UK Govt Minister opposes Burqa Ban

Monday, 19 July 2010 16:30

Britain's immigration minister, Damien Green, has ruled out the possibility of a French-style ban on women wearing the burqa and niqab in the UK maintaining it would be 'un-British'.

Green said that banning Muslim women from covering their faces in public would be at odds with Britain's 'tolerant and mutually respectful society.' The minister told the Sunday Telegraph:

'"I stand personally on the feeling that telling people what they can and can't wear, if they're just walking down the street, is a rather un-British thing to do. We're a tolerant and mutually respectful society.

'"There are times, clearly, when you've got to be able to identify yourself, and people have got to be able to see your face, but I think it's very unlikely and it would be undesirable for the British parliament to try and pass a law dictating what people wore."'

Meanwhile, Phillip Hollobone MP for Kettering has said he refuses to meet with constituents wearing a burqa or niqab. According to the Telegraph, Hollobone 'said that the burka or niqab was not a religious requirement.' Taken together with his previous mocking remarks about veil-wearing Muslim women, it would appear as though Hollobone is now an authority on Islam and Muslim women. How many Muslim women has the minister consulted?

Hollobone is of course not alone in his contentions or the presumptuous manner in which he claims to speak on behalf of all Muslim veil-wearers. Writing on his Telegraph blog, Toby Young asserts that the burka is 'both a symbol and source of oppression of Muslim women' and that 'few people can be in any doubt that Islam is a deeply misogynistic religion.'

Young adds that he ‘strongly suspects’ that ‘most British Muslim women’ oppose the burqa and niqab because, he alleges, ‘for most Muslim women it is not a free choice but something they’re forced to do by their fathers or brothers or husbands – and the consequences of disobeying can be a beating or worse.’

Does Young presume to know what a Muslim woman who wears the niqab or burqa is thinking? Does he have it on good authority that ‘most Muslim women’ are forced to observe hijab? As if disempowering Muslim women was not enough, Young’s generalised assertion of the assumption that male kin forcibly impose the niqab and burqa on women contributes to tacitly vilifying Muslim men – a form of sexism no doubt.

Commenting on the intolerance, and deeply prejudicial, nature of comments from the likes of Hollobone and Young, Rajnaara Akhtar writes in the Independent:

‘While there are no conclusive figures for the number of Muslim women in Britain who veil their faces, the impact of even a proposal to ban it would be significant. It would fuel the mounting intolerance that some Muslim communities are facing, and provide fodder for groups like the BNP and the English Defence League whose entire constitutions seem to be concerned with purging Britain of Muslims. Those who are seeking to propose a ban are seriously fanning the flames of extreme intolerance.’

She adds:

‘Debates against the hijab have included arguments that it "degrades women" (Nicolas Sarkozy), that it "impedes communication" (Jack Straw), and that it is an "oppressive dress code" (Philip Hollobone, MP). What all of these men fail to do is put their misgivings to one side and ask the fundamental question: does the niqab infringe on the rights of others which are upheld by the law? The answer here is no. Muslim women remove the niqab from their faces if they are required to for the purposes of security and identification.’

In delivering a staunch defence of women's right to choose what they wear, Caroline Spelman, Environment Secretary, said that her experience of visiting Afghanistan had persuaded her that the burqa 'confers dignity' and that it can be 'empowering'. She added: 'I don't, living in this country as a woman, want to be told what I can and can't wear.'

The Council of Europe has already said that there should be no general prohibition on wearing the burqa and the niqab or other religious clothing as it would infringe on the rights of women who genuinely and freely choose to wear the veil.

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