Greetings observer,
In examples such as the woman who wanted to be covered in court - I agree that she shouldn't be allowed to.
I came across
this interesting article which concludes, 'let’s not pretend that banning the veil in court will lead to better justice', after the writer researched the topic of lie detection. If such is the case, I don't see what the problem is in allowing women to remain veiled, at least for most parts of the trial.
It is, though, necessary to accept that there are large numbers of muslim women who are coerced into wearing the niqab. I have had many, many female muslim students who have said that they would rather not cover themselves, especially when studying in the UK, but that the attitude of male, muslim students in the school (not usually their fathers interestingly) meant that they had to cover. That's pretty sad. Especially when those same male students are happy to walk around in their shorts and t-shirts with their Ray-ban sunglasses.
By the same token, it is necessary to accept that large, if not larger, numbers of Muslim women wear the Niqab gladly out of their own choice. It is unusual though, that the female students you mention are being coerced into wearing Niqab (face-veil) - perhaps you meant covering themselves as in wearing the Burqa/headscarf. But it's also strange that the female students would be coerced by an attitude of male students; students are usually in no position to enforce a code of dress on any other.
The following are a few relevant snippets from articles on this point:
[Misconception #] 7. Banning the niqab will free those Muslim women who are coerced into wearing it.
Banning the face-veil would be totally counter-productive: it would cause many Muslim women to feel targeted and persecuted and is likely to cause many talented women to withdraw from society. The majority of niqab-wearing women in Europe, wear it out of personal choice, so if, for the sake of a suspected minority, the niqab was to be banned, this would be clear discrimination against the majority. If we want to empower women from any community who are oppressed or abused, effective public services where such abuse can be reported need to be made more available and accessible to the women involved.
Fatima Barkatulla, The Niqab, Fact V Fiction,
Article originally published in the Times Online..
2. The idea that banning the niqab is required for women’s liberation is patronising to those who choose to wear it. The idea that all such women are forced to wear the niqab is delusional. Many community leaders will know of examples of Muslim women who are ostracised by their families for taking up the dress. In fact far more than the few who may be forced. When the facts disagree with ones ideological bigotry, it is often tempting to ignore the facts and create fiction, cue the Tory party.
Adam Beloan, 10 Reasons Why The Niqab Does Have a Place in Modern Britain
...What is frustrating to many Muslims is that over and over again Muslim women have spoken out claiming that what they wear is out of their own choice and a deep sense of spirituality. Yet the media and prominent figures in the West continue to ignore these voices and imply that only ‘they’ truly know what is going on inside Muslim women’s head, something which even the Muslim women – subjugated as they are – are not privy to. This obscene hypocrisy highlights the continuing Orientalism that still operates in the West when it comes to its discourse on Islam.
From a Muslim perspective (although many non-Muslims agree), the tyranny of fashion shows, billboards with air-brushed pictures, the use of scantily clad bodies to sell consumer products is a form of subjugation for Western women, who, if not dominated by men are certainly dominated by the demands and dictates of the market.
How, at any rate, is one to decide whether someone is subjugated or not? Banning a religious practice in a society where no Muslim is demanding its imposition seems more a fundamentalist move than a liberal one, but then perhaps that is exactly what we are witnessing: the fundamentalising of liberalism. What’s more is that Muslim ought not to feel cowed by media pressure or hawkish tactics by commentators who merely claim that such Islamic dress codes are oppressive – the onus of proving this, after all, lies with them and not with Muslims.
For our part we have firsthand accounts of women who have donned the burqa/hijab/niqab who repeatedly pronounce their individuality and choice as well as the fact that the majority of women who seem to be adopting the burqa are Western educated women all born and brought up in countries like France and Britain many a time at odds with their mothers from the East. So, is the Burqa an Eastern or Western phenomena?!
Shaikh Haitham al-Haddad, Discussing the 'Symbol of Subjugation'
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