Niqab (Face Veil) My Right as a Woman

by Laura Stuart


The issue of face veils has been often in the news in the last few years. Jack Straw got the ball rolling in 2006 with his outspoken comments that covering the face can make community relations more difficult. At that time Jack Straw was Foreign Secretary and was leading Britain into the invasion of Iraq, an action based on lies and which lead to millions of deaths. Perhaps invading Iraq has had an even more devastating effect on community relations with Muslims both in the U.K. and the Middle East.

I find Mr Straw’s comments extremely arrogant. M.P.’s are elected by their constituents and are public servants to the community. Would he have found it appropriate to comment on the clothing (or lack of) that women of  ther religious or ethnic backgrounds wear? When I was growing up my mother taught me not to stare nor comment just because some one looks “a little different” perhaps Foreign Secretaries would do better if they listened more to their mothers and less to those lobby groups who push for endless wars. 

Women's Rights

Once Pandoras box was opened it gave a focus to Islamophic views. Women who wear niqab, being on the whole rather deeply religious, are not likely to be out causing trouble and breaking laws therefore they  are hardly a threat to society. I am sure if any British government ever got serious about banning the face veil we would be able to request they show the need for such a law based on statistics proving the criminal activities of face-veil wearers. With the rise of the far right in France and Europe mainstream parties have been trying to take back some of the votes by pandering to the kind of people that are anti immigration and Islamophobic. Sarkozy was quick to ban the veil in France, but a report in the Toronto Star says that police are ignoring veiled women in France. “French Ban on veil Turns Out to be Toothless“. That shows that there is still some common sense, and that somewhere in the chain of police command someone has had the wit to recognise that police have better things to do with their time than taking Muslim women to the police stations to uncover their faces. The French law does not allow the police to request a woman to remove her veil in public, rather they have to take her to the police station. Any person of logic would hope that police could be put to better use catching thieves and other threats to society.

Sometimes when I walk on the street, both men and women make comments about my clothes and I wonder why they feel they have a right. Islamically, the advice is that we should say “peace” and walk on, but sometimes the ignorance displayed is such that I feel myself responding and telling them it is not their business. I feel that certain people feel that they can get away with intimidating someone who they feel is from another country and culture and may be too timid to stand up for themselves. It is bullying, pure and simple and the age old problem of Jack Straw, Sarkozy and the hooligans of the E.D.L. believing it is their right to tell women what they can and can’t wear. These are misogynists, no better than the Taliban. 
What is the difference between the Taliban who make it mandatory for a woman to cover, and likes of Sarkozy who make it mandatory to uncover?

In the name of women’s rights, solidarity with my sisters in France, and religious conviction, I wore my niqab as I travelled all through France to Freiburg last September and nothing happened.  It is my choice to wear Niqab and although I do not believe that it is mandatory in Islam to wear the face veil, I wear it of my own free will (Islamic clothing is immensely liberating).  

I would like to think that if the British government decided to pander to the far right, all who believe in women’s rights and in freedom of expression would join the niqab-wearing sisters in fighting any ban. I am sure that when orthodox Jewish women came to this country wearing scheitel, they too were subject to strange looks so I would expect Jewish women to be the first to support Muslim women’s right to wear what they feel is religiously appropriate, I really hope they will get in touch.

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ قُل لِّأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يُدْنِينَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِن جَلَابِيبِهِنَّ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ أَدْنَىٰ أَن يُعْرَفْنَ فَلَا يُؤْذَيْنَ ۗ وَكَانَ اللَّـهُ غَفُورًا رَّحِيمًا ﴿٥٩﴾

[33:59] Surat al Ahzab

O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.

Source

Niqab: ‘What if my daughter is afraid of her?’

Photograph by: PHIL NOBLE REUTERS, Freelance

Women who wear the niqab usually remove it when no men are present, as was the case at the daycare. 

A woman in Canada admits she once held stereotypical views of modest clothing, largely because her impressions of Muslim women were shaped almost exclusively by the media.  A 2010 Time Magazine article found widespread prejudice against Muslims, though 62% of Americans polled didn’t personally know a single Muslim.

Jenn Hardy’s positive experience with a daycare run by Muslim woman who wears a face veil dramatically transformed her views. (Ilisha)


By Jenn Hardy, Freelance - Montreal Gazette

I used to glare at niqab-wearing women on the street, but then I opened my heart and mind – to a wonderful daycare provider

Not too long ago, if I saw a woman walking down the street with her face covered by a niqab, I would feel it was my duty to glare. As a non-religious feminist, I had decided that a woman who covers her face is oppressed – that she is uneducated, and that her husband is making her cover up because he’s crazy and/or jealous.
OK, I’m exaggerating a little, but you get the point.

And yet until two months ago, I didn’t even really know a single Muslim. I went to high school in an Ottawa suburb, where I was baptized a Catholic so that I could qualify for schooling in the Catholic school system, which was considered better than the more open public system.

We had one year of religious education that gave us a glimpse of world religions. But I’m pretty sure my education about Islam came mainly from CNN, or Fox. I went to university in a small town in Ontario. I didn’t meet any Muslims there, either.

My real education about Islam came very recently, courtesy of a Montreal daycare.

Last December, I was seeking daycare for my daughter. At only 10 months old, she was still very dependent on her parents, and we wanted to find a place that would nurture her – rock her to sleep if need be, warm up my expressed breast milk and even be open to using our cloth diapers.

I punched our address into the magarderie.ca database, and the first one that came up was a 30-second walk from where we would be moving in a matter of weeks. The daycare provider, Sophie, had outlined her views on discipline, praise, healthy foods and the child-centred approach of Montessori. She was someone I felt I could get along with.

I phoned her and we talked for an hour, laughing and chatting and eventually deciding on a time to meet. She shared a great many of the values that my partner and I do. She was also highly educated, trained as a civil engineer.

Before we said goodbye, she added, “Oh, just so you know, I’m Muslim.”

I said I didn’t care, because I didn’t.

She assured me that her daycare didn’t teach religion. Cool.

But then she told me that when she’s in public, she covers her face.

She said the last time she didn’t warn a family over the phone that she wears the niqab, they walked into the meeting and then walked straight out.

I said I didn’t care, but when we got off the phone, I realized I did care. The first thing I thought was, “What if my daughter is afraid of her?”

My family drove over to meet Sophie, her husband and son.
She came to the door, dressed in black from head to toe.

It was the first time I had been in the same room as a woman wearing the niqab.
I felt nervous. But my daughter didn’t flinch.

The daycare was cozy; most of the toys were made of natural materials. There were lots of books, a reading corner and a birdwatching area. Books on Montessori activities lined the shelves. Nothing was battery-operated; there was no television.

It was perfect.

We spoke for a bit, all together in the room before Sophie’s husband put a hand on my fiancé’s back and they went downstairs to see the other half of the daycare.
Once the guys left, Sophie took off the niqab.

I could feel my heart and my mind open at that very moment.

My daughter has been going to this daycare for more than two months now, and we are very happy with the care she is given.

When they are inside with the children, the daycare providers (the majority of whom are Muslim) are mostly dressed in plain clothes – jeans and a sweater, long hair pulled back in a loose ponytail. These women do not cover their faces in the presence of children, women or close family.

My daughter isn’t afraid of any of the women who take care of her, whether they have their faces covered or not. On the contrary, she reaches out to them for a hug every morning. To my daughter, the women who work at the daycare are simply the women who hold her when she’s sad, wipe blueberries off her face, clean her snotty nose and change her cloth diapers.

My daughter isn’t growing up with the same ideas about Muslim women that I did.

I’m glad she’s learning something in daycare.

So am I.

JENN HARDY is a freelance journalist and blogger who challenges mainstream parenting at mamanaturale.ca.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/What+daughter+afraid/6190977/story.html#ixzz1nJoVJAJs