Monday, April 11, 2011

France's controversial burqa ban takes effect

France's controversial burqa ban takes effect

Paris (CNN) – French police arrested two veiled women protesting the country's law banning face-hiding Islamic burqas and niqabs Monday, just hours after the legislation took effect.
The arrests outside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris were not for wearing the prohibited garments. Police say the women were instead arrested for participating in an unauthorized protest. But the incident reflected the high passions the ban has incited among some Muslims.
One woman who disapproves of the ban said no one forces her to wear the niqab, a full-face veil with an opening for her eyes, and she should be left alone.
"I've not committed a crime," said Hind Amas, who was not among those arrested. "I'm walking peacefully in the street. I've not attacked anyone."

Belgian lawmakers pass burka ban

Belgian lawmakers pass burka ban

Woman in face veil (file pic)
Those who break the law could be fined or jailed for seven days
Belgium's lower house of parliament has voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public.
The law would ban any clothing that obscures the identity of the wearer in places like parks and on the street. No-one voted against it.
The law now goes to the Senate, where it may face challenges over its wording, which may delay it.
If passed, the ban would be the first move of its kind in Europe.
Only around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million.
The BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels says MPs backed the legislation on the grounds of security, to allow police to identify people.
Other MPs said that the full face veil was a symbol of the oppression of women, our correspondent says.
Senate approval
Thursday's vote was almost unanimous with 134 MPs in support of the law and two abstentions.
They chose to live with us in Christian countries so they must obey our customs
J M Badoux-Gillbee, Netherlands

It is expected to pass through the Senate without being blocked, with initial reports saying it could come into law as early as June or July.
But the Liberals and Christian Democrats - both represented in the Senate - say they will question the phrasing of the law, which could cause delays.
It will also take longer to become law if elections are called, as parliament would have to be dissolved. The Belgium government collapsed last week.
The Muslim Executive of Belgium has criticised the move, saying it would lead to women who do wear the full veil to be trapped in their homes.
HAVE YOUR SAY
I am opposed to the state presuming to dictate what anyone should wear
Beth
Amnesty International said a ban would set a "dangerous precedent".
In a statement, the human rights group said it would "violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who wear the burqa or niqab as an expression of their identity and beliefs".
The ban would be imposed in all buildings or grounds that are "meant for public use or to provide services", including streets, parks and sports grounds.
Exceptions could be made for certain festivals.
Those who break the law could face a fine of 15-25 euros (£13-£27) or a seven-day jail sentence.

Barcelona to ban Islamic veils abayas scarf burqa veils in some public spaces

Barcelona to ban Islamic veils in some public spaces

A woman wearing an Islamic veil in Lleida The Catalan town of Lleida announced a ban on Islamic veils last month
Barcelona has become the first large Spanish city to announce a ban on the wearing of full Islamic face-veils in some public spaces.
The ban was designed to include any head-wear that hindered identification, officials said.
At least two towns in Catalonia, the region that includes Barcelona, have already announced bans.
Belgium and France have both recently taken steps towards restricting the use of full veils in public.
Barcelona's city council said the ban would be largely symbolic, since it was uncommon to see women in the city wearing the full veil.
"Barcelona will forbid the use of the burqa, niqab and any other item which hinders personal identification in any of the city's public installations," a council statement said.
The ban would cover public spaces such as municipal offices, public markets and libraries - but not the streets.
The mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, said the measure was aimed purely at ensuring people could be identified, and would therefore include balaclavas, motorbike helmets and ski masks.
"In no way does it target religious belief," he said.
The ban is scheduled to take effect in Barcelona after the summer.
The Conservative Popular Party (PP) called for the ban to be extended to all public places, including on the street.
Full veils have already been banned in public spaces in the Catalan towns of Lleida and El Vendrell.
Others are reported to be considering similar measures.

Women in face veils detained as France enforces ban

Source

Women in face veils detained as France enforces ban
ban

The BBC's Hugh Schofield said Kenza Drider's protest successfully captured public attention and registered an objection to the law

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At least two women have been briefly detained in France while wearing Islamic veils, after a law banning the garment in public came into force.
Police said they were held not because of their veils but for joining an unauthorised protest, and they were later released.
France is the first country in Europe to publicly ban a form of dress some Muslims regard as a religious duty.
Offenders face a fine of 150 euros (£133; $217) and a citizenship course.
People forcing women to wear the veil face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.
The two women detained had taken part in a demonstration outside Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Police said the protest had not been authorised and so people were asked to move on. When they did not, they were arrested.

Gavin Hewitt's Europe

“Start Quote

The law is likely to be largely symbolic... It will be difficult to prove that a woman is being forced to wear a niqab because of her husband or family”
End Quote
Read Gavin's thoughts in full
One of the women, Kenza Drider, had arrived in Paris from the southern city of Avignon, boarding a train wearing a niqab, and unchallenged by police.
"We were held for three and a half hours at the police station while the prosecutors decided what to do," she told AFP news agency.
"Three and a half hours later they told us: 'It's fine, you can go'."
Under the law, any woman - French or foreign - walking on the street or in a park in France and wearing a face-concealing veil such as the niqab or burka can be stopped by police and given a fine.
It is a small fine, but symbolically this is a huge change, says the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris.
Guidelines issued to police say they should not ask women to remove their veils in the street, but should escort them to a police station where they would be asked to uncover their faces for identification.
The French government says the face-covering veil undermines the basic standards required for living in a shared society and also relegates its wearers to an inferior status incompatible with French notions of equality.
The ban on face coverings - which does not explicitly mention Islamic veils, but exempts various other forms - has angered some Muslims and libertarians.

Exceptions to ban on public face covering

  • Motorcycle helmets
  • Face-masks for health reasons
  • Face-covering for sporting or professional activities
  • Sunglasses, hats etc which do not completely hide the face
  • Masks used in "traditional activities", such as carnivals or religious processions
Source: Radio France International
A French Muslim property dealer, Rachid Nekkaz, said he was creating a fund to pay women's fines, and encouraged "all free women who so wish to wear the veil in the street and engage in civil disobedience".
Mr Nekkaz said he and "a female friend wearing the niqab" were arrested at a separate demonstration in front of President Nicolas Sarkozy's Elysee Palace.
"We wanted to be fined for wearing the niqab, but the police didn't want to issue a fine," he told AFP.
But opposition protests by Islamists and libertarians are unlikely to make much of an impression, our correspondent says.
What is more open to question, he says, is whether an out-and-out legal ban is necessary when, on most estimates, only 2,000-or-so women in France actually wear the niqab or burka.
Critics of French President Nicolas Sarkozy say it suits him to play up the Muslim question because he is an unpopular president in need of an easy vote-winner.

Why Muslim women wear the hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils?



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Why Muslim women wear the hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils?



Muslim women in Gaza
Opinions vary on how far Muslim women must go to cover up

The Koran, Islam's holy book and treated as the literal word of God, tells Muslims - men and women - to dress modestly.
Male modesty has been interpreted to be covering the area from the navel to the knee - and for women it is generally seen as covering everything except their face, hands and feet when in the presence of men they are not related or married to.
However, there has been much debate among Islamic scholars as to whether this goes far enough.
This has led to a distinction between the hijab (literally "covering up" in Arabic) and the niqab (meaning "full veil").
Hijab is a common sight among Muslim women, a scarf that covers their hair and neck.
Niqab consists of covering up completely, including gloves and a veil for the face - leaving just a slit for the eyes, or covering them too with transparent material.
Tell the faithful women to lower their gaze and guard their private parts and not display their beauty except what is apparent of it, and to extend their scarf to cover their bosom
Koran, 24:31 (English translation)
This form of dress is rarer, although it has been growing in recent years, and it is this which former UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says he objects to at face-to-face meetings with his constituents.

Muslim scholars have debated whether it is obligatory to don the niqab, or whether it is just recommended without being obligatory.
There have also been more liberal interpretations which say the headscarf is unnecessary, as long as women maintain the sartorial modesty stipulated in the Koran.
Scholarly dispute
The holy text addresses "the faithful women" who are told to shield their private parts and not to display their adornment "except what is apparent of it".
Scholarly disputes revolve around what this last phrase means.
Find out about different styles of Muslim headscarf

Does it refer to the outer surface of a woman's garments, necessitating that she cover every part of her body - ie don the full niqab?

Or does it give an exemption referring to the face and the hands, as well as conventional female ornaments such as kohl, rings, bracelets and make-up?
The latter interpretation has been adopted by some of the most prominent scholars from Islamic history, such as Abu Jafar al-Tabari, who favour the hijab option.
There are additional Koranic instructions - seen as ambiguous and therefore much debated - for women to draw the "khimar" (or scarf) to cover the "jayb" (or bosom/upper chest), and for "the wives and daughters of the Prophet and the women of the believers to draw their "jalabib" (or cloaks) close round them".
Religious and cultural traditions vary across the Muslim world, stretching from Indonesia to Morocco.
But it may also be left to the Muslim woman to decide for herself, whether she wants to cover up fully with the niqab, as an expression of her faith and Islamic identity, or not.
In countries such as France and Turkey, where there are legal curbs on religious dress, it becomes a matter of women's human rights to wear what they want.
But at the same time the niqab is such a powerful statement that more liberal Muslims sometimes can be heard objecting to it, especially in more developed societies, where women have fought long and hard to shake off restrictions seen as outdated and imposed by men.


SWITZERLAND baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

SWITZERLAND baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

In late 2009, Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said a face-veil ban should be considered if more Muslim women begin wearing them, adding that the veils made her feel "uncomfortable".

AUSTRIA baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

AUSTRIA baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

Austria's Women's Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek has said a ban should be considered in public spaces if the number of women wearing the veil increases dramatically.

RUSSIA baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

RUSSIA baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

Russia's Supreme Court has overturned a 1997 interior ministry ruling which forbade women from wearing headscarves in passport photos.
But in Chechnya the authorities have defied Russian policy on Islamic dress. In 2007 President Ramzan Kadyrov - the pro-Moscow leader - issued an edict ordering women to wear headscarves in state buildings. It is a direct violation of Russian law, but is strictly followed today.
President Kadyrov even voiced support for men who fired paintballs at women deemed to be violating the strict dress code.

GERMANY baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

GERMANY baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

In September 2003 the federal Constitutional Court ruled in favour of a teacher who wanted to wear an Islamic scarf to school.
However, it said states could change their laws locally if they wanted to.
At least four German states have gone on to ban teachers from wearing headscarves and in the state of Hesse the ban applies to all civil servants.

DENMARK baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

In 2008, the government announced it would bar judges from wearing headscarves and similar religious or political symbols - including crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and turbans - in courtrooms. That move came after pressure from the Danish People's Party (DPP), known for its anti-Muslim rhetoric, which has since called for the ban to be extended to include school teachers and medical personnel.
After a Danish paper published a controversial cartoon in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a bearded man with a bomb in his turban, there were a series of protests against Denmark across the Muslim world.

ITALY baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

The north-western town of Novara is one of several local authorities that have brought in rules to deter public use of the Islamic veil, passing a by-law in January 2010.
In 2004 local politicians in northern Italy resurrected old public order laws against the wearing of masks, to stop women from wearing the burka.
Some mayors from the anti-immigrant Northern League have also banned the use of Islamic swimsuits.

TURKEY baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

TURKEY

For more than 85 years Turks have lived in a secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who rejected headscarves as backward-looking in his campaign to secularise Turkish society.
Scarves are banned in civic spaces and official buildings, but the issue is deeply divisive for the country's predominantly Muslim population, as two-thirds of all Turkish women - including the wives and daughters of the prime minister and president - cover their heads.
In 2008, Turkey's constitution was amended to ease a strict ban at universities, allowing headscarves that were tied loosely under the chin. Headscarves covering the neck and all-enveloping veils were still banned.
The governing AK Party, with its roots in Islam, said the ban meant many girls were being denied an education. But the secular establishment said easing it would be a first step to allowing Islam into public life.

THE NETHERLANDS baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

THE NETHERLANDS baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

In 2006, the Dutch government considered but abandoned plans to impose a ban on all forms of coverings that obscured the face - from burkas to crash helmets with visors - in public places, saying they disturbed public order and safety. Lawyers said the move would likely be unconstitutional and critics said it would violate civil rights.
The government suggested it would instead seek a ban on face-covering veils in schools and state departments, but no legislation has yet been passed.
Around 5% of the Netherlands' 16 million residents are Muslims, but only around 300 are thought to wear the burka.

BRITAIN baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

BRITAIN baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

There is no ban on Islamic dress in the UK, but schools are allowed to forge their own dress code after a 2007 directive which followed several high-profile court cases.
Former Schools Secretary Ed Balls said in January 2010 it was "not British" to tell people what to wear in the street after the UK Independence Party called for all face-covering Muslim veils to be banned.
In 2009 UKIP came second in the European elections in Britain, winning 13 seats in Brussels. Their leader Nigel Farage has said the full veils are a symbol of an "increasingly divided Britain", that they "oppress" women, and are a potential security threat.
UKIP is the first British party to call for a total ban, after the anti-immigration British National Party had already called called for the veil to be banned in Britain's schools.

SPAIN baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

SPAIN baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community


Though there are no plans for a national ban in Spain, the city of Barcelona has announced a ban on full Islamic face-veils in some public spaces such as municipal offices, public markets and libraries.
At least two smaller towns in Catalonia, the north-eastern region that includes Barcelona, have also imposed bans.
Barcelona's city council said the ban there targeted any head-wear that impeded identification, including motorbike helmets and balaclavas, rather than religious belief.
It resisted calls from the conservative Popular Party (PP) to extend the ban to all public spaces, including the street. The PP also wants the ban to be adopted throughout Spain.

BELGIUM baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

BELGIUM baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

The lower house of Belgium's parliament has passed a bill to ban clothing that hides a person's identity in public places such as parks, buildings and on the street.
The bill still needs approval in the Senate. It has broad cross-party support, though the Greens oppose it.
Although the legislation does not specifically refer to full-face Islamic veils, it would outlaw the use of garments such as the niqab and the burka.
Currently, the burka is banned in several districts under old local laws originally designed to stop people masking their faces completely at carnival time.
In Antwerp, for example, police can now reprimand, or even imprison, offenders. They say the regulation is all about public safety.

FRANCE baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

FRANCE baned hijabs abayas scarf burqa veils in muslim community

France has become the first European country to ban the full-face Islamic veil in public places.
France has about five million Muslims - the largest Muslim minority in Western Europe - but it is thought only about 2,000 women wear full veils.
French girls in headscarves protesting in Strasbourg, 1 Sep 04 Headscarves are allowed at French universities - but not schools
President Nicolas Sarkozy has said veils oppress women and are "not welcome" in France.
Under the ban that took effect on 11 April 2011 no woman, French or foreign, will be able to leave their home in France with their face hidden behind a veil without running the risk of a fine.
The penalty for doing so is a 150-euro (£133, $217) fine and instruction in citizenship. Anyone found forcing a woman to cover her face risks a 30,000-euro fine.
Most of the population - including most Muslims - agree with the government when it describes the face-covering veil as an affront to society's values. Critics - chiefly outside of France - say it is a violation of individual liberties.
A ban on Muslim headscarves and other "conspicuous" religious symbols at state schools was introduced in 2004, and received overwhelming political and public support in a country where the separation of state and religion is enshrined in law.

Muslim headscarves

The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.

Muslim headscarves

The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.
The niqab is a veil for the face that leaves the area around the eyes clear. However, it may be worn with a separate eye veil. It is worn with an accompanying headscarf. 

Muslim headscarves

The burka is the most concealing of all Islamic veils. It covers the entire face and body, leaving just a mesh screen to see through.
  

Muslim headscarves



The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.
The al-amira is a two-piece veil. It consists of a close fitting cap, usually made from cotton or polyester, and an accompanying tube-like scarf. 

Muslim headscarves

The word hijab comes from the Arabic for veil and is used to describe the headscarves worn by Muslim women. These scarves come in myriad styles and colours. The type most commonly worn in the West is a square scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face clear.
The shayla is a long, rectangular scarf popular in the Gulf region. It is wrapped around the head and tucked or pinned in place at the shoulders. 

Muslim headscarves

The khimar is a long, cape-like veil that hangs down to just above the waist. It covers the hair, neck and shoulders completely, but leaves the face clear.
  

Muslim headscarves


The chador, worn by many Iranian women when outside the house, is a full-body cloak. It is often accompanied by a smaller headscarf underneath.