign a commitment to never wear a headscarf again. It's only in universities and certain public buildings where wearing hijab is not allowed.

[aadil77]

Bro islamirama I wish I never read that, may these kuffar burn in hell

[marwen]

It seems that Tunisia is much more extreme than Turkey.

Yes, I think so ..
Tunisian gvmt is the most fearful gvmt about any islamic movement. that explains why there are no more reliable islamic scholar in tunisia : There are no Islamic teaching, no sharia university; the Zaitouna mosque/university which used to teach pure islam, is now just teaching some moderate islamic culture : theology/history/islamic civilisation.

And that's why when some stupid guy (sent by the govenment) naming himself "Islamic Thinker" (Fethi bouagiha or Bouagila I think) when he says : "The Quran only mentions that women must wear respectful clothing" (I'm sure he never read the qur'an or understood it) then there is no reliable scholar in Tunisia to reply to him and tell him he's wrong.
That what happenes when the government acts against the peoples rights and religion. Now tunisian muslim people are trying to regain the right islam from outer scholars (in egypt, saudi arabia, syria,...)

[Güven]

Sometimes I think Western countries are ten times better for a muslim to live in than these messed up hypocriet so called muslim countries.

[glo]

Here is a snippet: “The police will randomly make their way into markets and rip the hijabs from women’s heads as well as take away any fabrics being sold to make hijabs.


“They will also go into factories where women are working and rip the hijabs off women’s heads. This is the least of what they have done.
“I will give you just one example of what these dogs with Arab faces but the hearts of devils, have done to our sisters. They have, at one time ordered a public bus to halt in the middle of the road while two plain clothes detectives went inside. The buses are similar to the ones in the west except they will usually have three times more people inside it.


“They grabbed one women wearing hijab and took her outside of the bus. This was a sister who they had warned before. They brought her into the side of the street and began slapping her across her face and cursing at her with the worst language you could think of.


“They took her hijab off and the main policeman said, “When are you going to stop wearing this ****. She said she would never stop and she was crying. The men took her around the corner by a public bathroom.


“They ripped her clothes off. They grabbed a soda bottle, these bottles are made of glass, and they raped her with it. They were laughing and they were many people around but no one did anything. When they were done they made her wear a short skirt and a sleeveless shirt and made her walk home to her husband like this. I swear by Allah that this is true”.


The time is fast approaching when sisters across the world have to unite and come together in defence of the hijab and in defence of the Muslim sisterhood.

That's indeed atrocious behaviour! :heated:

Sometimes I think Western countries are ten times better for a muslim to live in than these messed up hypocriet so called muslim countries.

I think so too.
Whatever criticisms people may have of Western governments, I don't think such behaviour would be tolerated in a liberal society. Human rights laws simply would not allow it.

Have you ever noticed that it is often human rights activists (many of whom are atheists), who defend people's right to religious freedom of expression?

[Supreme]

Sometimes I think Western countries are ten times better for a muslim to live in than these messed up hypocriet so called muslim countries.

So do I. We have a far greater degree of tolerance in the West. And a little something called 'human rights'.

[Argamemnon]

So do I. We have a far greater degree of tolerance in the West. And a little something called 'human rights'.

True, within western borders.. when it comes to relations with other nations on the other hand, there is practically no respect for human rights. There is only military, economic, diplomatic and cultural hegemony and oppression. Violations of human rights and international agreements suddenly become the norm. It's an interesting world isn't it; some countries are busy oppressing or killing their own people, while others are attacking/inflicting suffering on other nations. Silly humans.

[Argamemnon]

double post...