The Myth of the ‘Islamic’ headscarf Copyright © Omar Hussein Ibrahim and FELD Productions 2008, 2010 and 2019

ISBN: 978-0-244-51768-7

Dedicated to the memory of Sir Zaki Badawi, former senior imam at the Central Mosque, Regent's Park and dean of the Muslim College.

Preface

A book containing the fullest coverage as to why does not oblige Muslim women to cover their hair.

Compiled by Omar Hussein Ibrahim, based in London, using the best academic material and press commentary available today. Contents Page Chapter 1 Treat your women well and be kind to them: Prophet Mohammad ...... 1 Muslim women advised to abandon hijab to avoid attack ...... 2 Will dropping the hijab make women safer? ...... 3 The headscarf martyr ...... 4 A target for hate ...... 6 The Freedom to Go Topless, by Amir Taheri ...... 8 This is not Islam, by Amir Taheri ...... 10 Will Chirac fight fascism? by Amir Taheri ...... 12 Koranic Law Does not Impose the Headscarf, by Khaled Fouad Allam ...... 14 Should Muslims cast aside hijabs and beards? ...... 16 Chapter 2 The Muslim Magazine, Q-News, headscarf debate 1997 – 1998 ...... 17 Branson firm ‘sacked Muslim in row over beard’ ...... 25 Muhammad Asad's 'The Message of THE QURAN' detailing verses 30 and 31 of Surah 24, The Light (An-Nur) ...... 28 Quranic extracts from Surah 53, The Confederates (Al-Ahzab) - from Muhammad Asad's 'The Message of THE QURAN' ...... 38 Karen Armstrong in her acclaimed biography of the Prophet, - Muhammad - details the fact that it was only Muhammad's wives that were to be secluded ...... 40 The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam: definition of the Veil ...... 43 Q-News, February 2003 - Zaki Badawi: Pioneer of a British Islam ...... 44 Chapter 3 The miracle that was Zaki Badawi: 1922 – 2006 ...... 49 Chapter 4 Muslim women's struggle to wear what they like ...... 59 French school bars girls for wearing headscarves ...... 60 Muslim girls face scarf ban at French schools ...... 62 Belgium next in line as Europe's veil ban spreads ...... 63 Why should we defend the veil? ...... 65 France votes for hijab ban ...... 66 Cleared in minutes ...... 67 Jurors clear teacher over Muslim girl's assault claim ...... 68 The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam: definition of Fundamentalism ...... 69 Muslim dress ban thwarts extremists ...... 72 Is it a human right to make girls wear Islamic dress? ...... 74 Revealed: radicals who backed girl in dress fight ...... 75 As a Muslim, I say no to the cover-up ...... 77 Lifting the veil on women's suffering ...... 79 School bans all skirts ...... 80 Trousers only ...school bans skirts after girls refuse to cover up ...... 81 Headmaster's ban on bellies and bottoms ...... 82 Why it's right to ban the hijab in schools ...... 84 Muslim pupils bow to scarf ban ...... 85 First girls expelled over headscarf ban ...... 86 Schoolgirl banned from wearing Muslim dress wins appeal ...... 87 Muslim girl had been denied right to manifest religion ...... 88 The Queen on the application of Shabina Begum v. Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High School. Court of Appeal judgment 2nd March 2005 ...... 90 Religion and school rules must both be respected ...... 106 Revealed: the brutal truth that hides inside the burqa ...... 107 House of Lords overturn Court of Appeal decision: House of Lords Regina (Shabina Begum) v Denbigh High School, March 2006 ...... 110 Chapter 5 The Legacy of Mrs Ataturk ...... 113 European Court of Human Rights judgements regarding the headscarf: 29th June 2004 and 10th November 2005 ...... 116 Arab women ...... 125 Chapter 6 Muslims are right about Britain ...... 131 Our 'decadent' society ...... 133 Yes we DO need drastic measures - because Labour has engineered a collapse in morality ...... 133 Chapter 7 Octoberfest 2006 Take off the veil, says Straw, to immediate anger from Muslims ...... 137 One glance took away my freedom ...... 139 I would prefer women not to wear the veil at all, says Straw ...... 140 Why Muslim women should thank Straw ...... 142 We don’t yet live in an Islamic republic so I will say it - I find the veil offensive ...... 144 Niqab nonsense ...... 145 BAN IT! ...... 146 Islamic leaders in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1947 promote abandonment of the veil ...... 148 Chapter 8 The Christian Veiling, by Leland M. Haines ...... 149 The Biblical Practice of Headcovering, by Dr. Brian Allison ...... 162 The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam: definition of Christianity ...... 171 The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam: definition of Jesus ...... 172 Chapter 9 Perverse interpretations The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam: definition of Abortion ...... 175 The Association of Lawyers for the Defence of the Unborn ...... 176 Female circumcision ...... 179 Minister warns over in-breeding in Asians ...... 181 Storm over Muslim cousin marriages ...... 182 It is one of the great taboos of multi-cultural Britain - and one of the most heart-breaking: children born with cruel genetic defects because their parents are cousins ...... 185 Muslim pupils kept out of music lessons ...... 189 Chapter 10 Hijabi robots The Quran does not require the headscarf ...... 190 The so-called 'Islamic' headscarf helps destroy Muslim hopes ...... 193 Islamic State and the headscarf ...... 195 The fanatics have even infected Wales ...... 196 Hijabi clones ...... 197 Children forced to wear headscarf in Iran ...... 198 Chapter 11 Saudi Madness From Chapter 15 'Women' in Ed Husain's book 'The House of Islam - A Global History' ...... 200 Chapter 12 Zaki Badawi The Reformers of , - A Critique of Al-Afghani, ‘Adbuh and Ridha ...... 201 Preface ...... 202 Introduction ...... 204 Chapter 1 - Jamal Al-Din Al-Afghani ...... 209 Chapter 2 - Muhammad 'Abduh ...... 219 Chapter 3 - Muhammad Rashid Ridha ...... 255 Chapter 13 Ban the Burqa? The Argument in Favor ...... 304 Chapter 14 “Hijab Is Not an Islamic Duty” – Scholar By Jamal Saidi- 24 June 2012. Morocco World News ...... 317 Chapter 15 UK Muslim Integration - The battle for British Muslims’ integration By John Ware. Standpoint magazine 2018 ...... 321 Chapter 16 Weak hadith dupes the Muslims Is Headcover for Women Mandatory in Islam? by Ibrahim B. Syed. Ph.D (1998) ...... 336 Chapter 17 Piety or Political Islam? by Tarek Fatah The hijab myth by Tarek Fatah ...... 338 Chapter 1

We begin by looking at an extract from Jan Goodwin's book Price of Honour first published in 1994 by Little, Brown and then published by Warner Books in 1995. Price Of Honour sub-titled ‘Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic World’ is a fascinating work which makes easy, uncomplicated and precise reading.

The eminent Islamic scholar, the late Dr. Zaki Badawi, former director of the Central London Mosque in Regent’s Park and later Principal of the Muslim College in London gives his opinion regarding the issue of the veil in Islam, in Chapter 2 of Price Of Honour, as follows: Muslims, the first Feminists

Treat your women well, and be kind to them. Prophet Mohammad

DESPITE ITS RAPID SPREAD, Islam is not a and sought ways to protect them. Today’s Islamic religion for those who are casual about such spokesmen frequently extol the Prophet’s things; adhering to its five pillars takes effort and revolutionary innovations, but usually fail to note discipline. One must rise before dawn to observe that they are rarely honored in reality. They fail to the first of five ritual prayers required daily, none observe, for example, that it is not the Koran of which can take place without first ritually that’s compels Islamic women to be enshrouded cleansing oneself. Sleep, work, and recreational from head to toe or confined to their home while activities take second place to prayer. Fasting for men feel free to pester women who do venture the month of Ramadan, undertaking the Hajj out. Mohammad’s directives on this issue were pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime, addressed to both sexes and could not be paying Zakat tax for relief of the Muslim poor, in clearer: addition to accepting Islam’s creed, which begins, Say to the believing men that they should “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is his Lower their gaze and guard their modestyR messenger,” require a serious and energetic And say to believing women that they should commitment. And the vast majority of Muslims Lower their gaze and guard heir modestyR worldwide do observe those tenets. Said Islamic scholar Dr. Zaki Badawi, “This [and later]: section of the Koran also states that women So it is ironic that the most outstanding should not show ‘their adornment except what contradiction regarding the inequities suffered by normally appears.’ This means it is left to custom. Muslim women is that Mohammad, the founder There has never been an Islamic obligation for of Islam, was among the world’s greatest women to cover at any time. In fact, veiling the reformers on behalf of women. He abolished face is an innovation that has no foundation such sex-discriminating practices as female whatsoever in Islam. Even in the infanticide, slavery and levirate (marriage covering of women from head to toe is recent; it between a man and his brother’s widow), while was not required before the discovery of oil. introducing concepts guaranteeing women the “The hijab veil (which covers all of a right to inherit and bequeath property, and the Muslim woman’s hair) is also not obligatory. And right to exercise full possession and control over in Europe, for example, it should be prohibited their own wealth. Islam, in fact, may be the only because it creates a lot of problems for women. religion that formally specified women’s rights If women are attacked because they are wearing

1 the hijab, as happened in France not so long ago, beginning of the last decade, the pendulum for then they should not wear it. I have spoken out Muslim women swung the other way again. Once on this issue on a number of occasions, and more they were to be hidden behind veils, a since I began doing so, a lot of Muslim women in development that now seemed to legitimize and Europe have started leaving off the head institutionalize inequality for women. In fact, calls covering.” by Islamic organizations in recent years for The veil originated as a Persian elitist Muslim women to veil themselves have been fashion to distinguish aristocracy from the followed shortly thereafter by demands that common masses, and has moved in and out of women stop working, stay home, limit their fashion ever since. Early Islamic scholars, for educations, and resign positions of authority. example, tried to enforce veiling by declaring “all Insists Dr Badawi, however, “This is not required of women is pudendal.” Islamic studies specialist by Islam. According to our religion, women have Nancy Dupree, of Duke University, explained its a perfect right to take part in society.” more recent use. “At the time of national [And later on page 293 of Price of Honour]: movements against colonial powers, it became a symbol of resistance against alien politics that Palestinian women have long participated were generally viewed as a move to encourage in their nationalist movement, and many removed female over permissiveness. After independence their hijabs for he first time in demonstrations was won and governments embarked on their against the creation of Israel in 1948. Despite indigenous Western–oriented paths, the veil was this, in the first year of the Intifada, Hamas discredited as an emblem of enforced orthodoxy zealots, many mere teenage boys, forced women and suffocating social control, an archaic social in Gaza, where the extremists then had more institution similar to slavery.” control, to wear the Islamic head covering again. Like Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister, Having achieved that goal, Hamas then insisted Benazir Bhutto, many Muslim women who grew that women wear the fill length Islamic coat or up in the less-restrictive era wore Western dress. abaya, and more recently women have been Bhutto took to Islamizing her wardrobe only when bullied into wearing face veils and gloves. In she began her election campaign. Throughout Gaza today it is rare to find a woman who does her time in office she has had great difficulty not dress like her counterpart in Saudi Arabia. In keeping her head modestly covered simply East Jerusalem and the West Bank, an estimated because she is unused to wearing the chador 50 percent of women are now veiled, and the intended for that purpose, and it keeps sliding off. number is steadily growing even in towns like As Islamic radicalism rose at the Ramallah. (Copyright © Jan Goodwin 1994).

Muslim women advised to abandon hijab to avoid attack The Guardian, August 4th 2005

A leading British Islamic scholar has advised Muslim women not to wear the traditional hijab head scarf to protect themselves from attack after the July 7 bombings. Professor Zaki Badawi head of the Muslim College in London and chairman of the Council of released figures showing a 600% rise in faith- Mosques and Imams, made his call amid fears hate crimes in London directed at Muslims since that wearing the hijab would make women more the bombings. vulnerable to attack or abuse. In his fatwa, or religious ruling, Professor On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police Badawi wrote: “In the present tense situation, 2 with the rise of attacks on Muslims, we advise greater fear of Islamophobic attacks. Muslim women who fear being attacked Dr Badawi’s ruling provoking a mixed physically or verbally to remove their hijab so as reaction among British Islamic groups. not to be identified by those who are hostile to Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Muslims. A woman wearing the hijab in the Britain, said: “It is not Muslim women who need to present circumstances could suffer aggression change their behaviour, it is those thugs and the from irresponsible elements. Therefore, she far right who may target them who need to ought not to wear it. Dress is meant to protect change.” from harm not to invite it.” Massoud Shadjarah, of the Islamic Human According to some with knowledge of police Rights Commission, said: “Muslim women are intelligence, the backlash since the bombings being attacked without wearing the hijab, non- has not led to a noticeable rise in attacks on Muslim Asians are being attacked. We need to Muslim women wearing the hijab. address the issue of Islamophobia.” But since the attacks on the US on A Guardian poll last week found that one in September 11 2001 – and particularly since the five Muslims said they or a family member had London bombings – Muslims have reported suffered hostility or abuse since July 7.

From The Times newspaper website: Will dropping the hijab make women safer? TIMESONLINE, August 04, 2005 worlds religions were handed down on clay tablets - the wearing of turbans, skullcaps, hijabs, Dr Zaki Badawi, one of the most senior etc, is due to dress code guidelines introduced Muslims in Britain, has advised women to stop by religious leaders. It might be better if religious wearing the hijab because of an increase in hate people just wore something less conspicuous in attacks since the July 7 London bombings. Other the future, like a small badge. Tony Lawrence, leaders urged women not to surrender to Bournemouth. intimidation by thugs. Send us your view using I lived the first 25 years of my life in India - the form below: the country with the second highest Muslim Dr Badawi has made a practical population in the world, after Indonesia. Yet I had suggestion. He is not asking anyone to give up never heard of the hijab, and Muslim women their faith. After all, a Muslim who does not wear there never wore one. The garment is purely an a hijab is no less a Muslim. Vinay Mehra, Purley, Arab interpretation of the Koran, and women of Surrey. Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin have never traditionally worn it. It is a symbol of man's People who dress in an unusual manner domination over women and progressive British are perceived as being "different" and tend to be Muslim women should reject it as something trusted less. None of the dress codes for the alien to their culture. Maran Vish, London.

The fact is Dr Zaki Badawi, in principle, was against the wearing of the headscarf, but he knew many of his less enlightened female constituents would have trouble coming to terms with his view and so he tried to coax them, at times through the back door, into not wearing it. He allowed his students and staff at the Muslim College to wear the garment if they wanted to. Badawi was the consummate PR man. His fears for the safety of hijabi women were well illustrated by the brutal murder of an Egyptian woman in Germany in 2009, described in the article overleaf.

3 thousands of mourners and leading government The headscarf martyr: figures. There are plans to name a street after her. murder in German Sherbini, a former national handball champion, and Okaz, a genetic engineer who court sparks Egyptian was just about to submit his PhD, had reportedly lived in Germany since 2003, and were believed fury at west’s to be planning to return to Egypt at the end of the year. They were expecting a second child in ‘Islamophobia’ January. Unemployed Alex W. from Perm in Russia Woman was stabbed 18 times during was found guilty last November of insulting and hijab trial abusing Sherbini, screaming "terrorist" and "Islamist whore" at her, during the Dresden park encounter. He was fined €780 but had appealed Outrage at lack of media coverage the verdict, which is why he and Sherbini fuels protests appeared face to face in court again. Even though he had made his anti-Muslim Kate Connolly, Berlin sentiments clear, there was no heightened Jack Shenker, security and questions remain as to why he was allowed to bring a knife into the courtroom. Angry mourners at the funeral in Alexandria The Guardian, 8th July 2009. accused Germany of racism, shouting slogans such as "Germans are the enemies of God" and It was while Marwa el-Sherbini was in the Egypt's head mufti Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy dock recalling how the accused had insulted her called on the German judiciary to severely punish for wearing the hijab after she asked him to let AlexW. her son sit on a swing last summer, that the very "Anger is high", said Joseph Mayton, editor same man strode across the Dresden courtroom of the English-language news website Bikya and plunged a knife into her 18 times. Masr. "Not since Egypt won the African [football] Her three-year-old son Mustafa was forced Cup have come together under a to watch as his mother slumped to the courtroom common banner." floor. In Germany the government of Angela Even her husband Elvi Ali Okaz could do Merkel has been sharply criticised for its sluggish nothing as the 28-year-old Russian stock response to the country's first murderous anti- controller who was being sued for insult and Islamic attack. The general secretaries of both abuse took the life of his pregnant wife. As Okaz the Central Council of Jews and the Central ran to save her, he too was brought down, shot Council of Muslims, Stephen Kramer and Aiman by a police officer who mistook him for the Mazyek, who on Monday made a joint visit to the attacker. He is now in intensive care in a Dresden bedside of Sherbini's husband, spoke of the hospital. "inexplicably sparse" reactions from both media While the horrific incident that took place a and politicians. week ago today has attracted little publicity in They said that although there was no Europe, and in Germany has focused more on question that the attack was racially motivated, issues of court security than the racist motivation the debate in Germany had concentrated more behind the attack, 2,000 miles away in her native on the issue of the lack of courtroom security. "I Egypt, the 32-year-old pharmacist has been think the facts speak for themselves," Kramer named the "headscarf martyr". said. She has become a national symbol of The government's vice spokesman Thomas persecution for a growing number of Steg rebuffed the criticism, saying not enough demonstrators, who have taken to the streets in was yet known about the details of the incident. protest at the perceived growth in Islamophobia "In this concrete case we've held back from in the west. Sherbini's funeral took place in her making a statement because the circumstances native Alexandria on Monday in the presence of are not sufficiently clear enough to allow a broad

4 political response," he said, adding: "Should it be the case that this was anti- foreigner [and] racially motivated [the government] would condemn it in the strongest possible terms". As hundreds of Arab and Muslim protesters demonstrated in Germany, and observers drew comparisons with the Danish cartoon row, Egyptian government representatives in Berlin said it was important to keep the incident in perspective. "It was a criminal incident, and doesn't mean that a popular persecution of Muslims is taking place," Magdi el-Sayed, the spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Berlin said. But because it occurred just days after Nicolas Sarkozy gave a major policy speech denouncing the burka, many Egyptians believe the death of Sherbini is part of a broader trend of European intolerance towards Muslims. the incident would have received much greater The German embassy in Cairo has sought attention. to calm the situation, organising a visit of Politicians in Egypt have been scrambling condolence by the ambassador to the victim's to ride the groundswell of popular feeling. But family and issuing a statement insisting that the some commentators have criticised reaction to attack did not reflect general German sentiment the murder as a convenient distraction for the towards Egyptians. unpopular regime of President Hosni Mubarak, There have been repeated calls by which is currently being challenged by a protesters for the German embassy to be nationwide series of strikes and sit-ins. picketed. The Egyptian pharmacists' syndicate "The tragedy of Marwa el-Sherbini is real, said it is considering a week-long boycott of as is anti-Arab racism in Europe and elsewhere, German medicines. but... her death has been recruited to channel The victim's brother, Tarek el-Sherbini, resentment of the west, Danish-cartoon style," labelled Germany as a "cold" country when the popular blogger The Arabist said. interviewed by a popular talk show host. Media pundits such as Abdel Azeem Hamad, editor of the daily al-Shorouk newspaper, have attributed the western media's disinterest in the story to racism, arguing that if Sherbini had been Jewish

5 the right of a Muslim woman to wear one, I am A target for hate also unwilling to give up my right to expose the Tarek Fatah, National Post political symbolism that hides behind the banner (Toronto, Canada). of religiosity.

Most Muslims know that the Koran does not ask Published Wednesday, 8th July 2009 Muslim women explicitly to cover their heads or their faces as a fundamental practice of Islam. Marwa Sherbini, a 32-year-old Egyptian mother, Yet Islamists inspired by Iran and Saudi Arabia was murdered in a German courtroom in continue to push for this attire. Dresden this week. She was killed as she waited to give evidence against a German man of What are we gaining by thumbing our noses at Russian descent who had been convicted for the host societies of the West that have allowed calling her a "terrorist" because she wore the us to be fellow citizens? Why have we told our hijab (a Muslim headscarf concealing the head young women that not wearing such garments is and neck). somehow tantamount to nakedness?

Sherbini, who was three months pregnant with On one hand, we have the rise of the racist right her second child, was stabbed 18 times by a man in Europe. On the other, we have a gleeful identified only as Axel W. The woman's husband, Islamist left, for whom this murder will prove to Elvi Ali Okaz, was also critically injured as he be manna from heaven. Sherbini's murder will be tried to protect her. portrayed as the ultimate symbol of the West's “War against Islam," and fuel the propaganda Last year, when Axel W. claimed Sherbini was a that Muslims are victims. Never mind the murder "terrorist," he was fined 780 [euros]. It was during of Neda Agha-Soltan in Tehran, killed by fellow the appeal proceeding, on July 1, that Axel W. Muslims. Already, there are protests in Egypt and Sherbini found themselves again in the same asking for revenge. room. Before she could give evidence, the man lunged at her and stabbed her to death. I have been to Europe six times in the last year and I can see the rise of racism against visible The alleged murderer, if convicted, should spend Muslims that parallels a suicidal effort by jihadis the rest of his life behind bars. The murder of to flaunt their contempt for Western civilization Marwa Sherbini is a blot on the face of Germany, and its values. Things are getting worse because but it should also be cause for concern for two other segments of society that can help cool Muslims everywhere in the West. the situation are either silent or paralyzed by political correctness. Two years ago, when the hijab controversy erupted in Quebec, I had warned that sooner or The first is secular and liberal Muslims, who form later there was bound to be a backlash against the vast majority of Europe's Islamic community. Muslims if Islamists continued to push the hijab They need to organize and confront the jihadis. and the niqab (which covers the entire body, Not for the sake of government grants and NGO except the eyes) as political symbols of Islamism, funding, but for the sake of our future as equal and thereby thumb their noses at non-Muslim citizens in the Western world. North American and European society. However, I could never have imagined that the backlash The other group is the European and North would take such a bloody turn as this. American left, wiiich has become a collective apologist for all things Islamist. This group is so The question we Muslims have to ask is this: consumed by its knee-jerk anti-Americanism that what do we gain by using our daughters, sisters it finds parallels between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and wives to carry the false burden of the hijab as and Osama bin Laden on one hand and Che if it were the flag of Islam? Guevara and Simon Bolivar on the other. They are so obsessed by their hatred of Washington While I am totally opposed to the ban on the that they have missed the news; it is their man in Hijab in France and Turkey, and would defend

6 the White House, not Dubya.

Now is the time for these two groups to stand up and be counted. The racists and the Islamists have to be challenged. Otherwise, more Marwa Sherbinis and Neda Agha-Soltans will die.

-Tarek Fatah is author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic State. Currently, he is working on his second book on the roots of Jewish-Muslim friction, to be published by McClelland & Stewart in the fall of 2010. Fatah is also co-host of Strong Opinions, an afternoon talk show on CFRB 1010 in Toronto.

7 appeared in Iran in 1977 as a symbol of Islamist The Freedom to Go opposition to the Shah. By 1979 when the mullahs seized power Topless the number of women wearing it had multiplied by the thousands, recalling sequences from by Amir Taheri. Hitchcock's thriller "The Birds." Wall Street Journal In 1981, Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr, the first December 6, 2002 president of the Islamic Republic, announced that scientific research had shown that women's hair emitted rays that drove men insane. To protect "The girls are ecstatic and the teachers feel the public, the new regime passed special liberated," says Zohreh Shamloo, headmistress legislation in 1982 making the new form of hijab in a south Tehran school. "It is as if the sun is mandatory for all females aged above six, shining again." Ms. Shamloo's school is one of regardless of religious faith. Violating the hijab 12 in the Iranian capital where girls, aged code is punishable by 100 lashes of the cane and between six and 17, and the all-female staff, have six months imprisonment. been allowed to remove the officially imposed So by the mid-1980s a form of hijab never headgear (hijab) while inside the building. seen in Islam before the 1970s had become The permission to cast off the hijab inside standard headgear for millions of Muslim women the schools is part of an experiment launched by all over the world, including Europe and North the education ministry in September. To make America. Many younger Muslim women, sure that the girls and their teachers are not especially Western converts, were duped into exposed to "stolen gazes" from men, six-foot high believing that the neo-hijab was an essential part plastic extensions have been added to the walls of the Islamic faith. of the buildings of the schools concerned. Muslim women, like women in all societies, Inside, the girls are also allowed to cast off had covered their head with a variety of gears the long black overcoats that all females aged six over the centuries. These had such names as or above must wear in the Islamic Republic. "With rusari, ruband, chaqchur, maqne'a, and picheh the new walls the school looks like a prison," among others. All had tribal, ethnic and generally comments Ms. Shamloo. "But inside it we feel folkloric origins and were never specifically free!" associated with religion. In Senegal, Muslim The experiment, to be reviewed in three women wore a colorful headgear but went months, was approved after a nationwide study topless. showed that the imposition of hijab on young girls Muslim women anywhere in the world could caused "serious depression and, in some cases, easily check the fraudulent nature of the neo- suicide." But it has drawn the wrath of Islamist hijab by leafing through their own family Khomeinists. albums. They will not find the picture of a single The newspaper Jumhuri Islami (Islamic female ancestor of theirs who wore the cursed Republic), owned by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali headgear now imposed upon them as an Khamenehi, has lashed out against "this slippery absolute "must" of Islam. slope towards scandal." "Casting off the hijab This fake Islamic hijab is thus nothing but a encourages the culture of nudity and weakens political prop, a weapon of visual terrorism. It is the sacred values of Islam," the paper warned on the symbol of a totalitarian ideology inspired Nov. 20. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani more by Nazism and Communism than by Islam. has gone even further. The garb, moreover, is designed to promote "A strand of woman's hair emerging from gender Apartheid. It covers the woman's ears so under the hijab is a dagger drawn towards the that she does not hear things properly. Styled like heart of Islam," he told a recent Friday prayer a hood, it prevents the woman from having full gathering in Tehran. vision of her surroundings. Perhaps it is worth recalling at this point that But the harm that Islamism is doing to radical Islam's obsession with women's hair is a Muslim women is not limited to the evil headgear. new phenomenon. Mussa Sadr, an Iranian In every Muslim country the number of women mullah who won the leadership of the Shiite out of work is at least twice that of men. Women’s community in Lebanon, invented this form of wages are less than a quarter of what men get. hijab in the early 1970s. The first neo-hijabs 8 The Pakistani fundamentalist coalition that won The fact is that Muslim girls have already almost a quarter of the seats in last month's kept their end of the bargain as far as education parliamentary elections campaigned for "kicking is concerned. They have all the degrees they women out of offices and giving the jobs they need but are still not allowed to leave home have stolen to men." without a chaperon or wear the kind of clothes Barbarous traditions such as the so-called they like. They cannot get the jobs they merit or "honor-killing" are widespread. In the year 2000 choose whom to marry. alone, over 6,000 women were murdered in The two Amman events were a far cry from Pakistan by their fathers or brothers for having the first congress of Muslim women held in "dishonored" the family. In Jordan over 700 Kazan, then part of the Russian Empire, in 1875, women fell victims to "honor killing" in the same in which over 800 women delegates unanimously year. In Egypt and the Sudan an estimated voted for "full equality of sexes, and the abolition 150,000 girls, aged four or above, suffer genital of all discrimination." Sadly, the Western powers mutilation in the name of Islam each year. have done little to help Muslim women in their Almost everywhere in the Muslim world, struggle for freedom and equality. rape, including the most horrible cases of incest, Leading Western ladies, including former end up with the punishment of the victim. In most Irish president Mary Robinson and the ubiquitous Muslim countries women cannot travel without Danielle Mitterrand, wife of the late French the written permission of a male guardian. And in President Francois Mitterrand, have frequently Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive visited Tehran and other Islamic capitals wearing cars. Against such a background two recent the evil neo-hijab. The list of topics that the highly publicized seminars on women in the European Union wants to raise in its "critical Muslim world appear rather tame, if not actually dialogue" with Iran has 22 items. Yet not one is insulting, exercises. concerned with the gender Apartheid imposed by The first, funded by the World Bank and the Islamists. Some French, German and British held in Amman, Jordan, gave a standing ovation leftists have even praised the fascist neo-hijab in to a Tunisian lady who, having managed to get a the name of "cultural diversity." divorce from a cousin, persuaded an Englishman Many courageous women are fighting to convert to Islam so that they could marry. Not against the age of darkness that Islamism is a bad story, except that the message was that if trying to impose on the whole world. Democrats Muslim women could divorce husbands they did everywhere have a duty to support that fight so not love, they might attract new converts to the that the sun will shine for Ms. Shamloo's girls all faith! the time and everywhere, not just for three The second event, also held in Amman, months inside a school-cum-prison. attracted a number of Arab first ladies. It ended with a spineless appeal for "educational opportunities for girls."

9 mullahs seized power in Tehran in 1979, the THIS IS NOT ISLAM number of women wearing the hijab exploded by Amir Taheri. into tens of thousands. New York Post In 1981, Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr, the first August 15, 2003 president of the Islamic Republic, announced that "scientific research had shown that women's hair August 15, 2003 -- FRANCE'S Prime Minister emitted rays that drove men insane." To protect Jean-Pierre Raffarin has just appointed a the public, the new Islamist regime passed a law committee to draft a law to ban the Islamist hijab in 1982 making the hijab mandatory for females (headgear) in state-owned establishments, aged above six, regardless of religious faith. including schools and hospitals. The decision has Violating the hijab code was made punishable by drawn fire from the French "church" of Islam, an 100 lashes of the cane and six months organization created by Raffarin's government imprisonment. last spring. Germany is facing its hijab problem, By the mid 1980s, a form of hijab never with a number of Islamist organizations suing seen in Islam before the 1970s had become federal and state authorities for "religious standard gear for millions of women all over the discrimination" because of bans imposed on the world, including Europe and America. controversial headgear. In the United States, Some younger Muslim women, especially several Muslim women are suing airport-security Western converts, were duped into believing that firms for having violated their First Amendment the neo-hijab was an essential part of the faith. rights by asking them to take off their hijab during (Katherine Bullock, a Canadian, so loved the idea routine searches of passengers. of covering her hair that she converted to Islam All these and other cases are based on the while studying the hijab.) claim that the controversial headgear is an The garb is designed to promote gender essential part of the Muslim faith and that apartheid. It covers the woman's ears so that she attempts at banning it constitute an attack on does not hear things properly. Styled like a hood, Islam. it prevents the woman from having full vision of That claim is totally false. The headgear in her surroundings. It also underlines the concept question has nothing to do with Islam as a of woman as object, all wrapped up and marked religion. It is not sanctioned anywhere in the out. Koran, the fundamental text of Islam, or the Muslim women, like women in all societies, hadith (traditions) attributed to the Prophet. had covered their head with a variety of gears This headgear was invented in the early over the centuries. These had such names as 1970s by Mussa Sadr, an Iranian mullah who had lachak, chador, rusari, rubandeh, chaqchur, won the leadership of the Lebanese Shi'ite maqne'a and picheh, among others. community. All had tribal, ethnic and generally folkloric In an interview in 1975 in Beirut, Sadr told origins and were never associated with religion. this writer that the hijab he had invented was (In Senegal, Muslim women wear a colorful inspired by the headgear of Lebanese Catholic headgear against the sun, while working in the nuns, itself inspired by that of Christian women fields, but go topless.) in classical Western paintings. (A casual visit to Muslim women could easily check the the Metropolitan Museum in New York, or the fraudulent nature of the neo-Islamist hijab by Louvre in Paris, would reveal the original of the leafing through their family albums. They will not neo-Islamist hijab in numerous paintings find the picture of a single female ancestor of depicting Virgin Mary and other female figures theirs who wore the cursed headgear now from the Old and New Testament.) marketed as an absolute "must" of Islam. Sadr's idea was that, by wearing the This fake Islamic hijab is nothing but a headgear, Shi'ite women would be clearly political prop, a weapon of visual terrorism. It is marked out, and thus spared sexual harassment, the symbol of a totalitarian ideology inspired and rape, by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian gunmen more by Nazism and Communism than by Islam. who at the time controlled southern Lebanon. It is as symbolic of Islam as the Mao uniform was Sadr's neo-hijab made its first appearance of Chinese civilization. in Iran in 1977 as a symbol of Islamist-Marxist It is used as a means of exerting pressure opposition to the Shah's regime. When the on Muslim women who do not wear it because 10 they do not share the sick ideology behind it. It is academic year begins. Schools where the hijab a sign of support for extremists who wish to was discarded have shown "real improvements" impose their creed, first on Muslims, and then on in academic standards reflected in a 30 percent the world through psychological pressure, rise in the number of students obtaining the violence, terror, and, ultimately, war. highest grades. The tragedy is that many of those who wear Meanwhile, several woman members of the it are not aware of its implications. They do so Iranian Islamic Majlis (parliament) are preparing because they have been brainwashed into a draft to raise the legal age for wearing the hijab believing that a woman cannot be a "good from six to 12, thus sparing millions of children Muslim" without covering her head with the Sadr- the trauma of having their heads covered. designed hijab. Another sign that the Islamic Republic may Even today, less than 1 percent of Muslim be softening its position on hijab is a recent women wear the hijab that has bewitched some decision to allow the employees of state-owned Western liberals as a symbol of multicultural companies outside Iran to discard the hijab. (The diversity. The hijab debate in Europe and the new rule has enabled hundreds of women, United States comes at a time when the working for Iran-owned companies in Paris, controversial headgear is seriously questioned in London, and other European capitals, for Iran, the only country to impose it by law. example, to go to work without the cursed hijab.) Last year, the Islamist regime authorized a The delicious irony of militant Islamists number of girl colleges in Tehran to allow asking "Zionist-Crusader" courts in France, students to discard the hijab while inside school Germany and the United States to decide what buildings. The experiment was launched after a is "Islamic" and what is not will not be missed. government study identified the hijab as the The judges and the juries who will be asked to cause of "widespread depression and falling decide the cases should know that they are academic standards" and even suicide among dealing not with Islam, which is a religious faith, teenage girls. but with Islamism, which is a political doctrine. The Ministry of Education in Tehran has just The hijab-wearing militants have a right to announced that the experiment will be extended promote their political ideology. But they have no to other girls schools next month when the new right to speak in the name of Islam.

11 symbol in the same way as Nazi casquettes, Mao WILL CHIRAC FIGHT Zedong caps and Che Guevara berets were in their times. It has never been sanctioned by any FASCISM? Islamic religious authority and is worn by a tiny by Amir Taheri. minority of Muslim women. New York Post It was first created in Lebanon in 1975 by December 14, 2003 Imam Mussa Sadr, an Iranian mullah who had become leader of the Shi'ite community there. December 14, 2003 -- ANYONE following the Sadr wanted the to mark out Shi'ite girls French media these days might get the so that they would not be molested by the impression that we are heading for "a war of Palestinians who controlled southern Lebanon at values" and a "clash of civilizations" over what is the time. known as "le foulard islamique." In 1982, the Lebanese-designed headgear The controversial foulard is a special was imposed by law on all Iranian girls and headgear, inspired by the hood worn by women, including non-Muslims, aged six years Capuchin monks, and designed to cover a and above. Thus, Iranian Christian, Jewish and woman's head, leaving only her face exposed. Zoroastrian women are also forced to wear a The issue has divided French society headgear that is supposed to be an Islamic across religious and cultural fault-lines that few symbol. The Khomeinist claim is that women's would have acknowledged a decade ago: Should hair has to be covered because it emits rays that the government forbid girls from wearing the turn men "wild with sex." foulard at state schools? From the mid 1980s, the foulard appeared A special committee, set up by President in North Africa and Egypt before moving east to Jacques Chirac last summer, has just submitted the Persian Gulf, the Indo-Pakistani Subcontinent its report on the subject, suggesting that the and Southeast Asia. It made its first appearance foulard be banned from public schools along with in France in 1984, brought in by Iranian other "ostensible signs of religion" such as Mujahedin asylum seekers. Today, thousands of Jewish skullcaps and large crosses. The women, especially new converts, wear it in president is scheduled to unveil his conclusions Europe and North America. in a televised address this week. That the foulard did not exist before 1975 is Some secularists insist that the foulard easy to verify. Muslim women could refer to their should be banned from schools, hospitals and family albums to see that none of their female other public institutions by a special law because parents and ancestors ever wore it. it represents "an ostentatious religious sign" in Megawati Sukarnoputri, President of spaces that should remain neutral as far as Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, religion is concerned. Others believe that an does not wear it. Nor does Khalidah Zia, prime outright ban could be seen as an attack on minister of Bangladesh, the world's second most individual beliefs, and force girls who wish to populous country. Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim wear the foulard to switch to private Koranic woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, does not schools. wear it, except inside Iran - where she would go All this may well be a result of a to jail if she did not. misunderstanding. To start with, the term "foulard That the foulard is a political invention can islamique" is inaccurate because it assumes that be ascertained in two other ways. First, there is the controversial headscarf is an article of Islamic the Iranian law of 1982 that specifies the shape, faith, which it emphatically is not. It is a political size and even the "authorized" colors of the symbol shared by several radical movements headscarf. that, each in its own way, tries to transform Islam Second, the various Islamist movements from a religion into a political ideology. have developed specific color schemes to assert One could describe these movements as their identity. The Khomeinists wear dark blue or Islamist, but not Islamic. A new word has been brown. The Sunni Salafis, who sympathize with al coined in to describe them: Mutuasslim. Qaeda and the Taliban, prefer black. Supporters Its equivalent in Persian is Islamgara. of Abu-Sayyaf and other Southeast Asian radical The foulard should be seen as a political groups wear white or yellow. Supporters of

12 Palestinian radical groups don checkered those who wore the foulard were involved in . incidents provoked by their attempts to force Islamism is a totalitarian ideology like other girls to cover their heads. Communism and Fascism. And like them it loves A survey by a group of Muslim women in uniforms. While it forces, or brainwashes, women the Paris suburb of Courneuve last May shows into wearing the foulard, it also presses men to that 77 per cent of the girls who wore the foulard grow beards as an advertisement of piety. did so because they feared that if they did not Like people of other faiths and cultures, they would be beaten up or even disfigured by Muslim men and women often covered their Islamist vigilantes. Girls refusing the foulard are heads. But the headgear used had no political often followed by gangs of youth shouting significance and reflected local cultural, tribal and "putain" (whore) at them. folkloric traditions. No one ever claimed that In some suburbs, the Islamist Fascists have donning any particular headgear, whether for appointed an Emir al-Momeneen (Commander of men or women, was a religious duty. the Faithful) and set up armed units that the In any case Islam, with its rich tradition of French state fears to confront. These groups tell iconoclasm, is not a religion of symbols. It also Muslims not to allow their womenfolk to be abhors any advertisement of piety which, known examined by male doctors, not to donate blood or as tajallow (showing off), is regarded as a sin. receive blood from Jews or Christians, and to By trying to turn the issue of the foulard into prevent girls from studying science, swimming or a duel between Islam and secularism, the French taking part in group sports. may be missing the point. The real problem is What the French state needs to do is to posed by organized and well-funded efforts of protect Muslims on its territory, especially Fascist groups to develop a form of apartheid in women, against the Fascists who are setting up which Muslims in France, now numbering almost "emirates" around major French cities, notably 6 million, will not be protected by the French Paris. political system and the laws that sustain it. What France is witnessing is not a clash of As things are, the foulard concerns a small civilization between Islam and the West. It is a number of Muslim women in France. The French clash between a new form of fascism and Interior Ministry's latest report says that only an democracy. Islamism must be exposed and estimated 11,200, out of some 1.8 million Muslim opposed politically. To give it any religious schoolgirls, wore the "foulard" at schools last credentials is not only unjust but also bad politics. year. The same report says that only 1,253 of

13 Koranic Law Does not Impose the Headscarf by Khaled Fouad Allam (appearing in 22nd January 2004 edition of 'La Repubblica' in Italy) Historically speaking, the “hijab” (or Islamic giving it a binding or legal sense. Yet all this – and headscarf) has never represented any form of we do well to point it out – was still an Islamic dogma, legal obligation or religious interpretation, an interpretation which gave rise symbol, even if today the impression is such. to a rule. Jurists during the classical period of Islam – This change in language and social who when Muslim law was first formulated for the interpretation is a sign of crisis within the 14th four great legal schools of Islam – never century Muslim world: the end of the great presented any theories on the headscarf. The Islamic empires and the invasion of Baghdad by celebrated jurist and founder of the Theological a foreign power – the Mongols of Genghis Khan. University of Fez in Morocco, Qayrawin (died in The “ummah” (the community of believers) had 996), spoke about the headscarf only in to therefore face and struggle with what reference to prayer rituals, when women enter nowadays we call the principle of “otherness”. mosques to pray on Fridays. And the word he This posed the same problem then as it does used was “khimar”, a veil covering women from nowadays: today’s Muslims now must cope with head to toe. He never used the term “hijab”. It is how to be themselves in a society dominated by the same with other authors of the period. non-Muslims. The headscarf is a sign of the There is indeed an explanation for all this. Muslim community’s defensive reactions and Classical Islam jurists warned of the need to focuses on legal norms not to create leeway for formulate legal theory concerning the headscarf freedom of expression, but rather to establish a or veil, simply because a woman’s medieval form of control – on Islam itself. world was that of a cloister, where she didn’t Therefore it is no coincidence that Ibn leave home, leading her life within the borders of Taymiyya (died 1328) is a daily point of reference private property. And when she did venture out, in neo-fundamentalist language. which was rare, she had to do so with the However the decisive change for the “hijab” authorization of a male figure – whether it be her in terms of meaning and law occurs in the 20th father, husband or brother – and only under century, especially in its last fifty years. In Muslim exceptional circumstances, as for some formal countries, following the period of decolonization, ceremony or pilgrimage. the processes of modernization created great The hijab is an invention of the 14th century, difficulties for traditional societal structures and and it has no real basis in the Koran. In the institutions. Two unprecedented phenomena Koran, “hijab” comes from the root “hjb”, which occured: literacy of the masses and women refers not to an object, but an action: wearing a going to school, work and out from their homes. headscarf, pulling down a curtain or screen or The outside world was added to their main world reducing light so as to prevent others from prying of reference. or looking in. In the face of such social changes, many The change to the word “hijab”, from exegetes in Islam have reacted in neo- signifying an action to meaning an object, comes conservative ways, creating a legal system in the 14th century. The jurist, Ibn Taymiyya, was legitimizing and prescribing the use of the hijab. the first to use the word “hijab” to mean The headscarf thus becomes a distinct symbol of “headscarf”. It was a headscarf that distinguished Islamic identity and separation between sexes. Muslim from non-Muslim women. It came to The headscarf’s introduction and use into public distinguish a woman’s identity and religious areas indeed favors the creation of a gender association. barrier, which today is not limited to the headscarf Ibn Taymiyya stated that a free woman has itself, but in some other countries has given rise the obligation to cover herself with a headscarf, to an actual division of space, even in public while a slave is not obliged as such. He justified transport vehicles (e.g. some neo- this based on a maximalist interpretation (cf. fundamentalist-minded architects have drawn up Koran, verse 31, sura 24), transforming the ideas for separate elevators for men and words of a generic statement into a principle, by women). Thus public space, instead of

14 sanctioning a principle of equality, focuses on Therefore, breaking the rule – that is to say, sexual discrimination. showing themselves off – means contaminating However, all these changes in the their original purity. headscarf’s use and practice is joined to that This taboo spells for a puritan society and which is a constant in the customs and norms of articulates a legal system of control. Muslim Muslim society: the dichotomy between the pure societies are obsessed by issues of impurity; and and impure, and prohibition as a basis for Islamic the headscarf tends to symbolically preserve the law. bounds between the pure and impure. The frequent emphasis in sacred texts – Today the headscarf takes on the meaning that women mustn’t do anything to look at other of an identity crisis. In addition to expressing the men and draw attention to themselves, hence widespread malaise found in Islamic society, the covering up their figures – has indeed led the headscarf conceals its changes and exacerbates collective Muslim unconscious to associate people’s fears. Whoever wears it, especially in femininity with lust. In this way women have the West, does so because they are coerced or become synonymous with the chaos and conditioned to do so or are claiming their rights disorder attributed to vice. Hence with women and asserting free choices. There are many there is always the imminent risk of committing opinions, but they all defer to a series of unsolved acts of impurity. Due to their reproductive role, conflicts: between Islam and the West, with Islam women are invested with a certain sacred nature. itself and between law and culture.

15 From The Times newspaper website: Should Muslims cast aside hijabs and beards? TIMESONLINE, July 27, 2005

Amir Taheri urges Muslims to stop "using their In the five years that I lived in the Middle bodies as advertising space for al-Qaeda" by East, young Saudis, to avoid referring to anyone wearing hijabs, beards and Taleban-style clothes directly by name, would mime stroking imaginary which, he says, have nothing to do with Islam: long beards when talking about someone whom "Muslims who wear such clothes in the belief that they considered a fundamentalist. In the very it shows their piety, in most cases, are unwittingly heartland of Islam the way you dress and present giving succour to a brand of Islamist extremism." yourself physically is a crucial sign of your Send us your view using the form below: political and religious allegiences. I think that it is impossible to dismiss wearing a hijab or long I came to England in 1972 from Uganda. beard and short gown as having no other There were Muslims living in Leicester, and it was significance than showing yourself to be extra rare to see women wearing hijabs or seeing lots pious. In my experience, those Muslims who did of men with beards and white robes. Then all of not make such a fuss about their external a sudden, there were lots of women wearing appearances were usually the more genuinely hijabs and men wearing beards and white robes. devout. Dene Croxford, Southall, Middx It seems to me that this sudden change was caused by some ideological change in the Many Muslims living in Britain and outlook of these people. This questions the oft- elsewhere in the World who do not wear hijabs quoted argument about "freedom". If it was a or beards, including me, lead perfectly peaceful quesion of freedom, then we would expect the and God-fearing lives and they do not feel lesser law of averages to apply; however, here there is Muslims because of that. I think people who think something more going on. Ashok Dattani, wearing a hijab or beard makes them good or London better Muslims are, to put it mildly, simply wrong. Khalid Abbas, London. I am a Saudi woman living in London and I am so happy to live and work without wearing hijabs or yashmaqs. I can never understand Muslim women in this country who feel the need to wear medieval dress. Women who wear traditional dress in a country like Saudi Arabia have no choice; women who wear it by choice can be nothing more than fanatics in my opinion. You can be Muslim and you do not have to dress like a circus tent. Amina Al-Gahtani, London

16 Chapter 2

In the late 1990's the Muslim Magazine, Q-News, based in London tried to persuade us that the headscarf was obligatory or at least that the wearing of the headscarf was a part of the original ideal prescribed for Muslim women.

What follows is the itemisation of the detailed debate that took place from 1997 to 1998 in the letters section of Q-News, interspersed with articles on the headscarf.

Body Shop in hijab sacking row Q-News 7 February 1997 (No. 251-254)

A teenager who was laid off from her post with the global cosmetics chain, The Body recounted. Miss Mahmood was told that Shop, after she adopted the hijab has filed a case Saturday staff reductions were in order and that of discrimination against the company. she would have to be relieved of her duties. At 17 year-old Amna Mahmood was told that the time, The Body Shop was recruiting more she was surplus to requirements just one week part-time workers for the Christmas period. Miss after wearing the head-dress to the store in Mahmood was also the longer serving and more Hounslow, Middlesex where she had worked for experienced of two Saturday staff employed at over a year. the branch. Miss Mahmood began working for Anita "I humiliated and devastated," said Miss Roddick's celebrated company in September Mahmood. "I cried because I felt I had been let 1995 as a Saturday Sales Assistant and retained down by people I trusted and a company I had a spotless employment record. invested a lot of energy in. I found it difficult to eat However, Miss Mahmood's relationship with and sleep and suffered from a migraine after management deteriorated after she decided to many years." take up the hijab as an expression of Islamic Miss Mahmood, whose parents are modesty. Although The Body Shop has no policy Pakistani, has taken her grievance to the on headscarves, Miss Mahmood said she felt the Commission for Racial Equality who will decide atmosphere change when colleagues saw her whether to back her case. A victory over The new attire. Body Shop would represent a prestigious scalp "When I walked into the staffroom, I felt for the CRE not least because it would send a ignored and to some extent disrespected," she clear warning to the new breed of 'ethical' said. companies that pious policy statements do not "Later on that day my manageress exempt them from scrutiny. suddenly became aware of my scarf. This was Owned by Anita Roddick, The Body Shop the first time she had mentioned it and we had a prides itself on moral business practices with conversation about why as a Muslim I should be diverse peoples from all over the world. wearing it." Accusations of religious intolerance would The following week Miss Mahmood's severely dent its carefully cultivated reputation. deputy manager accosted her as she walked However, for the moment, The Body Shop home from college. "I was called upstairs without in Hounslow, which trades as a franchise, is the faintest idea I was going to be sacked," she 17 denying the allegations claiming that Miss hijab. She is also taking her case to an industrial Mahmood was the unfortunate but unavoidable tribunal. victim of staff cutbacks. Miss Mahmood's is the The case adds to a growing dossier of latest in a series of religious discrimination evidence being compiled by Muslim complaints to surface of late. In December 21 organisations and minority relations groups in year-old Farida Khanum lost an internal appeal support of demands for laws prohibiting religious after being dismissed from her job as an engineer discrimination; at present there is no such by Luton car manufacturer, IPC, weeks after legislation on the statue books. returning from a pilgrimage and adopting the

with prejudices about the faith," said BT operating Khalida Khan of the an-Nisa Society. "It seems inconceivable that any tacit anti-Muslim uniform for Muslim women should overlook the hijab - it is so obvious." policy BT's dress catalogue says that Q-News June 1997 its policy is necessary to promote an (No. 268-269) image of professionalism and to enhance the corporate identity but One of the country's largest employers part of the code may be operating to is operating an unwritten policy of exclude Muslim women. discrimination against and actively Former and current employees discouraging Muslim women from have confided to Q-News that they taking up job opportunities. had noticed a marked absence of Inquiries by Q-News have Muslim women on the shop floor, a corroborated the observations of BT key customer-facing position. This staff that the telecommunications giant has led them to suspect that a tacit has a tacit code of placing Muslim exclusion policy is at work. women in non customer-facing roles. Shameem Patel, a directory The few who may choose to wear the enquiries operator in east obligatory hijab later into their Lancashire, said that proportionately employment face being penalised for not more Muslim women worked in non- adhering to the official uniform. customer contact jobs. "I've never seen anybody Although BT's self-vaunted equal around here wearing a headscarf, definitely not in opportunities policy extends to cover religious the BT shop." dress, it fails to incorporate the hijab. The Calls to BT shops in areas of high Muslim company's Corporate Wear Catalogue features density confirmed the findings. In Blackburn, only a Pakistani shalwar-kameez style outfit of home to 35,000 Muslims, a member of staff pantaloon and an open-fronted tunic under the politely replied that "we've never had an Asian girl heading "Moslem dress." working here." A spokesman for the company said that The same response came from Bradford relevant counsel had been sought for the design. where the central business district is ringed by "We undertook trials and took advice from our poor Muslim areas suffering from endemic equal opportunities people," she said. "If unemployment. BT's Birmingham city centre something has been overlooked we will review store stated that they knew of no Muslim girl it." worker wearing a headscarf. In London's The omission has also resurrected the Street, there was not a hijab in sight and in complaint that equal opportunities departments Harrow, a female employee scoffed at the idea in the public and private sector are failing to take that somebody of that description might be on board religious concerns. working alongside. "In our experience these offices are usually BT failed to disclose how many "Moslem manned by non-Muslims with a poor dresses" had been ordered since they became understanding of the community's sensibilities or available in 1992. 18 I understand that Zaki Badawi Hijab: mind over of the Muslim College is one of those scholars who upholds the view that matter the hijab is a cultural accoutrement Q-News July 1997 which takes varying forms in (No. 270-271) different societies. For example, in India and Pakistan, women do not I am surprised at the rigid stance you cover all their hair but in Saudi adopt against British Telecom's Arabia many cover their entire face. dress code for not including the hijab In European Muslim societies like as part of the "Moslem dress" (Q- Bosnia, women do not wear scarves News 268-269). Having researched at all. However, in the West that we this area quite thoroughly I fail to find know, the scarf has never been an anywhere in the Quran which accepted item of clothing and these obligates women to wear a scarf, let days is all to readily identified with alone the hideous veil which has Islamic extremism and become fashionable since the backwardness. I find the the current Iranian revolution. As a man of popularity of the hijab to be a reason, I cannot see anything sexual somewhat reflex action. Most in exposing the hair. Muslims appear Muslim women I know wear it as a to be blaming the victim and failing statement of anti-Western defiance. to acknowledge their own Modesty is a state of mind, the shortcomings. Surely, if men cannot disposition of a pure heart, which get along without being turned on at cannot be substituted by any amount the first sight of a loose frond, then it of external attire. says more about their own spiritual weakness than about the moral Umar Tomkinson standing of a woman. Devon

to draw their head-veils over their More of the necks and bosoms..." (al-Noor, 30- 31) For argument's sake, let us say scarf that the translation of the meaning of Q-News July 1997 this verse may differ slightly with (No. 272-273) scholars, and the order to cover may not be so explicit. But there are It is erroneous to believe that women authentic ahadith that enjoin and are not required to cover their hair in support covering hair with a scarf. Islam (Q-News, July 1997). Is For example, a Companion of the brother Umar Tomkinson suggesting Prophet (pbuh) reported him as that the great believing women of the saying: "If a woman reaches the age past, the mothers of the faithful, did of menstruation, it is not allowed that not cover thus? The brother may any of her should be seen except notice the Quranic injunction where this - and he pointed to his face and Allah instructs believeing women to two hands" (al-Bayhaqi). Hijab cover themselves, viz - their hair, requires that women physically cover neck and body, in the following the specified parts in an attitude of verse: modesty and purity. This is "...And tell the believing men reconciled in Allah's words: "And let and women to lower their gaze and not the womenfolk appear in the to guard their modesty, and not to manner of the times of ignorance." display their adornments, except (al-Ahzab, 33) what ordinarily appears thereof, and Ayesha bint Mahmood, London 19 This particular hadith (i.e reported saying of the Prophet Mohammad), by Al-Bayhaqi, quoted by Ayesha bint Mahmood is definitely not of proven authenticity as confirmed by Dr. Zaki Badawi to me personally and he added that his former colleague, the late Dr. S. M. Darsh and Islamic scholars in general concurred. And that this hadith should not therefore be relied upon.

attire was unsuitable for Hijab: work and published a photograph of the offending For and garment. We Muslims are trying against to bring non-Muslims to Q-News August 1997 Islam but associating the (No. 274) hijab with Islam will drive them away altogether. Only I would like to congratulate Umar those converts who are Tomkinson on a truly excellent brainwashed seem to wear letter (Q-News 270). I agree with the hijab. If Muslim women his views entirely that the hijab is want to protest against not a part of true Islam. I regard western decadence, they the hijab as a perversion of can take up the Mary Islam and accordingly I Whitehouse example and condemn anyone who wears it. begin for instance by going If one reads Mohammed Asad's to newsagents (largely translation of the Quran and in owned by Asians now) and the footnote to verse 31 of Surah persuade them to remove 24 it is obvious that the hijab was the vast stocks of indeed only a cultural pornography that line their accoutrement at the time of the top shelves. The poor Asian Prophet Mohammed. shopkeepers need to make However, I also condemn money, but this way is pure the way most young European hypocrisy, as such women dress, especially in the exhibitionism and titillation is summer. Their semi-nakedness against the cultural and is a disgrace. Too many young moral teachings of the Asian girls tend to be exhibitionist in community, be they Hindu, nature and this is evident from the parallel Sikh or Muslim, I have told explosion in pornographic literature and videos. I British Telecom and the Body Shop not to allow myself am a solicitor who has been officially women to wear the hijab on the grounds that reprimanded at work by the company secretary these women should not be following a for criticising a female employee wearing a see- corruption of our great religion. through blouse to work. Fortunately, one week Farid el-Diwany later the Daily Mail supported my view that such Brentwood, Essex

Secondly, to Imad el-Guyoushi for highlighting More on the scarf the off-putting atmosphere at Regent's Park Q-News September 1997 Mosque; and thirdly to Suhail Malik for (No. 275) underlining the difference, as regards the Muslims of USA, between the so-called 'Nation Three 'well dones'! to Q-News. Firstly, to Farid el- of Islam' and the six million real Muslims there (I Diwany for pointing out the embarrassment of have just returned from lecturing at the New Muslim newsagents stocking pornography. Mexico Dar al-Islam). The only good thing I can say about the 'Nation of Islam' is that hopefully if 20 they are allowed to keep the name 'Islam' without being sued for misappropriation, they should start to read the Quran and discover the truth for themselves. As regards Regent's park Mosque I am at a loss to add to the comments of others that there are far more welcoming mosques elsewhere. During my last visit I could not take a photograph until I has signed a form and recorded all my details. During the previous visit I had felt so much a stranger that I went and prayed in the park opposite. I felt awful about it. It is something that really needs tackling, because I'm sure the congregation there does not mean to give this hostile impression. Maybe they could all take a trip to Dar al-Islam or perhaps to the wonderful mosque in Zagreb, Croatia which welcomes the general public to a decent restaurant and a pleasant garden and fountains.

Ruqayyah Waris Maqsood Hull

I am writing in response to Farid el-Diwany's letter (Q-News 274) declaring the hijab as not being part of Islam. I strongly object to the brother's letter. The requirements of dress in Islam is written very clearly in the Quran and Hadith. Furthermore, it is wrong of Mr El-Diwany to assume that he has the authority to speak on behalf of all Muslims. His instruction to BT and the Body Shop to ban headscarves is totally out of order. Wearing the hijab willingly does no harm to anyone while not allowing someone to wear the hijab violates a fundamental right.

Nasar ul-Haq Niqab’ to ‘Hijab or Niqab or Mr Farid's Huddersfield Alternative'. After all, who needs our great intellectual heritage of the past when we have Mr Farid pass fatwas allowing Muslim women to It seems strange that Q-News chose to publish walk around with their 'wash and go' the letter by Farid el-Diwany (No 274). After all, counterparts. It saddens me that after all your wasn't it Q-News who championed the rights of work campaigning for the rights of Muslimahs to Farida Khanum. Amna Mahmood and Safiah wear the hijab, somebody like Mr el-Diwany is Abbasi, some brave Muslimahs to wear the hijab undoing all the good work. By the way I'm sure to work? And yet we have Mr Farid el-Diwany our sisters in Europe would be delighted to hear ringing up the same organisations that Mr el-Diwany's fatwa. Do Q-News deliver to discriminate against our sisters telling them that France? it is okay to do so. I am sure that Mr Farid's fatwa comes as a relief to your own Dr Darsh who has Muzammil Syed written a whole book on the subject. Maybe the Willesden Green, London title of the book should be changed from ‘Hijab or

21 Hijab again Q-News September 1997 (No. 276)

I must respond to the letters published in the Issue 275 criticising my stance and by association that of Umar Tomkinson in issue 270- 271. I have based my objections to the hijab on solid ground:- 1. The Qur'an itself does not oblige women to cover their hair and the fact that many do has arisen out of a customary practice being mischievously adopted as a religious one. 2. As far as I am aware none of the hadith on the subject of the hijab are of proven authenticity and should not therefore be relied upon. As attractive as a woman's hair can be, a woman must be allowed to appear in public as a woman and be visually identifiable as such by showing her hair and her face, provided the general Quranic injunctions as to modesty in dress and behaviour are followed. It is God that gave men their very powerful sex instinct which should be restrained by the practice of sexual relations within marriage. an abomination in Islam. The practice of Islam In effect the supporters of the hijab are today is far removed from the ideal as promoted saying that the mere sight of a woman, i.e. in the Qur'an. It is a case of one step forward and meaning the combination of her hair and face ten steps back. In this regard, I must recommend only in public, is a sin as they claim that it directly Jan Goodwin's book ‘Price of Honour’ published provokes thoughts or acts of lewd conduct by by Warner Books, which tells how 'Muslim both men and women. This is an insult to God's Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic gift of sex. Thoughts of sex and the desire to World'. I am certainly not discriminating against have sex will exist even without being able to see our sisters by telling bewildered and confused a woman's hair because men are born with the employers that the hijab is not a part of true sex instinct. On the other hand, the sight of Islam. My campaign will continue in this respect. woman's cleavage and thighs in public is I am doing our sisters a favour by trying to certainly provocative. It would be safe to say that prevent their justifiable ridicule and inevitable it is good Islam for a woman to cover below the isolation. knee and up to the neck. The Qur'an does not Today the hijab is not just a protest against provide an exhaustive list of prohibitions on dress western decadence; it is also a protest against but leaves a lot to our own good sense of the betrayal of real Islamic values by many decency based on the desire to please God. governments in the Islamic world. The women I believe the hijab and the mentality of its who cover are either doing it against their will or practitioners and supporters encourages fear of are erroneously convinced that the scarf social contact between men and women on a represents the pinnacle of Islamic virtue which if purely decent basis. This social vacuum for followed by all women will return their people to Muslim men often induces depression, loneliness an Islamic way of life not seen since the time of and the use of ludicrously impersonal medium of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him). advertising for a spouse. It also encourages the No, the cult of the scarf is a periodic and widespread use of prostitutes, blue movies and fanatical overreaction by men who try and control pornography as a substitute for (being unable to and robotise women. We Muslims are in a pitiful find) a wife. Further in the Middle East it results in state the world over. When it really mattered we many weak men resorting to homosexual acts, couldn't even use God's gift of petrodollars to 22 prevent our Bosnian brothers and sisters being principle of Islam when clearly, its use achieves slaughtered. On a day to day level, let us not nothing. continue to alienate our religion and our women Farid el-Diwany by insisting that the hijab is a fundamental right or Brentwood, Essex

wrote. I have noticed that most of us Muslims More hijab (please) follow the rule of logic backward. You notice this Q-News September 1997 particularly when it comes to justifying the (No. 278) wearing of the hijab "in order to stop fitna": hijab is to be [worn] by women to stop men being Aya 31 of Sura An-Nur (The Light) instructs "turned on" by seeing a bit of the woman's hair. Muslim women to pull their head-coverings over Don't you think the obligation should lie on the their chests. Were Farid el-Diwany to discuss men to respect women and harness their (the how far this ayah can be applied or not applied in men's) desires even if the woman is attractive? If the context of our contemporary world, we could they can't do this such men don't deserve the enter into a dialogue with degree they have been given over women in the him, but to deny the first place. Let us give a existence of the ayah is parallel example. If outright dishonest. What is someone carried a ten worse, he then tries to argue pound note in his hand and that wearing hijab is in fact waved it above his head against Islam without being should that give the right for able to support his argument people around him to snatch with a single ayah of the it away from him? I don't Quran nor even the most think so. If anybody did that obscure hadith (and I doubt it will be considered as whether he is capable of robbery and the appropriate judging the proven punishment meted out. For authenticity otherwise of the the only people who would hadith which do make stretch their hands and steal mention of women covering the money would be thieves. their hair). So he wants to Honest people would never stop Muslim women, the even consider taking away majority of whom still insist what doesn't belong to them on wearing hijab, from because they normally continuing this practice respect other people's merely on the evidence of property and freedom. But in his own concocted opinion the hijab case we want to or, as the Quran puts [it], following his own put the blame on the victim rather than punishing desires. And then he has the cheek of talking the thief. about men controlling women through the cult of The woman should unveil if she wants to. the scarf. What else is he, a man, doing but to The man should have enough will to harness his dictate to women, whose wish to wear the scarf desire and to treat her as an equal human being he cannot comprehend, his own ideas based on regardless of her sex. We should treat woman as his own farfetched philosophy of sexual relations partners not as sex object. It will be easy for true in true male chauvinistic fashion. Muslims to respect a woman and not to succumb Doing them a favour? Come off it! to his animal desire. A hadith mentions that Sahib Mustaqim Bleher Muslims should look away from a woman, not General Secretary stare at her and check if she has covered or Islamic Party of Britain uncovered her hair. May God bless us all.

I thank Mr Farid el-Diwany for his letter [Q-News Ahmed Dabbagh issue 276]. I agree with him in everything he Wickford

23 Sahib Mustaqim Bleher is a German convert to Islam and founded the Islamic Party of Britain. The Prophet Mohammad was reputed to have worn a beard. So in order to be 'closer' to the Prophet Mohammad Mr Bleher sports a beard: a kind of badge of honour as Muslims are told to follow the example of the Prophet.

I consulted Dr. Zaki Badawi on the subject of the beard. He told me that there are many hadith on the topic but they have to be read in their totality and seen in context. That the Prophet's command was for Muslim men to make themselves look different from the Jews and the Christians. And that this instruction from the Prophet came at a time when society was illiterate and was meant for a specific purpose: to make Muslim men distinctive so they could be identified in their new religion. And recognised by their fellow Muslims to enable a community of the faithful to establish themselves and spread the faith. So the Muslim men grew beards. But the purpose behind the instruction - to be distinctive so as to foster the establishment of Islam - no longer applies, said Badawi, as Islam is now well established and has millions of adherents world wide. Sahib Mustaqim Bleher But many Muslim men still believe that this now ostentatious identification with Islam - grow long hair. They have short haircuts, the beard in its various forms - has to be because long hair is associated with Western practised as an obligatory element of their decadance. Logically however, if the Prophet faith. They get lost in arguments over how Mohammad wore long hair then his bearded long the beard should be: whether it should followers of today should also grow long hair. ever be trimmed; whether a moustache should be grown; whether it is effeminate not Mr Bleher, you can see, is very keen to to have a beard etc. etc. condemn Mr El Diwany but if Mr Bleher had bothered to read previous issues of Q-News The wearing of a beard by so many Muslim he would have seen that Mr El Diwany did men has additionally almost become a form make reference to Aya 31 of Surah An-Nur of idolatory of the Prophet. Some Muslim men (Issue no. 274). Q-News themselves should would not be seen without it. The Prophet have pointed this out but their objective was Mohammad was also reputed to have had to humiliate Mr El Diwany. But more of this long hair but today those Muslims who insist later. it is their religious duty to wear a beard do not

24 He said: "Nobody tells Richard Branson to shave his beard off. Why should I have to get rid of mine?" A Virgin spokesman said that the company would not comment as the case was continuing. A full hearing is expected to take place at Woburn Place employment tribunal in October. Sir Richard's beard is believed to have played a role in his business success. The former Branson firm ‘sacked British Airways chairman, Lord King, is reputed to have said he would have taken the threat from Muslim in row over Virgin Atlantic more seriously if the entrepreneur had worn a suit and shaved off his beard. The beard’ Virgin boss did, however, shave off his beard and The Independent, 11th August 2004 moustache on one occasion - to publicise Virgin Brides, when he also wore a wedding dress. HE HAS one of the most famous beards in the country and, as a flamboyant entrepreneur who's not frightened of a bit of publicity, has no qualms about showing it off. As boss of a plane and train empire who also has a penchant for daring boat and ballooning adventures, Virgin's Sir Richard Branson probably has some of the most travelled whiskers around. But now one of his workers is claiming he was told to shave off his beard and has accused his bosses of religious discrimination. Mohsin Mohmed, 22, from Ilford, east London, is taking Virgin Trains to an employment tribunal after losing his job as a customer services assistant at Euston station in London. Virgin denies the claim of discrimination and claims that Mr Mohmed was dismissed after his probationary period for poor performance. Mr Mohmed, who is Muslim, is said to have told rail bosses his faith required him to have a beard at least one fist's length, about four inches. According to his claim, he had been told to crop the beard in September last year by his manager David Adams, a month after starting his £17,000-a-year job. Mr Mohmed alleges that Mr Adams regularly harassed him and that he had explained how he trimmed his beard on a number of occasions to the minimum required by his religion.

25 Sacked bearded Muslim loses case Industrial Tribunal 7th January, 2005

26 “Do you wear that in bed?” boss torments hijabd woman Q-News October 1997 (No. 278) A woman engineer, who was referred to as “Yasser Arafat" by her colleagues when she started wearing a headscarf and eventually sacked, has taken her former employers to court. Farida Khanum, 22, told Bedford Industrial Tribunal Court how she was asked by the men at the Luton car firm where she worked whether her hijab was a "new type of hard hat" or a "motorcycle helmet". Her foreman even inquired whether she liked to wear it in bed. During a three day hearing from 17 to 19 September, the tribunal heard how Miss Khanum's employers and colleagues at IBC changed their attitude towards her when she holiday, took her into the control room and started wearing the head-dress after coming demanded an explanation for why she was back from performing umrah (lesser pilgrimage) "wearing the chador". When Miss Khanum in Saudi Arabia. replied that the headscarf was obligatory for her, Miss Khanum, who had been working as a he queried: "Do you wear that in bed?" robot technician at the car giant owned by "I was gobsmacked," said Khanum. "There General Motors for four years had, until her was only one way he could have meant it. I felt dismissal, an "exemplary record". She had deeply hurt and humiliated." received a written commendation and had been Soon after, she was suspended and then promoted rapidly. sacked for gross misconduct. Her employer said But things changed overnight when the reason was she had taken half a day off Khanum returned to the 2000-worker plant without permission a month earlier when she wearing a hijab after visiting the holy city of attended a university open day. She vehemently Mecca in September 1996. denies the charges. The court heard how Miss Khanum's "They've used the charge as a pretext to fire foreman removed her from the shop floor me from the company because they can't deal claiming it was for her own safety until the Health with a woman wearing a hijab," she said. "I had and Safety Department had assessed the permission from my foreman for the three hours dangers of wearing a headscarf on the that I took off." production line. Khanum was told the hijab Her barrister described how an employee impaired her vision and that it could get caught who had missed work for a whole week whilst on in machinery, even though IBC, manufacturers of a drinking-spree kept his job at the firm. And, in a Vauxhall cars, allows its Sikh employees to wear twist to the proceedings, it came to light that two turbans while working under moving parts. of the senior staff at IBC who had testified against Bosses also started to question Khanum's Khanum, Miss Coony and Mr Thorburn, had work performance for the first time. She was kept been having an affair without anybody's away from duties for a whole month while her knowledge. "Everybody at the firm knows they superiors decided what to do with her. "I spent hadn't been doing their work properly for ages - my time in the workshop just twiddling my their mind was on other things. Why weren't they fingers," she said. disciplined?" asked Khanum's barrister. During her time in the industrial wilderness, The trial was due to be completed in the Miss Khanum claims she was subjected to a three days, but due to the complexity of the case stream of interrogation and abuse. On one it will now continue on 27 and 28 October. occasion her immediate foreman, who had ignored her for over a week since his return from 27 Below are the relevant pages of the Quran obtained from Muhammad Asad's 'The Message of THE QURAN' detailing verses 30 and 31 of the 24th Surah An-Nur (the Light) in English and Arabic. The footnotes: 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41 provide much clarity.

28 29 oppression then surely the act of unveiling The value of the veil equally reflects domination by men. Does Mr el- Q-News October 1997 Diwany really believe that in a hijab-less society there would be less adultery and fornication? I fully agree with Mr Dabbagh (issue 278) for Surely, the example of the West has taught turning the attention away from the much- us otherwise. Please Mr el-Diwany, spare us debated issue of women's clothing for once and hijabi sisters your pity and shower it on those actually emphasising the duty of Muslim men to 'free and liberated' women who have become lower the gaze. But using his example of waving victims of their own liberation. a ten pound note and then Shagufta Yaqub, London seeing who snatches it and who refrains, I think he is far It looks as though the too simplistic in making a preoccupation with the hi- distinction between people jab is going to rumble on who are "inherently honest" and divert us from the and "inherently thieves". Just things that really matter if as it is not right to blame just we are going to make women it is not right to blame Islam our complete way of men. life - things like courage, As someone who has compassion, tolerance, recently adopted the veil I honesty, generosity, etc. completely disagree with the At no stage did the idea that it achieves nothing. Prophet (peace be upon I truly believe that Islam him) ever lay down any requires women to wear the kind of 'school uniform' hijab but were this regulation for women. The requirement ever to come revelation of the Quran is into serious question, for totally silent on the subject many Muslim women the except for the proviso that mere social gains of wearing no human being has the the hijab are enough to keep right to declare anything it on. Contrary to what Mr el- haram that Allah has Diwany may believe, many actually allowed. Nowhere women are wearing the hijab are women asked to cover out of choice and if anything their heads at all; men and other than Islamic doctrine has driven them to it women both have to 'veil it is the experience and consequences of the very their gaze' and women were required to cover "social contact between men and women" that Mr their bosoms. Arab costume at the time of the el-Diwany is out to promote. Furthermore, Allah Prophet (peace be upon him) was apparently has given us the gift of reasoning and if in today's rather free in this respect, with women making immoral age we are witnessing the extreme and easy access for breastfeeding, sometimes upsetting outcomes of liberated sexual feeding their babies in public, and traditionally expression, then surely it is our duty to adopt baring their breasts completely when they led more rigorous measures to control the conditions their armies into battle. which spread evil. As for the idea that hijab Muslim women were expected to be equals male depression equals different - to completely cover their bodies. Those pornography/prostitution/ homosexuality I really who wore head-veils, usually hanging down the cannot see the logic in this. For surely sexually back in a decorative manner held on with an agal, frustrated men do not make a conscious attempt showing most of their hair, were asked to draw to be among the minority of hijabed women and this veil across their bosoms - and if the veil was then get themselves depressed over the fact that transparent (as it usually was), to make it of they see no hair. And even if this were the case thicker material. then why should women start unveiling just to It is well known that the Prophet (peace be satisfy male desire? If veiling is a symbol of male upon him) unfortunately made an ambiguous 30 attempt when he said that adult women should women are not required to make themselves look show no more than 'this and this'. He pointed at dowdy or ugly, only modest. his hands, and his face. The problem is, the face However, natural modesty suggests that too is stuck on to the front of the head, and whereas much ostentation with expensive decoration, jew- many men have interpreted 'this' as simply 'face', ellry and fabrics is not the correct spirit when one it might actually have meant nose or chin. The is mixing with women of modest means. Allah minimum requirement for Muslim women is not does ask women not to display their ornaments; to cover the head and the neck. Those were the some scholars make tortuous interpretations of two bits not demanded, but left to individual this meaning hair and so on, (even a woman's women to decide. The minimum requirement is voice!), when it most obviously refers to the to cover the entire body from the neck down, as highly glamorous and expensive jewellry worn by is the normal female practice. There is no ruling women in the Arab world, especially when the whatsoever about colours - the favourites of phrase is linked to the jangling of ankle-bracelets. Aishah were and golden yellow. There is nothing wrong with bright materials. Muslim Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, Hull

Mr El Diwany is reprimanded by Ms Yaqub for equating the hijab with sexual repression. However, all of the weddings where the hijabi women get married are marked by the strict separation of the men and women guests at the celebrations. The men are in one room and the women in another. They can't even say hello to each other, thus preventing, say, prospective partners from meeting one another with a view to eventual marriage. How cruel and repressive a practice, so in keeping with the fanatical Asian element imported in to Great Britain. Many of the hijabi women adamantly refuse even to shake the hand of a man that is not within their immediate family on the grounds that it is immoral.

The letter written by Hull schoolteacher Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood is much more in touch with reality. See however the vitriol that is poured upon her in the next issue of Q-News.

Shagufta Yaqub went on to become the editor of Q-News.

out of a Muslim brother's mouth. People these Last of the veil days need any excuse to get out of this so called Q-News November 1997 'isolation' of hijab and by stating this false (No. 279-280) information, you are just giving Shaytan a chance to put doubts in people's minds. There is a verse I feel I must respond to the 'Hijab Again' letter to in Surah Nisa which tells us specifically about clear this matter up. First of all, many of the hijab and the Prophet (saw) also said that women issues brought up about hijab were false. Mr. should cover all but their face and hands. Then I Farid el-Diwany totally misinterpreted the Quran ask, why can't you accept this? Why the big and upset a lot of my sisters as well as myself. I issue? Allah told us to wear hijab so we wear it. I would advise him to go and read the Quran and am so sick of people trying to find something sunnah all over again, this time with his glasses wrong with hijab. You also say that the Quran on. I also advise him to find himself some male leaves a lot to our own sense of decency, well I'd friends for companionship to prevent so called like to inform you that people have different levels depression from loneliness and to prevent this of what they consider decent. If Allah left things ' social vacuum for men' from sucking him like that, then a lot of people would simply say up. that wearing mini skirts and short dresses was Secondly I would like to inform dear brother what they considered to be decent. Farid, that I and a lot of other sisters are You say that women should be visually disappointed that such statements could come identified as women, and showing the hair tells you if someone is a woman. A lot of men these

31 days have women's haircuts and a lot of women Please stop this long running 'soap opera' of have men's haircuts, so you often cannot tell letters regarding 'hijab'. It has now ceased to which is which anyway. Life is a test, I do know serve any purpose except to further undermine that it is hard and everybody wants to make it just what little unity Muslims profess to having. a little bit easier but what you have to understand Instead of highlighting our unity it seems we is, that by disobeying Allah, you are making life Muslims take a pleasure in actively seeking to harder for many people who believe you and for destroy it. As second generation Muslims we yourself. It may not be your intention but you are must share a new sense of compassion and use asking it happen. So I ask you, brother Farid, one this to work towards a common goal. The only last time, to read the Quran and get your answers useful thing left to be said about the issue of from there. 'hijab' is that the truth is clearly laid down, not in Sonia Malik, aged 14, Manchester personal opinions, but in the three accepted sources of Islamic A huge shame on you, jurisprudence - the Quran, Ruqaiyya Waris Maqsood the Ahadith, and the for your contribution to the writings of the Ulema. It is ludicrous debate about the for each Muslim to seek validity of the hijab. It is knowledge and guidance ludicrous because it is akin and Allah will make the to Muslims debating the path easy for those who validity of the five daily strive towards the Truth prayers or the pilgrimage to (Insha'Allah). So please Makkah. Despite the put an end to publishing overwhelming evidence for counter-productive letters the hijab contained in the which have failed for some Quran and the sunnah of time to be of any the female companions and informative value, and family members [of] our instead advise your Messenger, some Muslims readers to search out the persist in denying the truth about 'hijab' for existence of all such themselves. evidence. What do these people hope to achieve by S. El-Darsh chipping away at the basic North London foundations of Islam? Do they hope to destroy the entire edifice of Allah's religion? And what next? Will they call on Muslims to stop fasting in Ramadan, perhaps even cease studying the Quran? Allah alone knows the hidden agendas of such people but I would advise them to consult the instructions of the Almighty as contained in the Quran and implemented by his Messenger and not to consult the devilish inclinations of their own hearts. Ms Khola Hasan Al-Quran Society, Tottenham

Issue no. 279-280 of November 1997 sees Q-News go out of their way to further humiliate Mr El Diwany by printing a letter from a 14 year old, Sonia Malik from Manchester. The extreme reaction of Ms Khola Hasan of the Al-Quran Society, Tottenham, further illustrates just how backward and aggresive some of the ‘sisters’ can be.

32 In today's over-zealous climate, the badge Hijab, again of loyalty to Islam appears, for some, to be a Q-News January 1998 piece of cloth covering the hair ! This is put above kindheartedness, mercy, spirituality and other As someone who values the virtues. work and personality of Sister Anyone who reads Ms Maqsood's books Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood, I will literally feel her love for her faith. To accuse must leap to her defence her of deliberately seeking to destroy Islam is regarding the 'shame on you' both ludicrous and cruel and unbecoming of a letter from Khola Hassan (Q- fellow sister-in-faith. A famous writer once wrote News 279). Ms Hassan is of Catholicism: "The Church knows all the rules certainly aware of the different but it does not know what goes on in a single interpretations of Islamic human heart". Is this what we want our beloved practice on most matters and the faith to be? many schools of thought with which she may not personally Name supplied agree. Essex

Ameena Mohammed Boxing and kicking a habit Q-News August 1998 (No. 293)

Mix a pair of boxing gloves and hijab and what do you get? Ameena Mohammed, Britain's first female Muslim Thai boxer. Explosive - but then so is the challenge of self defence. Shagufta Yaqub meets a martial warrior intent on terminating stereotypes. Every training session for the country's first female Muslim Thai boxer is a relentless war against prejudice and ignorance. Whenever Ameena Mohammed gets into a boxing ring she has more than the sparring partner in front of her to deal with: sexism and confusion on what a Muslim woman can do in life. But the 24 year old has learnt to take it all in her increasingly lethal stride. "All women, including Muslims, have to be able to defend embrace Islam. "It wasn't easy, but it was the best themselves," says Ameena, while Mohammed, thing for me: Islam gives me all the relevant her 16-month old baby, plays on her lap. "We answers to my life," she says. can't be completely dependent on our husbands Ameena took up Thai boxing 18 months for everything" she points out. "When all the men ago after a nasty experience convinced her that are at war, who will protect the children?" she she has to acquire the ability to defend herself. "I adds in a soft voice. used to be a taxi driver and then became a bus In Page Hall, Sheffield, where Ameena has driver," she says. "A nasty threatening incident on lived all her life, nobody questions her guts. Six the bus made me realise how defenceless and years ago she made the courageous decision to vulnerable I was." The incident made it clear to

33 her that she needed some skills of "self allowed to drive when I used to be a bus driver. It preservation". Next thing she did was walk into is important they can see that the hijab is the Sheffield Thai Boxing Club and the rest is supposed to protect women but not to oppress history. them" she says. Her martial arts training has, among other "Non-Muslims are now very accepting of it things, convinced Ameena of the need for Muslim and the questions they ask are only out of women to take up some form of physical curiosity, like 'Don't you get hot in that!?'" exercise. Ameena believes that the majority of Ameena, however, continues to hope that Muslim women today are dangerously lazy and she can convince more Muslim women to take unhealthy. "If the women of the time of the up some form of sports or martial arts. Prophet were here today they would laugh at us" "Maintaining your body is part of your diin and she says. "Those women were active: they you will be accountable to Allah for looking after fought in jihads alongside men and they knew it," she says. "Somebody has to encourage how to protect themselves and their children. Muslim women to look after themselves and their How many of us can do that today?" she asks. bodies and and if I can do that and get rewards Being physically fit, she points out, is part for it then that's great," she says. "I do eventually and parcel of the Islamic way of life. "A mother want to use my skills to teach other sisters but I who is physically well is better to deal more ably have six bands to get through yet" she says. with her other responsibilities including the So far, however, Ameena has not managed spiritual ones." to influence the other Muslim women in her But Ameena's healthy call has not been community to take up the sport. "It's unfortunate positively welcomed by everyone in her that there are no places where women can learn predominantly Muslim neighbourhood. "Some from other women in Sheffield" she says. "I very cultured Muslim brothers tell me it's not an completely understand that some women are not acceptable sport for a Muslim woman. They say comfortable training with men" she says, "and nor it's haraam [prohibited] but I challenge them to do other sisters have to do something as rigorous produce one verse from the Holy Quran as as Thai boxing, as long as its something to do evidence. If they do that I promise to stop going with keeping fit and self-defence." to classes," she says. But Thai boxing is no longer just about Ameena's husband, a kickboxer himself, is fitness and self-defence for Ameena. It is also a however fully supportive of his wife's martial sport that she immensely enjoys and her trainer, training. "He's absolutely brilliant about it, in fact Mick Mullaney is looking forward to the day she if I ever feel lazy about going he's the one who is ready to fight a competitive match. "I'm not forces me to go" she claims. Ameena feels that it doing it for fame or money" says Ameena, "I is the Muslims who carry a heavy burden of couldn't get rich from Thai boxing even if I wanted culture and tradition that are the most negative to, and my first competition is still a long way about women's activities. "It's the husbands who away yet." need to be educated and to realise that sports Her first competiting might be a long way off and particularly training in self-defence is not but Ameena Mohammed is most probably a great haraam" she says. champion in the eyes of thousands of young Ameena trains with women most of the time British Muslim women who will surely follow her but her trainer is male and she often has to train progress with a tinge of both envy and with other men. "It is more realistic to be training admiration. with men" she says. "It is harder and it makes me a lot tougher". Ameena seems undisturbed by her [The article continued under a mixed training sessions. "I am totally comfotrtable with it and if I got any bad vibes I would be out of second sub-title, ‘ Women, there" she says. sports and fatwas’]: "Personally, I believe it's the intentions that matter" she says. "For me Thai boxing is a form of daw'a. I always get non-Muslims asking me if Muslim women are allowed to keep fit, just like they used to ask me if Muslim women are

34 women but insisted that "where it involves Women, sports and fighting in a ring with spectators cheering you on, that is clearly not accpetable in Islam." Referring fatwas to Muslim women fighting battles in the history of Islam, he pointed out that "those women fought Q-News October 1997 only for defence and out of neccessity, and they did not parade for money, Ameena's decision to pursue her fashion or prowess." training in Thai boxing has "We are not talking provoked a strong response from about competitive training - Muslim scholars contacted by Q- we are simply talking about News. "Tell her to stop basic self preservation skills immediately," said Dr Zaki Badawi and overall physical well- of The Muslim College, London. being. Yes, mixed training "She will make the hijab look sessions might not be the ridiculous." ideal situation but the But Ameena begs to differ responsibility of creating this with the scholar claiming that it is ideal situation remains with more a gender issue than an the men," says Ameena. impartial fiqh verdict. "When it "The Prophet comes to women it is always a 'no' encouraged archery, or a question mark. Nobody swimming and horse-riding in complains about Muslim male an undisputed hadith. Yet tell footballers, swimmers, wrestlers, me of one Muslim etc. not being dressed organisation that has made appropriately," she says. "But yet the facilitation of any of these they are the first to shout and rave possible to our community? At as soon as a woman decides to do the end of the day Muslim something." women up and down the "Personally, I think a large extent of the country have to make daily decisions between objection to my doing Thai boxing has its roots in lesser evils. We will only get better if our choices the restrictive attitude of many cultured Muslims are made more varied and relevant. And this only who have a more narrow and restricted the men can do for they have the 'power'," points stereotype of a Muslim woman than even many out Ameena. non-Muslims. If mixed training sessions were not "In conclusion, to be honest, in the matter the problem they still would come up with of martial arts and physical fitness Muslim something else." women would always have problems because However Dr Badawi, considered 'liberal' in our men cannot appreciate the matter. If they did, some quarters, made it clear that there is nothing how can one explain their state of health?" intrinsically wrong with self defence or sports for

beaming with glee. French Islamophobia Obviously resistant to the atmosphere of unity left behind by the recent World Cup, French still thriving border police sent a British munaqqaba packing Q-News August 1998 because she insisted on having her identity (No. 294) verified by a female official. Thirty-four year-old Mrs Farrukh Shaikh Barely have the curtains come down on one of was travelling with her husband and four children the greatest global celebrations of human from Dover to Calais when her ordeal began. diversity than the spectre of Francophone Having disembarked in the French port she was xenophobia has reasserted itself with a postscript confronted by immigration officials who refused that would have even Jean-Marie Le Pen her request to have the routine identity check 35 performed by a female. Speaking no English, the guards repeatedly motioned Mrs Shaikh to raise her veil. When it became clear she would not they frogmarched her to the police station where they held her for two hours before ordering her to reveal her face or be returned home on the next sailing. "I'm quite strict about this so I stood by my principles", said Mrs Shaikh, a part-time children's worker with Leicester City Council. On board the ferry French officials demanded she fill out a disembarkation form - not normally required for European Community residents. They also withheld Mrs Shaikh's passport until she arrived back in Dover - where however a female attendant was on hand to carry out a check. Back at home in Leicester Mrs Shaikh told Q-News: "The whole thing made me feel like I was being discriminated against because I am a Muslim. It was humiliating being escorted by the police like we were criminals to the station and then the ferry." A well-travelled person, Mrs Shaikh said it was the first time she has seen her request guidelines on how to deal with the munaqqaba. treated so contemptibly. "I went to Canada last British Customs and Excise South East said year and there was no problem. Before that I that they operated under strict rules which went by road for Umrah and everywhere I went I required frisking and body searches to be could rely on female officials to perform the performed by staff of the same sex. "While there checks." hasn't been a specific complaint that anyone can Asked if there were guidelines for staff recall we do have guidelines asking our staff to dealing with veiled women, the French Interior be sensitive to the headgear of certain ethnic Ministry responded with characteristic disdain: groups," said spokesman Mike Thompson. "There is no guideline. We are in a secular "Where there may be sensitivities, and this republic which doesn't treat people differently on applies to Sikh men too, they must proceed with the basis of race or custom or belief", said press tact." counsellor Anne Cublier. "Women don't need to Robin Pulford of London Underground said: be veiled. In fact I am very shocked that a woman "The simple answer to that is that people who should refuse to be examined like that." wear covering masks simply do not use those of She added: "Everyone is treated in the our services which require ID. We discussed this same way. If people want to come to France they issue in detail when we issued photocards some have to respect our beliefs." years ago but nothing was resolved. Strictly Meanwhile Mrs Shaikh has had to make speaking, our passes require a full face photo but new arrangements: "We took the kids to Drayton the policy vis-a-vis veiled women has never been Manor Park and we've got plans to visit Woburn put to the test." for the day." Mrs Shaikh's experience follows another Suhail Malik last year in Bradford in which Yorkshire Buses issued an apology after one of its drivers declined to let a veiled Muslimah board his bus unless she showed her face. While some organisations employ procedures which clearly reduce the risk of such incidents others have looked to draw up special

36 permanently covered the French Islamophobia hair. Q-News September 1998 Non-Muslims will (No. 295) never appreciate the beauty of Islam as long as certain brain-washed I refer to Suhail Malik's article in Issue No. 294, Muslim women, supported August 98, of Q-News. The question of Algeria by their ignorant men, aside, I think the French are quite right to object pervert the founding values to the wearing of the veil and hijab by of Islam by telling the world "exhibitionist" Muslim women. The French are that either the head-scarf or naturally bewildered by this sociophobic form of the veil is a principle of dress. As a Muslim I will be encouraging the Islam. The hysterical panic French authorities at the highest level to maintain of these Muslim women their stance relating to the perversion of Islam by when merely being seen misguided Muslims who support the wearing of "uncovered" by male the hijab and also the veil. members of the public has When one reads the enlightened footnotes to be seen to be believed. It numbered 37 and 38 of Muhammad Asad's is nauseous and defies translation of the Quran in connection with verse common sense which is 31 of Surat-al-Noor, it is quite clear that the what Islam is based on. purpose behind the revelation of verse 31 refers merely to the form of dress that women wore at Farid El Diwany the time of the Prophet Muhammad and was not London in any way related to a head-covering that

only one who is really obsessed with this whole More on hijab thing. Wearing it is one thing, but writing letters left right and centre to all sorts of Hijabs organisations protesting against it is what I call Q-News October ‘taking it too seriously’. At the end of the day, 1998 nobody’s asking him to wear it, and I doubt if he (No. 296) can claim to have suffered any personal loss as a result of others wearing it, so what’s his problem? And who does he think he is to call our I know Mr Farid El veiled Muslim sisters ‘exhibitionists’? Is he Diwany is notoriously including the Prophets wives (peace be upon known for filling up your them) among these exhibitionists? letters page with his Mr Diwany wants non-Muslims to appreciate the extreme anti-hijab views beauty of Islam. Maybe he means rather he but his last letter was wants them to appreciate the physical beauty of completely outrageous. I Muslim women. If only he knew where the true hate to prolong this beauty lies in a believing woman. ongoing debate but I just had to point a few things Daud Johnson out. He criticises veiled Reading women for taking the hijab too seriously and yet he seems to be the

37 Daud Johnson, a convert to Islam, is barking up the wrong tree. He mentions the Prophet's wives who, it is true, were asked by the Prophet himself to be accorded special reverence, due to their elevated status. Below are the Quranic extracts from Surah 53 - The Confederates (Al-Ahzab) - from Muhammad Asad's 'The Message of THE QURAN', dealing with the veil vis a vis the Prophet’s wives only. Footnotes 68, 69 and 75 are most instructive.

38 39 Verse 53 of the Confederates has been used to support the belief that the Prophet's wives covered their hair and even their faces. Verse 59 of the Confederates has been used (some would say, twisted) to support the belief that all Muslim women should cover their hair and faces in public. But Verse 53 is specific to the Prophet's wives. And just as the Prophet wore a beard which many Muslim men copy, then many Muslim women think that by wearing the "seperating curtain" of the face veil/hijab/jilbab in public they will emulate the Prophet's wives and thus be 'better' Muslims. Given that Muslims accept that the Prophet's wives were addressed from behind a screen in the home by the Prophet's companions, there is no evidence however to suggest that any of the Prophet's wives, when outside the home, wore the "seperating curtain" of a veil covering their faces. Karen Armstrong in her acclaimed biography of the Prophet, - Muhammad - published by Phoenix Press (Copyright © 1991 by Karen Armstrong) details the fact that it was only Muhammad's wives that were to be secluded. I reproduce Karen Armstrong's text from pages 197 to 199:

‘Shortly after Zaynab's wedding ashamed to bid you go; but of the truth, al-Llah is celebrations and possibly connected with it, not ashamed. If you ask his wives for anything, came the revelation known as the Verses of the Speak to them from behind a curtain [hijab]. This Curtain, which decreed that Muhammad's wives is more chaste for your hearts and their hearts. must be secluded from the rest of the umma. Muhammad, it will be remembered, had no Muslim traditions explain the introduction of the room of his own at the mosque; he simply slept in hijab, which is usually translated as 'the Veil', in the apartments of his wives. But as he became various ways. Some say that it was Umar, who more important in Medina his home inevitably had aggressively chauvinist views, who urged became a public place, as more and more people Muhammad to seclude his wives from view by came to consult him about their personal or means of a curtain. There had recently been religious problems or asked him to arbitrate in a unpleasant incidents when the Hypocrites had dispute. Some Muslims liked to approach him insulted Muhammad's wives as they went out at through his wives, in the hope of getting his ear. night to relieve themselves. Others say that as Aisha, for example, was known to have had Muhammad became more important and more several friendly chats with a particular young aware of life in the civilised countries, he wanted man, which people remembered later when a to adopt the Persian and Byzantine custom of scandal broke out that threatened to split the secluding women of the upper classes as a mark umma down the middle. The hijab or curtain was of his wives' new dignity. All, however, point out not intended to be an oppressive measure. It was that sexual morality was lax in Arabia during the designed to prevent a scandalous situation pre-Islamic period. There tended to be a great developing which Muhammad's enemies could deal of indecent talk and innuendo and a great use to discredit him. deal of flirting and propositioning. In traditional We should pause to consider the question society, a sexual scandal can be extremely of the hijab, and the Muslim institution of the veil. serious and arouse strong emotions in a It is often seen in the West as a symbol of male community. Muhammad was probably well aware oppression, but in the Quran it was simply a that Ibn Ubbay and his supporters would be piece of protocol that applied only to the delighted to damage the Muslim cause by Prophet's wives. Muslim women are required, pointing to a disgrace in his own family. like men, to dress modestly, but women are not It is said that at Zaynab's wedding feast, told to veil themselves from view, nor to seclude some of the guests stayed too long and made a themselves from men in a separate part of the nuisance of themselves. This prompted a house. These were later developments and did revelation which put some distance between not become widespread in the Islamic empire Muhammad's family and the rest of the umma: until three or four generations after the death of Believers, do not enter the houses of the Muhammad. It appears that the custom of veiling Prophet for a meal without waiting for the proper and secluding women came into the Muslim time, unless you are given leave. But if you are world from Persia and Byzantium, where women invited, enter; and when you have eaten, had long been treated in this way. disperse. Do not engage in familiar talk, for this In fact the veil or curtain was not designed would annoy the Prophet and he would be to degrade Muhammad's wives but was a symbol

40 of their superior status. After Muhammad's death, often misinterpreted and undermined other his wives became very powerful people: they traditional cultures in our former colonies and were respected authorities on religious matters protectorates, and many Muslim women today, and were frequently consulted about even those who have been brought up in the Muhammad's practice (sunnah) or opinions. West, find it extremely offensive when Western Aisha became extremely important politically and feminists condemn their culture as misogynist. in 656 led a revolution against Ali, the Fourth Most religions have been male affairs and have a Caliph. It seems that later other women became patriarchal bias, but it is a mistake to see Islam as jealous of the status of Muhammad's wives and more at fault in this respect than any other demanded that they should be allowed to wear tradition. In the Middle Ages the position was the veil too. Islamic culture was strongly reversed: then the Muslims were horrified to see egalitarian and it seemed incongruous that the the way Western Christians treated their women Prophet's wives should be distinguished and in the Crusader states, and Christian scholars honoured in this way. Thus many of the Muslim denounced Islam for giving too much power to women who first took the veil saw it as a symbol menials like slaves and women. Today when of power and influence, not as a badge of male some Muslim women resume traditional dress, it oppression. Certainly when the wives of the is not always because they have been Crusaders saw the respect in which Muslim brainwashed by a chauvinist religion, but women were held, they took to wearing the veil in because they find that a return to their own the hope of teaching their own menfolk to treat cultural roots is profoundly satisfing. It is often a them better. It is always difficult to understand the rejection of the Western imperialist attitude which symbols and practices of another culture. In claims to understand their traditions better than Europe we are beginning to realise that we have they do themselves.’

Regarding Karen Armstrong's work - Muhammad - the magazine Muslim News gives the following accolade: 'Not just a sympathetic book that would dispell the misconceptions and misgivings of its western readers, but also a book that is of considerable importance to Muslims.'

Just what constitutes a woman's 'charms' that may be legitimately displayed in public, from an Islamic perspective? Whilst well conditioned hair or indeed hair that is in any way presentable may be attractive is it not also the case that the face of (many) a woman is also attractive and very much part of her beauty? This is the reason that in some quarters Muslim women cover their faces altogether or at least the whole of the face save for the eyes. After all, men are attracted by a pretty face. And those sleek, elegant hands are also very attractive. That is why similarly some Muslim women put on gloves when they go out. The Hanafi and Maliki schools of thought believe that the face and hands are not to be covered, while Shafii and Hanbali schools of thought believe that a woman has to be completely covered (as ordered by the Taliban). Nothing but nothing must be shown in public to induce the slightest temptation in a man.

The reality is that, in an orderly society, if Muslim women permanently removed their headscarves the vast majority will find no difference in the behaviour of the male population that pass them by. To put the issue into perspective, in 1970’s Britain the phenomenon of the headscarf was then unknown. One rarely saw anyone wear the garment in public. It never occured to anyone that in seeing a woman’s hair one was looking at a sexual appendage. Everyone regarded it as completely normal for a woman to show her hair in public. The proportion of women whose appearance (exposing hair and face) risked unduly inflaming the passions of men was always insignificant. Many women, in any case, are not so attractive that they need to cover their hair (or their faces). For pretty Muslim girls who fear that the allure of their luxuriant hair in public will excite men to such an extent that the men may be left broken- hearted (love at first sight!) in not being able to make their acquaintance, then by all means cover up. 41 At the turn of the millenium, with a sizeable Muslim population in place, the hijab explosion occurred in Britain and western Europe. Most of these covered women were economic migrants (or their offspring), having fled with their menfolk from the chaos of their third world ‘Muslim’ homelands. Somali women, for instance, started covering up en masse as a penance for their perception that God had punished them through famine and prolonged and brutal civil war (which ended for the most part in 1997 but continues in the southern and other regions to this day) for being lapsed Muslims. Greatly encouraged by their menfolk Somali women thought that in covering up, God would forgive the Somalis for going astray. The fact is that Somalia, a Sunni Muslim country, had destroyed itself by tribal/clan based rivalries - the precise iniquity that the Prophet Mohammad had tried so hard to repair by supplanting such divisions with the unifying concept of the brotherhood of Islam. For Somali women the headscarf had filled the vacuum of their failed state: by following the recurrent trend of the ‘visible Muslim’ they hoped to recover their sense of purpose.

But as Muhammad Asad has stressed in his above commentary on verse 31 of Surah 24 and verses 53 and 59 of Surah 33 the Prophet Mohammad's words were left deliberately vague, the result of which excluded any injunction that a Muslim woman must cover her hair. The Quran, in verse 31 of Surah 24 - The Light - does however specifically command women to cover their bosoms.

42 CYRIL GLASSÉ, a Muslim, in his work The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam (published in 2001 by Stacey International, London) comments on the Veil as follows -

Veil (Ar. hijab, "cover", "drape", "partition"; khimar, "veil covering the head and face"; litham, "veil covering lower face up to the eyes"). The covering of the face by women is usually referred to by the general term hijab in the present day; it is called purdah in the Indo-Persian countries, and Iran has furnished the use of the word chador for the tent-like black cloak and veil worn by many women in the Middle East. The Koran advises the Prophet's wives to go veiled (33:59). Koran 24:31 speaks of covering women's adornments from strangers outside the family. In traditional Arab societies, even up into the present day, women at home dressed in surprising contrast to their covered appearance in the street. This latter verse of the Koran is the institution of a new public modesty rather than veiling the face; when the pre-Islamic Arabs went to battle, Arab women seeing the men off to war would bare their breasts to encourage them to fight; or they would do so at the battle itself, as in the case of the Meccan women led by Hind at the Battle of Uhud. This changed with Islam, but the general use of the veil to cover the face did not appear until 'Abbasid times. Nor was it entirely unknown in Europe, for the veil permitted women the freedom of anonymity. None of the legal systems women of the classes that could afford to practice actually prescribe that women must wear a veil, purdah could not leave their homes. The although they do prescribe covering the body in introduction of the veil amounted to a portable public. The prescription that a woman's body purdah and allowed women a mobility they had must be covered in public to the neck, the ankles, not previously enjoyed. This aspect of mobility and below the elbow is not in the Koran, which, granted by the use of the veil, a freedom to come for its part, enjoins modesty. Covering to the and go, is an unsuspected advantage in those neck, wrist, etc. is simply the interpretation of one societies; there are some Muslim societies where particular society in the Middle Ages as to what women go sometimes veiled and sometimes modesty is. In many Muslim societies, for unveiled according to their desire to be seen or example in traditional South East Asia, or in unnoticed, as the case may be. See HIJAB; Beduin lands a face veil for women is either rare WOMEN. or non-existent; paradoxically, modern fundamentalism is introducing it. In others, the veil may be used at one time and European dress another. While modesty is a religious prescription, the wearing of a veil is not a religious requirement of Islam, but a matter of cultural milieu. In India the introduction of the use of the veil among Muslims, which happened comparatively recently, amounted to a great liberation. Purdah, the separation of women from men, meant that

43 Zaki Badawi: Pioneer of a British Islam Q-News February 2003 (No. 348) (Taken from The Guardian of 15th January 2003)

In another age, Zaki Badawi would probably have held the title "Grand Mufti of Islam in Britain." Then everyone would know that, on matters of faith, his word ranks alongside that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Chief Rabbi and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. But with the collapse of the Empire, that post died in the nineteenth century with Abdullah Quilliam, the last incumbent. So despite his religious expertise, unrivalled in Britain, Dr Badawi competes with a melee of Muslim politicians, local imams plus any hot heads an eager media happens to chance upon. Imagine a Roman Catholic cardinal battling for attention with Gerry Adams, the odd turbulent parish priest Asian or Black Briton. "Within a couple of and the comedian Dave Allen on matters of generations," he says, "Muslims will lose their Catholic doctrine and you get the picture. cultural baggage. Indian and Pakistani ways will On January 14 2003, however, a party disappear. They will adopt Western cultural marking the Egyptian-born leader's 80th birthday values and the whole community will be brought celebrated his attempts to establish a modern together as British Muslims." His vision recalls Islam that can fit comfortably with British values. how the children of the Irish who took the boat to It was attended by senior figures from the major England were deracinated and absorbed as faiths alongside representatives of Prince British Catholics, educated in state-sponsored Charles and the Prime Minister. Amid looming Catholic schools. war and fears of British Islamic support for al- Many Home Secretaries have realised the Qaida, Dr Badawi's views matter. success of the Irish absorption policy - the His message, combined with his seniority, Troubles produced virtually no IRA recruits from explains the uniqueness of Badawi, chair of the England's loyal second generation Irish Council of Imams and Mosques and founding community. Badawi's message is, however, once Principal of the Muslim College, which trains more likely to have won support in the nineteenth imams for British mosques. Far from portraying century when religious practice was intrinsic to Islam as at odds with modernity, he sees it as the citizenship. Today it is difficult to win sympathy immigrant's route to being a contented Briton. from the natural allies of immigrants: liberals who "Islam is a universal religion with many cultural are deeply suspicious of all religion, particularly manifestations," he argues. "There is no Islam, and more comfortable promoting ethnic theological problem in Islam taking on a great diversity. Dr Badawi is however, more than the deal of Western culture and values and acceptable voice of Islamic learned scholarship. incorporating them." As a pioneering figure behind Islamic mortgages Thus he has waged scholarly war against, and insurance, his schemes, now backed by the for example, forced marriages and female Treasury, could soon transform the lives of British circumcision, practices he sees as having cultural Muslims. Free from religious problems around rather than Islamic bases. He first coined the paying interest, many more may soon be able, term "British Islam," much to the annoyance of with a free conscience, to purchase a property those preferring ethnic terms such as British here. Zaki Badawi has likewise revolutionised the 44 Labour peer and founder of the Open University and Consumer Association. Lord Young's indefatigable appetite for social innovation lasted, like Zaki Badawi's, well into his ninth decade. Dr Badawi carries a few battle scars: the Rushdie affair, Osama bin Laden, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq conflict have all threatened to put British Islam beyond the boundaries of respectability. Yet at each turn he brandishes his Qur'an to rally his community around non-violence, tolerance and loyal British citizenship. The atrocity of September 11 was "a violation of Islamic laws and ethics," he declared immediately about the attack. He has urged Muslim British soldiers to obey their commanders against Saddam Hussein, warning his faithful that "citizenship is not a la carte." He ridicules claims that 7,000 British Muslims would fight alongside the Taliban. "I said that if they could find seven, I would give them a medal. In fact, not a single British Muslim fought against the British forces - the only ones who went there were on humanitarian work." When Bin Laden issued a training of Islamic thinkers in Britain, challenging fatwa on Americans, he dismissed it as without the traditional inward-looking, rule-based religious authority and declared in typically education of most British imams with a broad, acerbic tone: "Fatwas have become a cheap multi-faith training grounded in Western business. Since Ayatollah Khomeini issued it philosophical study. It will not be easy for Osama against Salman Rushdie, everyone has opened a bin Laden to hijack these updated, westernised fatwa shop." Islamic scholars. Ironically, today's celebration for the Muslim We meet at the Muslim College, which he leader takes place 14 years to the day since founded. It is an unassuming building squeezed Bradford's Muslims publicly burned Salman within an Edwardian terrace in a west London Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses. It set their suburb. Opening the door is his wife, Mavis, a community on a collision course with liberal child psychologist born into a middle class Britain and brought Dr Badawi to public Buckinghamshire family. Her scarf and modest prominence as he called on Muslims to spurn the clothing veil a life very different from her book but save the man. He broke ranks - leading contemporaries. They met in 1950s when both him to fear for his own life at times - and declared studied psychology at London University. She on television that if Rushdie was being chased could speak French to the Egyptian Islamicist and knocked at his door, he would give him with poor English and they soon married. refuge. He would shut out the mob, just as he He is small but confident, with had hidden Christian Ibos, threatened by curmudgeonly qualities that come with hitting 80. Muslims during the Nigerian civil war. Bold, and His vitality recalls two leaders. First Basil Hume arguably brave, he told Ayatollah Khomeini that in who, like Badawi, set out to rescue his sentencing the author to death, he was inciting a community from being marginalised as below- crime against Islam. stairs outsiders apparently at odds with Indeed, he was involved in securing an modernity. There is the same determination not apology from Rushdie that might have resolved to let old age get in the way of the vision: Hume the dispute. But Rushdie recanted. "I tried so stayed on beyond retirement age, desperate hard to keep him on side. If he had, I knew we though unsuccessful in his desire to outlive the could divide him from the liberal establishment Pope, to avoid being replaced by a conservative. that was sympathetic to us before it all blew up. Likewise, Badawi recalls the late Michael Young,

45 But you can't trust what Salman says." So how will he establish clear religious He goes on to discuss his heroes. There is leadership? He does not want a title like the old Prince Charles, "the leader most admired and one of Grand Mufti. "I don't want the Muslim respected by the Muslim world." Cardinal Hume position focused on an individual but on the is his model religious leader: "It was so clever the concept of Islamic scholarship." He explains way he inserted Catholicism into the plans to establish in the spring a council of British Establishment without compromise." He sees Muslim scholars, whose authority will exceed Tony Blair as Britain's most successful politician. rival voices and prevent Islam being hijacked. He "He actually leads his party, which is very unusual also wants to raise salaries for imams, so that in a politician. Even Margaret Thatcher never cheaper imams imported from the Indian sub- controlled her party in the same way." continent with little knowledge of English or These are not the sentiments normally British culture cease to predominate. voiced by the radicals of the Finsbury Park "I want the Government to help me in mosque, I suggest. "I've been called 'an Uncle training better imams," he says, mindful though Tom'," he laughs. "Some people even said that I he is of ministers being unwilling to give money was working for the British government. I have for religion. "Governments plead poverty. That is never received a penny from the British their mantra. But my argument is that it is government. I am naturally a rebel. I have always cheaper than having to combat the effect of bad refused to be deferential, even to heads of state. imams. If you have good Islamic leadership, it I won't tell you the names of some who now would save the Government an enormous regret not listening to me in the past. Irreverence amount of money." is part of my Islamic culture, of my training at Al Are ministers listening to him? "Under the Azhar." present Government, things are moving in this He is referring to Al Azhar university in direction," he contends. "They are pragmatic. The Egypt, Islam's Oxford, where he spent 23 years, Government has appointed Muslims to the going on to teach and lead communities in House of Lords. There are three MPs in , and , before he Parliament and we now have four or five Islamic came to Britain and was appointed the first Chief schools funded by the Government. It is through Imam at London's newly built Regent's Park this process that we are coming to dig our roots Mosque in 1978. here." Discussing this appointment, his And are they listening to his warnings uncompromising attitude, even to his own against war with Iraq? "If I were a British Prime community is clear. "I was horrified that none of Minister I would find it difficult not to see my the other imams could speak English. I was interests being served by joining the Americans,” amazed that they didn't understand anything he declares diplomatically. "I see the Americans about other religions and were so unfamiliar with as a brute force tempered by wisdom from Western culture. In some cases, even their Britain. But Bush's economy needs to capture knowledge of Islam was very limited." some free oil. I don't think the people of Iraq will Such statements occasionally leave Badawi oppose the invasion. After all the inspectors are looking isolated in his ivory minaret, an arrogant, there to make sure that everything is OK, that the elitist Arab, disparaging followers who come Iraqis have no weapons to oppose with. But if the largely from a rural community rooted in the Americans think a lawless world favours the Indian subcontinent. Why does he attack his own strong, they are wrong. In the long run it destroys people? "I blame my community because I the powerful. Anyone reading the history of Rome consider that they have the ability to remedy the should know that." things I am asking them to do." He believes them often ill served by their representatives. "Muslim Jack O’Sullivan politicians have misled the community. They have An edited version of this article was published in taken upon themselves tasks that are beyond the Guardian on 15 January 2003. © Guardian them. For too long, we have had Muslim Unlimited 2003. chemists or businessmen represent us in a religious function. Because they lack knowledge they are often rigid whereas a scholar can be more flexible."

46 The AMSS Lifetime Achievement Award Q-News, February 2003

Few contemporaries have touched and inspired so many people as Dr Zaki has done. His pioneering methodology in dealing with issues, especially those related to Muslim communities in the West, has been dominated by an approach which has sought to intelligently combine two essential readings, the reading of the Revelation and the reading of reality and the natural universe. He has used the Qur'an as a guide to the real-existential and the real-existential as a guide to the Qur'an, and in doing so has demonstrated fully his ability to act creatively not only as a Shari'ah scholar but also as a social scientist with good knowledge of many of its various disciplines. By combining and integrating these two readings, and by not hesitating to voice his views boldly, Dr Zaki has helped to provide not only a theoretical but also a practical basis for a much needed Fiqh for Minorities. The elements rather surprised by his strong team spirit, of time and space have always been clear in his because the Azharites, at least in my experience, mind when debating issues or issuing a fatwa. are not known to be team workers. They mainly Initially, many people naturally objected— some expect you to listen to them, all the time. He is an strongly—to this approach but when it proved its exception. worthiness by overcoming the rigidity and It is truly my pleasure and privilege to inflexibility hampering discourse in a dynamic present to Shaikh Zaki today, on behalf of the world, the majority came to admit—rather AMSS Executive Committee and Advisory Board bravely—that his approach had been correct and the 2002 AMSS Life Achievement Award. He far-sighted. follows in the footsteps of two distinguished Shaikh Zaki's contribution to the Media, recipients, the 2000 award having been especially after 11th September, was not only presented to Professor Ali Mazrui and the 2001 impressive but provided one of the very few award to President Alija Izetbegovic. We take this sane, sober, intelligent and balanced views. Dr opportunity today to present Dr Zaki with this Zaki also takes credit for the establishment of award as a token of our appreciation and an Muslim schools. I have worked closely with Dr acknowledgement of his service to Islam and the Zaki during the last six years, especially on two Muslim community in this country. It is richly very successful projects: The Association of deserved. We wish him many years of the same Muslim Social Scientists (UK) and The Forum success. Against Islamophobia and Racism. All of us who worked with him were indeed impressed and Dr Anas Shaikh Ali

47 which started its first steps towards reinforcing "Both traditional and civilizational and cultural exchange, or what is referred to today as "interfaith." This definitely contemporary" enhanced the bright image of Islam and its Q-News, February 2003 potential in civilisational and cultural dialogue as long as they recognise and respect the values The Azharees (Azhar graduates) who lived in the that man was created to emulate. West and mastered its languages culture and I do hope that AI-Azhar and other Islamic thought are very few. universities and schools will consider Professor Fewer than these are those who added to Zaki Badawi, and the few like him, as models to this a knowledge of Islam and its be emulated. In so doing we will, insha'Allah, contemporary methodologies through which revitalise the role of those Grand Imams who led Islam can contribute to the West and to bring the civilisational and cultural exchange about the desired change in values and thought. movement in our history, such as AI-Qadi AI- Professor Zaki Badawi is one of the most Baqillani, Ibn-Rushd, Ibn-Khaldoon and others. prominent of those. He had attained both the May Allah Almighty bless our Brother traditional and contemporary knowledge of Islam. Professor Zaki Badawi with health and continued He also attained the purest of Islamic thought intellectual contribution. And may He bless him and the best and most useful of Western with a long fruitful life and reward him plentifully. Knowledge. Indeed, he is a model for May Allah bless our Ummah with more scholars contemporary Azharees, just as was Imam of his calibre. Muhammad Abdu in his time. Imam Muhammad Abdu then established a new school of thought Dr Taha Jabir al-Alwani

an Imam, teacher and social commentator. “A great defender of Learned, articulate and bold he has been a great defender of mainstream Islam and its message mainstream Islam" of tolerance, compassion and justice. Over the Q-News, February 2003 years he has taken many initiatives aimed at establishing Islam in Britain, including setting up I am sorry that I cannot attend the reception to the Muslim College, the Council of Imams and celebrate the 80th birthday of Shaikh Dr Zaki chairing the Shariah Council. Badawi. I am, however, delighted to send my I am pleased to send best wishes to Zaki on very best wishes for this important occasion. his 80th birthday and look forward to many more Shaikh Badawi's contribution to British years of partnership in our efforts to make Britain Islam has been invaluable. During the last three a better society for all. decades he has provided crucial leadership as Rt Hon Prime Minister Tony Blair

Issue no. 348 of Q-News for October 2002 to Febuary 2003, with Shagufta Yaqub as editor, sees a three page tribute to Dr. Zaki Badawi who you will recall declared that the headscarf is not obligatory in Islam. A statement that in the mid 1990's caused fanatic Muslims to brand Dr. Badawi “a criminal”, and “a forger” after he had gone on television in Holland to tell Muslim women that it is not necessary to wear the hijab as it is not required in Islam.

48 Chapter 3

The miracle that was Zaki Badawi: 1922 - 2006

advice and friendship I valued most highly." Prince leads tribute to Dr Badawi was a regular spokesman on Islamic issues seeking to build bridges with other Badawi, Muslim voice faiths and explain his religion to fellow Muslims and the wider community. He was an outspoken of moderation critic of fundamentalist violence and a defender The Guardian, January 25th 2006 of women's rights. He served on several religious organisations and had been due to become an Egyptian-born academic Zaki Badawi, who adviser to the new forum. Often used as the voice died yesterday at 83, became a personal of British Muslims by the media, he may have been seen by some younger and more radical friend of Prince Charles. Muslims as too moderate and too close to the Prince Charles last night led establishment, but he was tributes to Zaki Badawi, the the nearest the community Egyptian-born academic who had to a religious as became Britain's best known opposed to a political Islamic spokesman and a spokesman. forceful voice for moderation Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, and tolerance. Dr Badawi leader of the Muslim died suddenly yesterday. The Parliament, said Muslims 83-year-old principal of the had lost a "great scholar, Muslim College had been due teacher and a man of peace to attend a reception marking and harmony", always the Archbishop of opposed to fundamentalism Canterbury’s inauguration of and extremism. the Christian Muslim Forum at Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Lambeth Palace later in the secretary-general of the day. Muslim Council of Britain, The prince, who had said: “'We are deeply become a personal friend of shocked and saddened by Dr Badawi's through his his sudden demise [which interest in Islam, said in a is] a major loss for British statement: "'The sudden loss Muslims. We pray that God of Zaki Badawi is a Almighty grants him a place devastating blow to this in his paradise with the martyrs, the prophets and country and to me personally. His brand of the righteous." wisdom, scholarship, far-sightedness and above Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: all humour has ensured that Zaki played an “People of all faiths, as well as those without faith, extraordinarily important role in the life of this will mourn the loss of Dr Badawi, who provided country and amongst the Muslim community. unique leadership in a world gone mad. A '"His presence will be sorely missed but his younger generation of Muslims must now take on hard won legacy will, I hope, provide a fitting the sheikh's work - the promotion of faith built tribute to a truly remarkable and warm-hearted more on tolerance than judgment.” man. For me, it was an immense privilege and joy to have known someone so special for whom Stephen Bates I had the greatest possible admiration and whose Religious affairs correspondent 49 OBITUARY: ZAKI BADAWI The Times, January 25th 2006

Leading voice of moderate Islam who believed passionately in interfaith dialogue and the idea of the British Muslim

FEW MEN have done as much to reconcile Islam with modernity as Zaki Badawi, the founder and principal of the Muslim College in London. And few men have played such a crucial role in attempting to find a harmonious balance between the beliefs, culture and values of Islam and secular British society. Indeed, that almost two million British Muslims are today able to define themselves as such owes much to the vision of the Egyptian-born scholar who saw, early on, that the many Muslims who settled in Britain from different parts of the Islamic world would, one day, form a significant strand of British society — which happened to be Muslim. For years, Badawi was the unofficial — and France. almost lone — spokesman for Muslims in Britain Equally, however, Badawi was an who had no visible figurehead or institutional outspoken voice in upholding Muslim dignity and structure. Appointed in 1978 as chief imam of the the true values of his faith when these came as well as director of the under attack. This was never more crucial than Islamic Cultural Centre, he used these influential in the aftermath of the September 11 atrocities in positions in the capital to call for an Islam that America. And when many other leading Muslim fitted comfortably with British values, so that scholars were reluctant to speak out to condemn younger generations, brought up and educated violence or denounce terrorism, he wrote an in this country, would find no conflict between article for The Times in which he insisted that their faith and their civic identity as British taking revenge on the innocent was abhorrent to citizens. Islam. He gave a warning that no society was To him, this meant an Islam that was immune from violence, and the worst was one inclusive, moderate, tolerant and without the which donned the garb of religion. But he said the rancour or hostility that marked attitudes to Koran emphasised that those who disturbed the Western values prevalent in some of the more peace of society and spread fear and disorder zealous sects of Arabia and the Middle East. He deserved the severest punishment that could be therefore devoted his life in Britain to building imposed. bridges - of faith, of dialogue and of scholarship. His denunciation of violence and extremism It is thanks largely to his pioneering work in the was forcefully repeated again last year, when he 1990s in helping to establish a forum for the three joined religious leaders in commemorating the Abrahamic faiths — Christianity, Judaism and victims of the London bombings and in calling for Islam — and his tireless, behind-the-scenes work tolerance and calm. Again, his words, among in reaching out to British society and institutions others, may have helped Britain to avoid any that Britain has fared so much better than other widespread and violent backlash against European nations with Muslim minorities in Muslims across the country. integrating its Muslim citizens. But for Badawi, Born in Cairo in 1922, Badawi studied at al- Britain might have fared far less well in avoiding Azhar University, where he claimed to have the social alienation that has marked relations gained his rebellious streak. "I have always between Muslims and the rest of society in refused to be deferential, even to heads of state," 50 he told a journalist in January 2003. "Irreverence branch of one contiguous caliphate. "Within a is part of my Islamic culture, of my training at al- couple of generations Muslims will lose their Azhar." cultural baggage. Indian and Pakistani ways will It did nothing to harm his studies: after an disappear. They will adopt Western cultural undergraduate degree in , Badawi values, and the whole community will be brought gained a master's degree in Arabic language and together as British Muslims," he said. literature and the King Faruq First Prize for best A dislike of "cultural baggage" was at the postgraduate student. After gaining his doctorate, heart of Badawi's rebellious streak. He he returned to teach at al-Azhar before coming campaigned against female genital mutilation, to Britain for the first time in 1951. He gained a insisting that it was an outmoded cultural, not degree in psychology from University College religious, practice with no causal link to Islam. He London, followed by a doctorate from London stated that the fatwa had become overused, and University in modern Muslim thought. that those who proclaimed them usually had no He then spent several years in South-East divine sanction. "Since Ayatollah Khomeini Asia, setting up the Muslim College of Malaya issued his against Salman Rushdie, everyone and taking teaching posts in Singapore and has opened a fatwa shop," he said. . He took up professorships in Badawi incurred the wrath of Britain's Kano and Zaria, Nigeria, and in Jeddah. He imams in 1989 when he stated that, much as he returned to London as a research professor for disliked his book, should Rushdie knock at his the Haj Research Centre of the King Abdul Aziz door with the youth of Bradford at his heels, he University in Saudi Arabia. would certainly give him sanctuary. He wished to Badawi first came to grips with the British restore the idea, lost in the Iranian Revolution, of way of life, and the challenges it held for Muslims, loving the sinner, hating the sin. in 1978 when he took the post of director of the Naturally, Badawi's belief in a type of Islam Islamic Cultural Centre (ICC), while also serving both acceptable to and supportive of Western as chief imam of the London Central Mosque in society made him an "Uncle Tom" character to Regent's Park. He helped to establish the many imams. He seemed to represent the face of Shariah Council, to reconcile conflicts between Islam that liberal, middle-class Britain hoped to Islamic and British law. He found it incredible that do business with. most imams would not — and could not — He was certainly an antidote to the gloom preach in the language of their adopted country, of 9/11 and the London bombings. Badawi, in and he was the first Muslim to make this criticism explaining the religion's ability to adapt, would clear. often refer to its golden age, its absorption of He doubted, too, that priests or teachers other faiths and its role in preserving the could reach out to young British Muslims as if Classics. Such reasoned Islam, between mosque they were on home soil in Pakistan or and minaret, he hoped would come to Bangladesh, and was quite sure they should not prominence in Britain. try. As British Muslims became third and fourth- Badawi prepared 38 articles on financial generation citizens, he felt certain that the management with respect to Muslim law. In cross-pollination of ideas needed a new, Britain, where most people maintain an enduring Westernised approach, and an awareness and faith in the property market, Badawi's work in respect of all faiths, in order to make sense of it. establishing -compliant or "halal" The prospectus of the Muslim College, mortgages may prove the most binding part of his which he established in 1986 to train imams in work to bring the next generation into the fold. At the new approach, and where he served as the Islamic Real Estate Finance conference in principal, states that the training of "traditional" London in July 2003, Badawi explained how imams "is not always sufficient to deal with the Muslims could take advantage of his schemes, cultural environment of modern Western Europe backed by the Treasury, to own property in Britain and the USA, nor with problems arising from or overseas. interaction with Western societies". In 1997 Badawi established, with Sir Perhaps most infuriating to fundamentalists Sigmund Sternberg and the Rev Marcus was Badawi's firm belief in the idea of British Braybrooke, the Three Faiths Forum -— "To Muslims, with British as a badge of honour, a encourage friendship, goodwill and social and cultural designation, not a mere understanding amongst people of the three

51 Abrahamic monotheistic faiths in the UK and of extremist sects and their appeal for many elsewhere". He was vice-chairman of the World young, disillusioned Muslims. And he blamed the Congress of Faiths and director/trustee of the Government and press for listening to the self- Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (Fair). publicists who, he believed, were trying to impose He was a founder-trustee of the Festival of their leadership on the Muslim community in Muslim Cultures, and it was his vision for UK Britain. Muslims to take a more prominent role that Partly this was because he found that his inspired the festival, which was launched this own moderation was increasingly under attack month. from younger, more assertive leaders, and partly Yet Badawi, given to the celebration of it was the natural resentment of an older man for compatible faiths rather than a grudging those who, he believed, had, elbowed him out of cognisance of "people of the book", remained a the limelight. maverick — albeit an increasingly important one. But he relished his own acceptance into Turned back from JFK Airport by US British society (he was a member of the authorities in July last year, Badawi showed pity Athenaeum) and the recognition he was rather than anger. "They were very, very accorded by other scholars and academics. Even embarrassed and I felt sorry for them." He said, in old age — which was certainly not visible in his adding: "America is a lovely country. There is no face — he was active in writing, lecturing and reason why it should behave like that." Badawi preaching. He was glad that many of his causes, had joined Iqbal Sacrani and other leaders of the especially the demand that imams should be faith to denounce the perpetrators of the London properly trained and speak good English, were bombings eight days earlier. Their points of finally recognised by the Government. The MCB, agreement were relatively few, however. which now represents the main umbrella group Sacrani's recent statement that homosexuality is of British Muslim organisations, was planning a "not acceptable" and the Muslim Council of ceremony to honour his scholarship, faith and Britain (MCB) boycott last year of the Holocaust role as a pioneer in British-Muslim relations. But remembrance ceremony will give many cause to he died before any such proposal could be miss a peacemaker who would, wherever advanced. possible, give words of support and, where not, He was appointed OBE (hon) in 1998 and keep his own counsel. KBE in 2004. He is survived by his wife, Maryam, In private, Badawi was jovial, warm and and by a son and a daughter. hospitable. He enjoyed nothing more than a friendly, reasonable debate on the values of Zaki Badawi, Muslim community leader, Muslims in Britain today and the challenges of teacher and theologian, was born on August reconciling Islam and modernity in Britain and 11,1922. He died on January 24, 2006, aged across the wider Muslim world. 83. He was, however, saddened by the growth

OBITUARY: Badawi, who was generally regarded as the most senior and respected Islamic scholar in ZAKI BADAWI Britain, worked towards evolving what he described as a "European and even British form The Daily Telegraph, January 25th 2006 of Islam". Although he joked that some militant Muslims dismissed him as an "Uncle Tom", his Islamic scholar who condemned the fatwa formidable scholarship meant he came to be against Salman Rushdie and terrorist attacks treated as the final authority on many issues of in New York and London Sharia law. On numerous occasions since the Salman ZAKI BADAWI, who has died aged 83, was the Rushdie affair first erupted in 1989, Badawi Principal of the Muslim College in London, which spoke out against terrorism by Muslims. He was he established in 1986, and also chairman of the particularly vocal after the attacks on the Twin Imams and Mosques Council of the United Towers in New York on September 11 2001 - "a Kingdom. violation of Islamic laws and ethics - I just felt

52 utter disgust and really very, very great anger". York, despite landing with a visa. He was sent Most recently, he condemned the suicide back to Britain. Though the Americans later bombings in London in July last year. apologised after realising they had expelled Badawi opposed the Iraq war but said that Britain's leading Muslim moderate, Badawi was Muslim soldiers in the British Army had a duty to deeply offended and did not return. The fight for Queen and country - and their country American insult's chief effect, however, was to was Britain. This was a stinging rebuke to Muslim reinforce his sense of Britishness. hardliners who insisted Last November their duty to Islam took he gave a speech, precedence over loyalty to aimed partly at British- the Queen. born young Muslims, While terrorists have praising Britain for used the Koran to justify trying to find a sense of suicide bombings and national cohesion other acts of violence, through diversity. Badawi, immensely more "In Great Britain," knowledgeable, used the he said, "we are lucky same book to pinpoint to have a society that why terrorism was a is endeavouring to "declaration of war on God achieve the ideals and on His Messenger". accommodating He argued: "It is a differences, not simply negation of every rule of with tolerant the Sharia which decrees indifference, but with that innocent life is sacred, an interest in property is inviolate and that the peace of mind of engagement with each other. This celebration of the public must be safeguarded. Those who diversity sends a message to our people, and preach the message of hate serve no religious especially our youth, and the whole world that cause and those who incite the ill-informed, here is an example to emulate to build trust, maladjusted and alienated to commit criminal harmony and peace in a modern society. There acts do so not as servants of a noble faith or a are elements who are misfits and who are legitimate cause but operators for base ambitions disloyal to the basic values of our society. They disguised as pious and religious." do not reflect on the citizens of the country nor While continuing to speak on behalf of 1.6 should they shame their particular community, million Muslims in Britain, Badawi's message nor should their crimes degrade the faith they remained the same - that the true teachings of claim to belong to... The strength of our common the Koran were incompatible with terrorism. From unity in diversity will help us through any his earliest days in Britain, he set out, through his difficulty." writings, speeches, newspaper interviews, Zaki Badawi came to Britain in 1951 from appearances on Radio 4 and on television, to his native Egypt, where he was born just outside advocate co-existence and the development of Cairo on August 11 1922. He was educated at al- British Islam. Azhar University in Cairo, the leading Islamic His philosophy could be summed up in a academic institution in the world for Sunni single sentence: "There is Egyptian Islam, there Muslims. He obtained al-Aliyah, the equivalent of is Indian Islam, there is Saudi Wahhabi Islam, a Bachelor of Arts degree, from the College of there is Iranian Shia Islam, so why can't there be Theology at the university, and al-Alimiyah British Islam?" It was perhaps a measure of the degree (Masters) from the Faculty of Arabic success of his long campaign that his primary Language and Literature in 1947. In the same belief - "people can be British and Muslim" - has year he received the King Farouk First Prize for recently received more widespread acceptance. the best postgraduate student. Outside Britain, Badawi was not always He had been a member of the Muslim accorded the respect and courtesy that he Brotherhood, which later attempted to received here. Last summer he was refused assassinate Nasser, but left the organisation the entry by US immigration at JFK airport, New previous year when it first advocated violence.

53 After teaching at al-Azhar for a short while, Cultural Centre (ICC) and Chief Imam of London Badawi moved to the in 1951 to Central Mosque in Regent's Park. He was study Psychology at University College London, elected chairman of the Imams and Mosques where he obtained his BA in 1954. He was later Council by the National Conference of Imams awarded a doctorate from London University in and Mosque Officials of the UK in 1984. Badawi Modern Muslim Thought. subsequently held high office in many of the most He married an Englishwoman, Mavis, in important Islamic organisations in Britain and 1956, before returning to al-Azhar University to came to be considered possibly the "sanest and teach Muslim Thought and Scientific Research most moderate" Muslim voice in the country. Methods. He was then sent as a representative He was given an honorary knighthood in of the university to Malaya to establish a Muslim 2003 and took great pride in being a member of college there. After teaching Arabic and Islamic the Athenaeum. Studies at the University of Malaya in Singapore, He was an adviser to British financial he lectured in the same course at the University institutions on such issues as Islamic mortgages. of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. He was attending the fifth annual Islamic Finance In 1964 Badawi was appointed Professor of Summit in London yesterday when he collapsed; Islamic Education at Ahmadu Bello University he died shortly afterwards. Northern Nigeria and later Professor of Islamic The Muslim College he founded was aimed Education and Dean of Arts at Bayero College, at producing homegrown imams, which he felt Nigeria. In 1976 he was appointed research would get round the problem of importing professor at the Hajj Research Centre of King preachers who spoke little or no English and Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, stationed whose loyalties were sometimes a little suspect. in London. Badawi is survived by his wife, a son and a In 1978 he became director of the Islamic daughter.

OBITUARY: and mosques and founding principal of the Muslim College, which trains imams for British ZAKI BADAWI mosques, he used his position to question constantly the assumptions of the prejudiced: The Guardian, January 25th 2006 namely that Islam is characterised by violence and primitive practices often oppressive of Visionary Arab scholar who helped British women, and that it is on a collision course with Islam make peace with modernity western values. To the first charge, Badawi would quote the Zaki Badawi, who has died suddenly aged farewell sermon of the Prophet Muhammad at 84, was Britain's most influential Muslim. A brave, the foot of the Mount of Mercy: "God had made visionary figure, he identified the vulnerabilities inviolable for you each other's blood and each of his community long before the Salman other's property until you meet your Lord." He Rushdie affair, the emergence of Osama bin campaigned vigorously in favour of women's Laden and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq rights and, most particularly, against forced exposed them to public view. marriage and female circumcision: he considered More importantly, he spent nearly 30 years the latter to be an African custom erroneously almost singlehandedly creating British Islamic inserted into religious tradition, in some parts of institutions and setting out arguments in their the Islamic world. favour. Thus he laid the intellectual and As an enthusiastic leader of inter-faith bureaucratic foundations for that community to dialogue, he highlighted Islam's history of make peace with modernity, and live as a flexibility and tolerance - particularly of Judaism - minority in a western society - a process now speaking of the common Abrahamic roots and beginning to protect British Islam against hijack Hellenistic heritage of Islam and Christianity. by the powerful forces of Middle East conflicts. "Their ethical principles are not in conflict," he Islam lacks the hierarchies of the Christian would say. "Past and even present conflicts churches, but Badawi ranked on matters of faith between them originate in territorial ambitions alongside the archbishop of Canterbury and the and over the acquisition of resources." chief rabbi. As chairman of the council of imams At crucial moments of tension, Badawi used 54 his considerable learning and authority to steer Faris, and a daughter, Laila. British Islam (he coined the term) on a wise But it was his appointment in 1978 as the course. He immediately condemned the 9/11 first chief imam at Regent's Park mosque, in atrocity as "a violation of Islamic law and ethics". London, that convinced Badawi that his mission When, in 1989, other Islamic figures threatened was to save British Islam from dangerous Salman Rushdie with death for his novel The isolation. "I was horrified that none of the other Satanic Verses, Badawi called on Muslims to imams could speak English," he recalled. "I was spurn the book but spare the man, and declared amazed that they didn't understand anything that he would not hesitate to offer the novelist about other religions and were so unfamiliar with sanctuary in his home. As western culture." the media highlighted His attempts to fears that British Muslim place Islam at the heart soldiers would not fight in of British life were many Iraq, he urged Muslims to and various. He liked to obey orders and recall the claims that accurately predicted that King John had promised there would be no to convert to Islam in problem of divided loyalty. return for Moroccan Small, confident, military support against occasionally his rebellious barons, curmudgeonly but always and recalled a belief by with a keen sense of some in the Muslim humour, Badawi had a world that Queen skill in rescuing his Victoria had converted community from to Islam. marginalisation that Badawi's hero was sprang from a lifetime's the Catholic leader, experience of the British Cardinal Basil Hume. empire. Born in Sharkia, Before his death in Egypt, to a religious family that dedicated him to 1999, Hume had led his community on the final the study of religion, he agitated against the steps to acceptance in Britain, so that now, for British presence as part of the fundamentalist example, his successor can be found even Muslim Brotherhood, but eschewed its resort to preaching to the Queen at Windsor. "It was so violence. clever," said Badawi, "how Hume inserted He was educated at the University of Al- Catholicism into the establishment without Azhar in Cairo, the Islamic world's Oxford, and compromise." later became a celebrated scholar and professor Likewise, Badawi enjoyed a close there. He went on to teach Islamic studies in relationship with the Prince of Wales, whom he Singapore and Malaya. While teaching for 12 admired for his outspoken sympathy with Islam. years in Nigeria (1964-76), he established a Ironically, despite calling for high-ranking reputation as a tolerant figure, hiding Christian Muslims to be elevated to the House of Lords - Ibos in his home during the civil war, to save them an environment in which he would have thrived - from slaughter by Muslims who were convinced he was never ennobled himself, although he was that their brethren had been killed. awarded an honorary knighthood in 2004 (having During these three decades of travelling the chosen to remain an Egyptian citizen). world, from his graduation from Al-Azhar in 1947 A closeness to the establishment did at until he settled in Britain in 1976, Badawi was times lead to accusations that he was an Uncle already being drawn into British life. In 1951 he Tom figure, too ready to adapt the tone of Islam arrived to spend three years studying psychology to suit a western audience. He also ran the risk of at London University. There, he met a fellow isolation by making damning statements about student, Mavis, who had been born into a middle- the community he led - words from an Arab class Buckinghamshire family. She could speak intellectual that an often poorly educated Asian French to the Egyptian Islamicist with poor community found hard to stomach. "I blame my English. They soon married, and had a son, community because they have the ability to

55 remedy the thing I am asking them to do," he resolve conflicts between Islamic law and civil would say as he attacked dogmatic leadership. law. "For too long, we have had Muslim chemists or Alongside longstanding, and ultimately businessmen represent us in a religious function. successful, work to make no-interest Islamic Because they lack knowledge, they are often mortgages available, historians will find in rigid, whereas a scholar can be more flexible." Badawi's achievement a systematic approach to But Badawi was more than a critic: like the showing how Muslims can live at ease in a late Michael Young, his indefatigable appetite for western liberal environment. For him, the mission social innovation lasted well into his ninth was more than about Britain; his goal was to decade. In 1984, he founded the council of show how the gulf between east and west, imams and mosques in an attempt to bring ancient and modern, could be bridged peacefully scholarship and unity to the leadership of British and fruitfully. Islam. Likewise, in 1986, he established the He is survived by his wife and two children. Muslim College, in west London, as a Jack O'Sullivan postgraduate seminary to train imams and religious leaders for the west. He also Mohamed Aboulkhair Zaki Badawi, scholar, established and chaired the sharia council to born January 14, 1922; died January 24, 2006

OBITUARY: institutions, its countryside, its dynamism and its "civilising potential". And for three decades he ZAKI BADAWI dedicated himself to building institutions that would not only consolidate and stabilise Islam in The Independent, January 27th 2006 Britain, but also energise it. Always a teacher, he was one of the main advocates for faith-based ‘Grand Mufti of Islam in Britain’ schools that were inclusive, broad-minded and of excellent academic Zaki Badawi was a well- standards. rounded Islamic scholar who Badawi's imamship at never allowed circumstances the London Central Mosque to colour either his actions or in Regent's Park from 1978 edicts, an activist who knew was pioneering and how to pursue an agenda exemplary. He was the first within a political network too imam of a prominent sophisticated and complex for mosque to invite leaders of most of his co-religionists, and other faith communities "for a believer who never tea and theology - whatever compromised on what he they prefer" - as he fondly thought was right. remembered. This Badawi's contribution pioneering initiative led to towards Islam in Britain was the emergence of an inter- invaluable. It can be claimed faith movement to which that he invented both the Badawi was committed and terms "British Islam" and dedicated all his life. Once "Islamophobia". Urbane, he showed me a picture of passionate and wise, he was the father of Muslim him with a group of priests - Buddhist, Hindu, engagement in Britain - forging inroads into Muslim and Christian - explaining that it was the mainstream society and making the so-called first inter-faith gathering he had organised, while "Muslim case" long before it became fashionable. teaching in Singapore in the early Fifties. More than anything, Badawi was a global In 1997 Badawi established the Three Muslim: although born in Egypt, he spent most of Faiths Forum with Sir Sigmund Sternberg and his life in other countries and in the process the Rev Marcus Braybrooke. The idea of touched the lives of people from West Africa to encouraging friendship, goodwill and the Pacific Rim. But he held a soft spot in his understanding amongst "people of the book" heart for Britain. He loved the country, its appealed to the halal globetrotter who always 56 envisioned himself as a bridge-maker of peace Essentially Badawi unofficially occupied the and understanding. Badawi was for many years position of the "Grand Mufti of Islam in Britain" - until his death a leading member of the Tripoli- a title which had become extinct in the first half of based World Islamic Call Society which shared the last century. The title had been given to the his conviction of Muslim benevolence across the Liverpudlian solicitor Abdullah Quilliam by the last world. He was Vice-Chairman of the World Ottoman Caliph in the 19th century. Congress of Faiths and a founder director of the Disagreeing with Badawi was both a Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism (Fair). frustrating and futile exercise. He never Perhaps the most ambitious project Badawi personalised an argument or harboured malice initiated was the setting up in London in 1986 of just because you disagreed with him - you really the Muslim College, of which he remained had to work very hard at it to make an enemy of Principal until his death. The Muslim College was him. He loved the simple things of life: taking the not only a visionary but a pragmatic effort train to work, a walk in the park and buying towards the construction of "British Islam". Long chestnuts at the wayside during cold winter days. before it became an obsession of desperate civil To the last, his love continued to be servants faced with radical Islam, Badawi had teaching. He made it a point never to miss his realised the significance of a home-grown Islam classes and hated to be late for an appointment. in Britain - "free of the cancer of Muslim culture, Unlike other dignitaries, he never minded how he neurosis and ignorance". travelled. If he believed in the journey he would The story of Badawi's life is one of struggle, take any sensible route there. Many fellow commitment, ambition and success. He was born luminaries were shocked to see him in economy in Sharkia, a small village outside Cairo, in 1922, when travelling as he found first-class "wasteful to a traditional, pious Muslim family. He and not really necessary". graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the His efforts to try and bring together religious foremost theological college in the Muslim world, leaders under the Council of Imams and with honours and was awarded the King Fuad Mosques never really took off because of the First Prize for the best graduate of the year in sectarianism and anarchy that exists within 1945; then, between 1951 and 1954, he studied different communities. Although of Arab ancestry Psychology at University College, marrying a himself, he loved the Aziziye Mosque in Dalston, fellow student, Mavis. He earned a London east London, where the majority of the University PhD in Modern Muslim Thought, then congregation is of Turkish origin. set off to teach in Malaysia, Singapore and As British Islam enters what augurs to be Nigeria, finally settling in London in the mid- difficult times, it will miss the wisdom, courage, Seventies and becoming Chief Imam at Regent's passion and vision of its most vociferous Park Mosque and director of the Islamic Cultural proponent. However, they are many signs that Centre in 1978. Badawi's idea of an Islam based in tradition, yet During the three decades he was in public not afraid of modernity and ready to adapt to the life, Badawi dealt intimately with three prime realities of a dynamic, plural Britain, has made ministers, three archbishops and two cardinals. deep roots. The network he developed over the years It seems a long time since the days when included laymen and scholars, presidents and Badawi was castigated by Muslim leaders priests, politicians and academics. An animated because he talked to the authorities, invited "the conversationalist and generous host, Badawi other" to the mosque and called for caution in the never felt uncomfortable with dialogue or mixing of culture and religion. exchanging ideas and opinions with anyone. Fuad Nahdi A born leader, Badawi, however, had little time for the representational politics that Mohamed Aboulkhair Zaki Badawi, cleric and proliferate in our times. He believed in himself Islamic scholar: born Sharkia, Egypt 14 and in the legitimacy of his opinions and had little January 1922; Director, Islamic Cultural time for "charlatans and jokers" - as he described Centre and Chief Imam, London Central people who made comments about Islam without Mosque, Regent's Park 1978-81; Principal, the qualifications to do so. Of the Muslim leaders Muslim College 1986-2006; OBE (Hon) 1998, feted in the corridors of power in modern Britain KBE (Hon) 2004; married (one son, one he was the only "alim" - Islamic scholar. daughter); died London 24 January 2006.

57 Zaki Badawi was dismissed in 1981 by the Saudis as chief imam at the Central London Mosque in Regent’s Park for refusing to toe the Wahhabi line - even though he was offered a vast sum of money by the Saudis to do so. He had always resented the profligacy of the Saudi princes, telling me in no uncertain terms what he thought should be done with some of them. Badawi had the nerve even to tell the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to his face that, “You will never be the leader of the world’s Muslims.” To which the King replied, “What an arrogant man...” How galling it must have been for the Saudis to see Badawi re-establish his authority in London as principal of the Muslim College.

One of Badawi’s greatest disappointments was the betrayal of the Bosnian Muslims by the government of John Major in the early 1990’s, on the breakup of Yugoslavia. Badawi repeatedly asked for a short sharp shock to be administered to the Serbs, by one or two RAF sorties over Belgrade, to stop them in their tracks. But the Major government told him it would be ineffective. Badawi was proved right in 1995 when NATO bombed Serb targets in Bosnia and brought the Serbs to the negotiating table. Badawi was well aware of the West’s pre-disposed dislike for the Islamic ideal (in the sense that the prophet Muhammad was viewed as a false prophet who had brought in a competing religion). Accordingly, Badawi advised Alija Izetbegovic not to declare independence for Bosnia as no-one would come to their aid, when inevitably a furious Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia would attack. Izetbegovic thought the West would help his new country. Badawi knew better. The mass rape and killing of the Bosnian Muslims went on for four years.

And in March 2004, Badawi was badly let down by George Carey - the former Archbishop of Canterbury, when Lord Carey accused Islam of being the cause of most of the world’s problems. Badawi told me that, “George’s view of Islam depends on the last book he read.” As George Carey had, in fact, just finished reading one particularly misguided work on the history of Islam. Forget the Crusades shall we? Forget also the more recent crimes of the Christian Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats in their slaughter of the Bosnian Muslims? Zaki Badawi told me he had met Pope John Paul II twice and the Pontiff had apologised to him for the part played by the Christian West in leaving the Bosnian Muslims to their fate. And who, not infrequently, supports the authoritarian regimes of the ‘Islamic’ world? The West.

58 Chapter 4

genuine popular support for Khomeini and his Muslim women's never-ending string of fatwas that, bit by bit, took away many of the fundamental liberties of struggle to wear what women. Men may have found this appealing, but in they like time many women did not. Soldiers monitored The Independent, 23rd June 2003 their clothes, watched out for any touch of make Yasmin Alibhai-Brown up or flash of ankle. Hundreds of women were imprisoned and beaten on the soles of their feet Muslim women's struggle to wear what they so they could not walk for months; some were like. In Iran and Iraq, Afghanistan and hanged for transgressions of dress codes or for Pakistan, young women are rejecting the idea disallowed love affairs. A woman I admired that they must live covered in shrouds and enormously, the child psychiatrist Homa Darabi, veils set her veil alight and burnt herself to death in a square in Tehran in 1994. She was protesting The hejab is back in the news. In France, once against the imposition of the hejab and against more, the state is in bitter conflict with Muslim other injunctions that had incarcerated Iranian schoolgirls wearing the hejab. The government women in the home, in their roles, in themselves. wants no religious symbols in the secular This was at a time when Algerian women, education system, and for some French Muslims especially university students, were being this is an attack on their faith. Meanwhile in Iran assassinated for not covering themselves and Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, younger properly. In Saudi Arabia today, women who are women are rejecting the idea that they must live publicly beaten or beheaded are completely and die covered in shrouds and veils. covered - they don't even have the right to show I have to confess a prejudice. I feel uneasy their tears, or look at the sky before their heads when I see young women and girls wearing the roll. hejab, usually grey, white, or black. I am not In Britain the hejab became an equally convinced that these are always free choices powerful symbol of the Islamic awakening which made after thought and study. The flaming, followed the Satanic Verses furore. Young independent spirit inside me (a blessing and a women did, in fact, take the hejab to show pride curse) shrieks with indignation, though I do often in who they were. But in time this choice has hold my tongue because I have been lectured at turned into a supreme directive; while by so many holier-than-thou Muslims who tell me simultaneously fashionable alternatives are that this is an order from Allah or that it is a mark emerging with some daring women wearing of a proud identity fighting Islamophobia, or that brightly coloured turbans or designer scarves, it gives women countless freedoms denied to logo and all. those of us who like to feel the wind in our hair. Much blood has been shed around this They may be right but not as right as they "freedom", but British hejabis don't much talk claim. Such righteous and absolute conviction about this because it distracts them from their makes hejabis as perverse as those who rush to certainties. judge them as weak and oppressed. The hejab In Iran today young women, desperate to is a controversial issue, within Islam as much as escape imposed "modesty", are wearing chic outside it, and the most striking debates and scarves in and , reds and greens and disputes are arising in the country where modern, gold, tied so that slips of wayward curls escape. stark, authoritarian Islam first materialised - Iran. Their cloaks are tighter and a little shorter and the It was here, after the 1979 revolution that dress police are out once more venting their toppled the US-friendly Shah, that Ayatollah brutish force against such innocent pleasures. Khomeini's theocracy imposed the hejab. Hatred The Koran has a lighter touch than these of the monarchy was so intense that for ordinary brutes, according to Dr Riffat Hassan, a US- Iranians anything was preferable. There was based Muslim scholar. Believers, men and 59 women, are told to behave with modesty and to about the coarse debauchery of Western be mindful of their dignity. Nowhere is there societies, but the burqa and the hejab are not a anything that says men can beat and kill women solution to this pervasive social degradation. It is who refuse to be caged in the dullest of fabrics. like locking up your daughter so she will not be Dr Hassan has recently been attacked by a killed by the increasing traffic on our roads. new zealot in Pakistan - Farhat Hashmi, a As for body image, women in burqas and middle-class woman whose influence is hejabs are as anxious as the rest of us. Last year spreading throughout Pakistan and Britain. researchers found that Iranian women living in Through her Islamic teaching centres, Hashmi Iran had a more pathological relationship with pronounces that the hejab is too revealing, that their bodies than Iranian women living in the Muslim women must cover their faces, too, and United States. I went recently into the bookshop their arms and legs, so none of their female of the Regent's Park mosque. In between all the characteristics can be detected or imagined. religious books and guidance for a pure life, I And now when you go to many Muslim found anti-cellulite cream and lines of perfume. I enclaves in this country, this is what you see, girls was told that they were "Islamic" because they whose faces cannot show smiles or fears, or love contained no alcohol. In some ways this is or delight. wonderful - that inside a mosque the beauty My question is this: isn't it terribly unjust to needs of women are catered for. And the women degrade Muslim men in this way? Are we saying must know that the faith police cannot stop their that they are so uncontrollably driven, so insanely intoxicating perfumes getting up the nostrils of preoccupied with sex, that the sight of a wrist is men who are not cousins, brothers, fathers and enough for them to go into spasm? If they were husbands. In Afghanistan, too, beauty parlours truly virtuous, which many are, you could walk carried on throughout the worst days of the naked virgins before them and they would Taliban. concentrate on their prayers and not flinch. You wonder, too, how many of these As for respect - I am told hejabis are more shrouded women have vitamin-D deficiencies, respected than women who show their hair or which can cause health problems such as rickets legs, which I do. Sorry sisters, the greater feat is in children and osteomalacia in adults, because to win the respect of men and women without they cannot let the sun fall on their skins. You getting into costume. Is the Egyptian novelist should see too - as I have - the scars and bruises Ahdaf Soueif, chairperson of this year's and broken bones an efficient burqa can hide. Orangeprize, not respected because she dresses As my Iranian friend Layla says: "Muslim in Western clothes? Last week the Albert Hall in women need to stop fooling themselves. This London was filled with Pakistanis who had come hejab and burqa is not for religion, only for men to watch their pop stars, fashion designers and to have power over them. Open your eyes I want poets. It was a brilliant show, with the majority of to say to them." Me too. women dressed to please, their faith unquestionably solid. [email protected] Yes, people of all backgrounds are worried

inflamed the controversy over France's French school bars commitment to secularism. Teenage sisters Alma and Lila Levy were girls for wearing sent home from their lycee yesterday morning as punishment for breaking a nationwide ban on all headscarves displays of religious faith in the schoolroom. Their The Guardian, Thursday September highly-publicised exclusion gives new difficulties 25th 2003 to the right-wing government as it battles to control a row over headscarves. Two Muslim schoolgirls were facing expulsion "We are being asked to decide between our from their state secondary school in the suburbs religion and our education; we want both," Alma, of Paris yesterday after they refused to remove 16, told local media, after the school decided to their headscarves before lessons. Their case has exclude her and her sister for two weeks. Over 60 the next fortnight, a disciplinary committee will Describing himself as "opposed to the debate whether or not to expel the sisters ostentatious expression of one's religious permanently. conviction", he said: "School is not the place for "The conviction of the young girls is so propaganda — neither religious nor political." strong, it is not compatible with the secular The government will wait until the end of principle," a school spokesman said. 2003 for the recommendations of a commission The campaign for set up by the right to wear President Jacques headscarves has Chirac in July to intensified in recent see how the months, as the secular principle government pushes for may be enforced. more integration of Attempts to France's five million compromise on Muslims into society. how the sisters Younger Muslims, wear their who have grown up in the west, are the most headscarves have failed despite their readiness ardent proponents of the headscarves and the to wear coloured and patterned scarves (deemed conflict has surfaced with growing frequency in less aggressive by the school). "We are being some of the country's militant suburbs. asked to wear a veil that lets our ear-lobes show, French law dictates a strict separation of and that reveals our hair and our necks," said church and state and the celebration of secular Alma, whose mother is Muslim and whose father values. The hardline interior minister, Nicolas is an atheist Jew. "We don't agree with this." Sarkozy, is a strong proponent of integration and Many of their schoolfriends are earlier this year insisted Muslim women would sympathetic. "Nobody says anything to people have to go bare-headed when posing for identity who come wearing Satan T-shirts," one cards. adolescent said. Current legislation permits the wearing of  Germany's top court said yesterday a headscarves in schools if it is not "aggressive or woman teacher could wear a Muslim headscarf proselytising", but individual schools are left to in school. The federal constitutional court said decide how this should be enforced. authorities in Stuttgart were wrong to bar Afghan- Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on born Fereshta Ludin from teaching over the Sunday that he favoured clearer legislation if it issue. proved impossible otherwise to resolve the issue. Amelia Gentleman in Paris

61 Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the anti- Muslim girls face immigrant National Front, denounced the proposed ban as a pro-Muslim move that would scarf ban at French draw more immigrants to France. The commission was instructed by M schools Chirac last spring to redefine France's tradition of The Times, Friday December 12th secular institutions in an age of ethnic diversity. 2003 France has six million Muslims, Europe's biggest Islamic community. These are mainly President Chirac says wearing the hijab is seen from former North African colonies. as an aggressive act. M Chirac last week said that wearing the FRANCE is likely to ban hijab was perceived as an Muslim girls from wearing aggressive act. The head-scarves in schools after a President's words reflected state commission yesterday the sharp difference called for the prohibition of all between France's traditional conspicuous religious belief that the state has a costumes and signs, including duty to promote integration large crosses and Jewish and equality in a muscular skullcaps. way and the view in Britain The commission also and elsewhere that accepts called for greater "respect for the co-existence of separate all religious options" and ethnic and religious suggested that schools include communities. Muslim and Jewish festivals in The argument has their holiday calendar. simmered for years. It boiled The commission's advice, up again with the which is likely to form part of emergence of a more President Chirac's legislative militant Islam which has proposals next week, attempts seen a rise in hijab-wearing. to resolve an impassioned Although only a conflict between champions of handful of hijab-wearers tolerance and opponents of a have been excluded from growing trend for Muslim girls schools, the issue has to wear the hijab to school. generated much heat The commission also recommended moves among teachers, who are found on both sides of to limit religious dress in the public services and the argument. to prohibit Muslims from refusing education and The commission said the testimony of 140 medical care on religious grounds. witnesses left it alarmed by evidence of a Catholic bishops opposed the school ban breakdown in France's tradition of integration, but Jewish leaders welcomed it and Dalil Bou- tolerance and equality. Sections of the Muslim bakeur, president of the French Muslim Council, community were seeking to enforce segregation, said: "If there is a law, we will ask our girls to obey with women refusing treatment by male doctors it." and some refusing to be taught by male or non- The mainstream political parties of Right Muslim teachers. and Left favour a ban, although Nicolas Sarkozy, It was also worried by growing anti- the hardline Interior Minister, broke government Semitism, mainly among disaffected Muslim ranks by opposing a law, saying that it would youths. further alienate Muslims. Under the new law, large crosses, Muslim The intellectual world is largely in favour, veils and the skullcaps of Jewish boys would be with women's rights campaigners in the lead, but outlawed. Discreet signs such as small crosses, anti-racist groups are largely opposed on the stars of David or little Korans, would be grounds that a ban would amount to acceptable. The commission said: "All discrimination and would further isolate Muslims. punishment will be proportional and imposed only 62 after pupils have been invited to conform." Private schools would not be affected by the law. BRITISH TOLERANCE Universities would be encouraged to British headteachers have been advised prevent students refusing teachers for reasons of against issuing bans on religious headwear gender or religion. Companies would be entitled (Glenn Owen writes). David Hart, general to "regulate" the dress of workers who have secretary of the National Association of Head contact with customers. Hospital patients would Teachers, said his members were aware that be barred from refusing care from a doctor or such action could "inflame sensitivities", nurse on religious grounds. particularly in areas with high concentrations A national school of Islam would be created; of Muslim pupils. a Muslim chaplain-in-chief would be appointed to Britain has always accepted that the armed forces; state canteens would be schools could be run by the Catholic or required to propose pork-free meals and Protestant churches, a principle extended to municipal cemeteries would [be] required to set Muslim, Jewish, Greek and Sikh faiths which aside burial grounds for Muslims. has encouraged tolerance towards religious dress.

Belgium next in line as Europe's veil ban spreads The Times, Monday January 19th 2004

SCHOOL pupils and civil servants in Belgium could soon be banned from wearing Islamic headscarves as the emotive debate over the hijab spreads across Europe. Inspired by French law, two Belgian senators drafted legislation to ban the veil and other overt religious symbols from state schools, causing outrage from Islamic groups. Patrick Dewael, the Belgian Interior Minister, was denounced by members of his Government last week for declaring that he supports the ban, not just in schools but in all state institutions, including hospitals and government offices. In Germany, the hijab is banned in schools in 7 out of its 16 states. The Bavarian Government insists that the ban was necessary because the scarf had become "a symbol of fundamentalism and extremism". The two Belgian senators, Anne-Marie Lizin and Alain Destexhe, say that the ban is needed to combat what they say is Islamic sexism. "The veil amounts to oppression of the individual in the name of religion," Ms Lizin, a Socialist, said. Belgium has 350,000 Muslims, mainly of North

63 African and Turkish origin, in a population of ten Vlaams Blok party. million. A ban on the hijab is already spreading Mr Dewael, a Liberal Democrat, argued that piecemeal among Belgian schools and other the wearing of religious symbols "threatens state institutions, which have the legal right to set principles such as the separation between the their own dresscodes. When the Athenée Royal Church and the State". High School in Brussels, which has a high Setting out his views in a lengthy document, number of immigrant pupils, introduced a ban he said that all civil servants, including teachers, recently, Francis Lees, the school's administrator, judges and police officers, should be banned said: "We have changed our rules to forbid the from wearing any overtly religious symbol at work wearing of headscarves because the situation and that the ban should also apply to state was no longer tenable. Some pupils have since schools. As in France, the ban would apply not left the school, but we have been able to break just to Islamic veils but to Jewish yarmulkes and out of our ghetto." the wearing of large crucifixes. Islamic groups in Belgium have combined Explaining his thinking in the Belgian forces to condemn the attempt to copy the newspaper De Morgan, Mr Dewael wrote: "The French ban. In a joint communique, 15 groups, Government should remain neutral ... so there including the Imam League and the Association should be no visible use of religious symbols or of Parents of Muslim Children, argued that for veils for police officers, judges, clerks or teachers many Muslim women wearing a veil was a "divine in public schools. It is also clear that students in obligation". public schools should not wear veils or other The statement said that a ban on religious symbols." headscarves and veils "would deprive Muslim The proposed ban has split the Belgian citizens of the pleasure of exercising their civic coalition Government, however. Maria Arena, the rights". Social Integration Minister, accused Mr Dewael Supporters say that the veil is already of "electioneering" before this year's regional and banned in schools in Tunisia and Turkey, both European polls. "When high-ranking ministers Muslim countries. make such radical and aggressive comments Last week a Belgian court ruled that a without taking the time to consult widely, the Muslim woman was allowed to be photographed result is very dangerous for social cohesion," she for her identity card wearing a veil, saying that said. she had the right to appear in the photograph as Opposition parties also denounced the she usually does in real life. proposed ban, apart from the anti-immigration

64 Why should we defend the veil? Catherine Bennett, The Guardian 22nd January 2004

Shortly after the fall of the Taliban, two years ago, Cherie Blair held a press conference at Downing Street in which she demanded that the women of Afghanistan be granted their human rights: "For women to make a contribution they need opportunities, self-esteem and esteem in the eyes of their society." She deplored their subjugation under the Taliban regime, noting, in particular, how the burqa "symbolises the oppression of women". She circled her fingers round her eyes, like blinkers, to emphasise the point. Now that the French dispute over veil- wearing in schools has travelled to Britain, it would be intriguing to have an update on Blair's they are brimming with self-esteem. views. Is the abbreviated drapery pinned to the In newspaper articles, the point that heads of some Muslim schoolgirls entirely headscarves are, contrary to decadent western unrelated to the restrictive burqa? And if not, propaganda, actively empowering, is generally should we be smiling on this particular made by some brainy young professional expression of cultural difference? wearing a becoming -trimmed hijab. Fine. However modestly sized the hijab, many of There must surely be more doubt about freedom us would recognise it - like a nun's wimple - as a of choice when the veil is worn by a child in clear nuisance and hindrance, and more school. As Adonis wrote, "When one sees girls importantly, as a prominent signifier of female as young as four years old wearing the veil in the subservience, enforced at the behest of men - streets of Paris, for example, can anyone not the Quran. Last year, in an essay titled Life in seriously claim they are doing this voluntarily?" Blinkers published in Index on Censorship, one of Even if hijab wearing is a genuine choice, the Arab world's leading poets, Adonis, declared: does that make it obligatory for us to respect it? "Despite what the fundamentalists would have us Any more than hijab wearers respect women who believe, nowhere in the Quran or hadith is there wear shamefully little? What we would not ban, a single, unequivocal passage that imposes the we do not have to condone. It is the choice of veil on Muslim women. Their view is based on a some women in Britain to force marriage on their different reading of the text." unwilling daughters. Or genital mutilation. Both Earlier this week in the Guardian, Natasha practices have, occasionally, been defended by Walter argued most persuasively that, even if western feminists putting multi-culturalism before lifelong cranial or bodily concealment is not human rights. something many Muslim women easily accept, In her 1991 essay on clitoridectomy, for we should none the less extend our support to example, an American academic, Dallas Browne, those who embrace the veil: "If we believe in asserted that "imposing our moral values on women's self-determination, then we must also others is normally unjustifiable in a pluralistic, respect those choices that are not our own." multicultural society". She proposed that women The suggestion that the Muslim women we from the developing world, living in western see veiled, or, in some parts of London, sailing countries, should be entitled to clitoridectomies along with only their faces or eyes peeping from in hospital: "If western women and men have the yards of leg-tangling, windblown drapery, actually right to purely elective cosmetic surgery, then want to dress like this, is impossible to refute. denying third world women access to elective Who knows? Maybe, inside all that dark material, 65 surgery of their choice seems tantamount to legal advanced beatitude. Or wisdom. paternalism and denial of their comparable right As the response to the French president's of self-determination." Assaults and offences we proposed prohibition on the hijab in schools has would never permit against our own girls, those shown, this attempt to rid France's classrooms of treasured beneficiaries of freedoms laboriously all conspicuous signs of religious allegiance acquired over centuries, may freely be committed (including oversized crosses and skull-caps) has on girls from more exotic communities, as if what only led to more florid demonstrations of religious they've never had, they won't miss. difference. Including here, where there is no As Walter said, "The whole trajectory of intention of emulating the French ban— as there feminism in the west has been tied up with the cannot be, not while state-funded faith schools freedom to uncover ourselves". In other parts of are idiotically promoted by the government. the world women risk prison, or beatings for the Last week's demonstration by ranks of same freedom. Why should we show respect to hijab-wearing women in London will be followed, people who would love to restate female tomorrow, by an all-women seminar, organised invisibility in this country? Equally, why should by a group called Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose professed men feel happy about the unsubtle insinuation of goal is to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate. The the veil: that they are helpless victims of lustful women will "discuss the French proposal". It appetites, which may all too easily be awakened seems pretty clear how the discussion is going to by the glimpse of female hair? go: "Organisers hope that the seminar will The wearing of a hijab, that ostensibly mild encourage the audience to correctly respond to statement of cultural difference, is, Adonis the French moves by challenging secularism and argues, harmfully socially divisive: "It is, in fact, maintaining their Islamic identity". the symbol for a desire for separation: it means And those of us who are rather keen on we refuse integration." Moreover, as he reminds secularism, who do not have an Islamic, or any us, such overt demonstrations of difference may other kind of religious identity? Presumably we have nothing to do with religion. An ostentatious simply defer to this free expression of the correct cross is not, as we often notice with the choice. behaviour of our own bishops, any guarantee of

classroom in a state system that France votes for jealously guards its secular foundation. hijab ban Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the Prime The Times, Wednesday Minister, is also aiming to introduce February 11th 2004 legislation to restrict Muslim dress and practices in hospitals and other public Paris: The French parliament voted services. yesterday by 494 to 36 to ban Muslim headscarves and other religious emblems in state schools, ensuring that the measure will be applied with the new school year in September (Charles Bremner writes). The ban, backed by the Socialist Opposition as well as President Chirac's centre-right majority, is aimed at keeping religion out of the

66 Cleared in minutes Daily Mail, Friday March 12th 2004

Ordeal ends for teacher accused of tearing off a girl’s scarf

A TEACHER with a 16-year unblemished record was cleared of assaulting a teenage pupil and insulting her religion yesterday. A jury took just 50 minutes to acquit Hazel Dick, who burst into tears as her year long ordeal came to an end. The trial was the second she had endured of support from people of all faiths, including after the first was abandoned for legal reasons. Muslims, adding: 'My sister is a religious woman At Peterborough Crown Court yesterday a who has always treated other religions with ban on naming the girl pupil who accused Miss respect.’ Dick was lifted. Selina Sabeel had twice been Cambridge-educated Miss Dick used to excluded from school and is on a final warning help Muslim teenagers with extra A-level tuition for expulsion. at a local mosque. The charge was brought after Miss Dick, Mr Gribble said: 'It can't be right that head of science at Bretton Woods Community someone completely innocent should have School in Peterborough, asked Selina to change suffered for a year. It's been slow torture.' her hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf. The National Union of Teachers said Miss Dick, 43, wanted her to swop the children who made false accusations against decorative black garment for a plain black one teachers should face 'action' to deter others from edged in the school colours. doing the same. Selina, who was 15 at the time, accused her The charge of religiously aggravated of pulling the scarf from her head, scratching her assault has been brought just nine times since it with a pin used to hold it in place. was introduced in 2001. With such crimes the She also claimed Miss Dick told her: ‘Islam attack only has to be perceived as racially is all a big joke.' aggravated by the victim. Miss Dick was charged with religiously The Crown Prosecution Service said the aggravated assault despite the support of case had been ‘thoroughly and carefully headmaster John Gribble, parents and reviewed’ and it had been in the public interest to colleagues. bring it to court. But the jury accepted her explanation that Miss Dick is the latest teacher to be she had helped Selina remove the scarf because accused by pupils and then cleared. she was undressing in a corridor and felt this In November Pam Mitchellhill was cleared inappropriate. of assault after being accused of slapping a six- Miss Dick, who is head of science at the year-old girl pupil at her school in Sandwell West 900-pupil school, said: 'I said to her that she did Midlands. The girl denied she had been hit but not have much respect for her religion because the case still went to court. uniform formed part of her religion.’ In October, headmaster David Watkins was 'She said she did have respect for her cleared of forcing a dead fish into a pupil's mouth religion. She was upset because of the comment at a school in Norwich. and stormed off.' It is not the first time the wearing of the hijab The court heard Selina had been warned as part of school uniform has caused for 'persistent breach of school rules' and had controversy. used ‘disgusting, degrading and foul language'. Icknield High School in Luton banned girls Outside court yesterday Miss Dick's brother, from wearing the scarves, but governors lifted the Kenny Vaughan said the arrest and subsequent ban after being warned it could breach the Race trial had been a 'traumatic and demanding time’. Relations Act. He said the family had received messages By Beth Hale 67 Jurors clear teacher over Muslim girl's assault claim The Daily Telegraph, Friday March 12th 2004

AN "OUTSTANDING" teacher was unanimously cleared by a jury yesterday of a religiously motivated assault on a Muslim pupil. to be left alone to rebuild her life and get back to Hazel Dick, the head of science at a what she has always strived to do, which is to comprehensive in Peterborough, had the charge teach and develop young people." The incident of religiously aggravated assault hanging over in March last year began when Mrs Dick ordered her for a year after a girl claimed that she had the girl to remove a non-uniform headscarf and ripped off her headscarf. Yesterday, at the end of replace it with a school one. The girl claimed that a three-day trial, it took just 50 minutes for a jury Mrs Dick had told her that she had no respect for at Peterborough Crown Court to find her Islam and said that her religion "is all a big joke". innocent. As the verdict was announced in one of Miss Sabeel then said that she was the first cases of its kind since religious scratched by a pin when the teacher ripped the aggravation was introduced into law, friends, scarf from her head. Mrs Dick, however, denied family and supporters of the Cambridge- insulting the girl's religion or forcibly removing the educated teacher broke out in spontaneous scarf. "I said to her that she did not have much applause in the public gallery as Mrs Dick wiped respect for her religion because uniform formed away tears. part of her religion," she had told the court. "She Afterwards, her head teacher at Bretton said she did have respect for her religion. She Woods Community School said that the case was upset and stormed off. illustrated the vulnerability of teachers to false "I didn't do or say anything to insult her accusations by pupils and said that the religion. I was surprised by her reaction. She was Government should consider the call by the not hurt in any way when she left." NAS/UWT for teachers facing allegations of Mrs Dick said the girl later called her "a misconduct to remain anonymous. f****** bitch" after she had kept her in at Mrs Dick, 43, was charged after Selina lunchtime because she was late for a science Sabeel, 15, claimed that she had sustained a lesson. The following afternoon, the teacher was scratch on her chin when the teacher ripped her made aware that the girl had accused her of "hijab" scarf from her head. assault. The girl, who has an appalling disciplinary John Gribble, the school's head teacher, record and is currently on notice of expulsion who described Mrs Dick as an "outstanding" after twice being excluded from school for teacher, said afterwards: "The school is delighted misbehaviour, claimed that the teacher made to learn that the jury has acquitted Mrs Dick. insulting remarks about Islam during the incident. "Mrs Dick has a distinguished and Mrs Dick had consistently denied calling unblemished record at the school and enjoys the Islam "a big joke" and, after the verdict, Judge trust and admiration of her colleagues and Nicholas Coleman told her: "I hope you can put governors. The case raises serious issues this behind you. You go with the good wishes of concerning the vulnerability of staff. Just as the court." appropriate rules must exist to ensure the Kenny Vaughan, 50, the teacher's brother, protection of children, so too must there be a duty said outside court: "My sister is a religious of care for staff. woman and has always treated other religions "The campaign by the NAS/UWT for with the highest respect. anonymity of staff who are subject to allegations "Over this hard period she has received a of misconduct deserves serious consideration by number of well wishes and prayers from government.” Christians and Muslims. My sister would now like By David Sapsted

68 likelihood did not mean the wearing of a veil, but Fundamentalism that audiences with them should be carried out with a separating curtain.) As defined in The Concise Nor are apparently similar schools in the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Revised past exactly analogous to modern Edition, 2001 by Cyril Glassé Fundamentalism. The rise of the Zahiri, or literalist school of law in the 3rd/l0th century, Fundamentalism. The term rather than a rigidification was in some ways "Fundamentalism" is Western and misleading actually an escape, an alternative to a hardening because many Muslims are quick to claim that of legalism in the Islamic world. It was in any case Islam has always been fundamentalist and that an organic development rather than a reaction to the contemporary phenomenon by this name is forces from without. Paradoxically, this school simply a return to Islam as such. It is not, was often adopted by extremely liberal thinkers however, an Islam that would have been familiar and Sufis seeking greater freedom of thought. to al-Ghazali or to Abu Hanifah, or even Ibn Similarly the acceptance by many of Taymiyyah whom many predestinarianism in the Fundamentalists regard as 2nd/8th century was a their model. The term used, defense against oppression until recently, in Arabic for the (as well as the logical phenomenon was not consequence of certain Fundamentalism, but metaphysical dogmas). extremism (mutatarifin). Now Politics has often disguised it has been replaced by the itself behind a religious front more politically correct in the Islamic world as Usuliyyah, a literal translation elsewhere. Very often of fundamentalism. It is ambitious leaders created characterized by absolutist their power bases around application of some ideas religious affiliations: the which constitute Islam, and ‘Abbasids and Safavids the total rejection of other come to mind, as do the ideas, which are no less Sanusiyyah and Tijaniyyah, Islam, and no less the and the attempt of the Emir Koranic words of revelation. 'Abd al-Qadir of Algeria to It is marked by the inability to build support through the integrate ideas into coherent Qadiriyyah. A common and stable wholes. characteristic was to label Fundamentalism reduces those who did not belong to religion to rules and laws and the movement as ungodly, or materialism, and ignores as unbelievers, in order to be transcendence and able to attack them militarily, spirituality. often not for conquest but simply for plunder, with Following the modern reformer Mawdudi a clear conscience, for war between Muslims is most Fundamentalists insist in the veiling of all prohibited. This characteristic has not only women. The custom arose in some parts of the continued down to present times, it has been Islamic world, not in all; in 'Abbasid Baghdad it exploited even more, down to the declaration of was the reinstatement of a Persian usage. The holy war in circumstances in which not only holy classical Jurist Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889) a war is impossible under the legal conditions, leading traditionist of the 3rd/9th century, Islam not being in danger, but any war in the first opposed obligatory veiling saying that veiling was place from the religious point of view. a special Koranic condition for the Prophet's These earlier movements had by their wives only who were a focus of attention and, nature a very high degree of religious content. who unlike other women, were also not allowed The phenomenon of present day fundamentalism to marry any one else after his death. (The does not. Islam as religion, Islam as piety, has "veiling" of the Prophet's wives in the Koran in all been replaced by Islam as ideology and as a kind 69 of nationalism. Sometimes this has taken the combined certain aspects of modern European form of grass roots democracy, but also as the philosophy, entirely secular and humanistic in its rule by a class claiming religious authority. It has world view, with Islam; Sayyid Abu'-l Ala Mawdudi also taken the form of Islam seen as some kind (1321-1399/1903-1979), a highly influential of economic system, not readily definable, and Pakistani thinker who advocated authoritarian ultimately whatever one wants it to be. It has conservatism with modern dynamism. Combining taken root chiefly among the poor and the militancy of the Muslim Brotherhood and the uneducated as a utopianism without spirituality. legal legitimism of Mawdudi, Sayyid Qutb Above all it seems to be a reaction to what are denounced believing Muslims as unbelievers if perceived as foreign systems, a reaction which they did not agree with him. Qutb was executed has taken the form of an aggressive, sometimes in 1386/1966 in Egypt by the Nasser regime. The totalitarian application of religious practices as absolute rejection of those who disagree is in the blind rules. As a rejection of alien influences it can nature of Fundamentalism, the principle of be seen as a defensive mechanism, in which, consultation being reserved for adherents of the unfortunately, an awareness of the positive particular school. Groups derived from Qutb have meaning of religion is often obscured. been implicated in much violence in Egypt What is perhaps distinctive about including the assassination of President Sadat in contemporary Islamic Fundamentalism is that it 1981, who himself, along with Nasser when they attempts to combine modernism, with its secular were "Free Officers", belonged to the Muslim and materialist tendencies, with a religious Brotherhood at the beginning of his career. conservatism in a vacuum, cut off from tradition (Sadat, as any politician, looked to various and a matrix of organic process. Some modernist groups for possible support, including Sufis; he Fundamentalist movements have refused to belonged to the Shadhilis and even as Head of observe Islamic laws on the grounds that they State he performed pilgrimages to the tomb of should not be expected to do so until the whole Imam Shadhili by the Red Sea.) world does so! As the nature of modern In Iran, Dr. 'Ali Shari'ati (d. 1397/1917) was Fundamentalism is contradictory, the precursors extremely popular among students for what was do not fall into an orderly group representing a combination of Leftist politics, Western similar thinking. They in fact form a composite of Existentialism, and Iranian Ishraq (the two are the contradictory forces that make up fundamentally very similar) served up under the Fundamentalism. Among them are the Indian label of Islam. The revolution of Ayatollah modernist reformer Sayyid Ahmad Khan (1232- Khomeini (d. 1409/1989) for a time provided a 1316/1817-1898) who founded the Aligarh banner for young Muslims in many countries, College and who saw Great Britain as a model; who, having often been fed a diet of revolutionary Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1254-1314/I838-1897) rhetoric blaming the West for the under- who tried to make himself the spokesman of development of the Third World, rallied around different currents of his time for his own what seemed to be revolution through Islam advancement; Muhammad Abduh (1265- rather than through some alien ideology. The 1323/1849-1905) who attempted to make ultimate failure of the Iranian revolution to provide revisions in Islamic Law to meet modern any real solutions, and the disastrous Iran-Iraq conditions, such as the fatwah which permitted war have blunted enthusiasm for the promises interest on capital; 'Ali 'Abd ar-Razzaq in Egypt put forward by Islamic Government. who advocated the separation of religion and The heteroclitic nature of modern state as an original historic dogma of Islam; Fundamentalism as reaction can be seen from Rashid Rida who advanced the notion which now this description of the Muslim Brotherhood by is an unquestioned premise of Fundamentalist Hasan al-Banna': A Sunni ("orthodox") Salafiyyah political theory, the slogan of shura, or movement [part of a general reform restoration consultation i.e. democracy; Hasan al-Banna' in movement that came into being almost one Egypt (d. 1368/1949) the founder of the Muslim hundred years ago to what was perceived as the Brotherhood is another important figure. The original Islam of the "pious ancestors"], a Sufi Muslim Brotherhood has tried to overthrow what truth (i.e. "a mysticism"), a political organization, it considers un-Islamic regimes by force, an athletic group, a cultural and educational including terrorism, from within; Muhammad Iqbal union, an economic company, and a social idea. (1290-1357/I873-1938) in Pakistan, who From this collection of unconnected and even

70 contradictory appeals it can be seen that the neutralized what were originally destructive guiding principle of Fundamentalism is the tendencies into a beneficent synthesis has attempt to acquire power, sanctified with the evaporated and instead of a unity or one reality sauce of holy righteousness, on the part of those which guided men's thoughts there are now two who do not have power today. It is also the fusion which are at war with each other and with of Islam with technological modernism. themselves. Religions come as rectifications to a Fundamentalism is a phenomenon which state of error and dissolution. When they age, the has marked all religions in modern times. original forces which had to be confined behind a Materialism and literalism, the rejection of kind of wall, like the Gog and Magog of the tradition, utopianism and millenarism, the Koran, burst out anew to wreak the havoc of the dawning of the age of the dominance of the ancient times. See HAMAS; HIZB ALLAH; disenfranchised and oppressed are its hallmarks. KHOMEINI; MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD; In the case of Islam it is as if the magic that PAHLAVI.

Photos taken from book entitled ‘Holy Terror’ by Amir Taheri. Published by Sphere Books Ltd 1987

The army of 'twenty million'. A group of female soldiers of Allah march in a Tehran street. They form part of the nucleus of 'the army of twenty million' which Khomeini hopes to raise before the end of the decade in order to 'liberate the whole of Islam.' (Frank Spooner Pictures}.

Women's day in Tehran. Armed women belonging to the Zaynab Commando Squads march through the streets of Tehran. They are not allowed to remove the chador even on the battlefield. (Gamma/Frank Spooner Pictures). 71 Muslim dress ban thwarts extremists The Times, June 16th 2004

HEAD TEACHERS welcomed a High Court decision that prevents a schoolgirl from wearing strict Islamic dress. David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the school in Luton was right to seek to protect other Muslim pupils from fundamentalists. Mr Justice Bennett threw out a challenge by Shabina Begum, 15, against Denbigh High School's refusal to allow her to wear the jilbab, a dress that leaves only the hands and face exposed. The judge said that the uniform policy aided the proper running of a multifaith secular school.

Judge backs school ban on girl its rules on uniform the school was protecting who defied rules by wearing pupils from unwelcome outside influences and contributing to "social cohesion and harmony". Islam dress Many girls at the school did not wish to wear By Lewis Smith a jilbab and would feel "pressure on them either from inside or outside the school" if it were adopted. A HEADTEACHER was right to bar a pupil from "The present school uniform policy aims to wearing Muslim dress that breached school protect their rights and freedoms," he said. uniform policy, a judge ruled yesterday. "Further, if the choice of two uniforms were Shabina Begum, 15, was sent home from permitted for Muslim female pupils it can be school in September 2002 for wearing a jilbab, readily understood that other pupils of different or which covers all the body except hands and face. no faiths might well see that as favouring a She has since refused to go to lessons at particular religion." Denbigh High School, Luton, and went to the He said the school had legitimately drawn High Court in London to try to get the decision up its policy on uniform, in consultation with reversed. Muslim leaders, to ensure the "proper running of In his judgment, Mr Justice Bennett a multicultural, multifaith, secular school". dismissed her demand, saying that to overturn The agreed uniform, the judge said, the policy on uniforms risked creating the ensured that there was "no outward distinction" perception that Muslims were being given between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs at the preferential treatment. school. The judge said that the school, where 80 The school already allows girls to wear a per cent of pupils are Muslim, had made its headscarf with the shalwar kameez — loose uniform policy clear to the girl when she joined trousers and tunic approved by local Muslim and that she happily wore the uniform from 2000 leaders. until two years ago when a deepening of her Miss Begum, however, said the shalwar religious belief led her to insist on the jilbab. kameez did not conceal her arms and lower legs While accepting that Miss Begum was adequately and maintained that the school was entitled to an education, he said that the right did violating her right to an education and her human not extend to "be educated at a particular right to freedom of religious expression. school". He pointed out that there were other Mr Justice Bennett said that by sticking to 72 schools where she would be allowed to wear the jilbab. He dismissed the girl's claim that she had effectively been expelled and said it was her choice to refuse to wear the uniform. Even if she had been excluded, he said, Miss Begum would still have lost because the school was within its rights to adhere to a stated policy on uniforms. Mr Justice Bennett suggested that Miss Begum may have and have respected the religious practice of their been influenced by her older brother, Shuweb pupils." Rahman, who became her litigant-friend in court. Miss Begum is considering whether to "One wonders why it should have been her appeal. brother who articulated what the claimant was Standing next to a silent Miss Begum and perfectly capable of saying herself," he said. other family members, Ms Spencer said that the Yvonne Spencer, representing Miss merits of bringing an appeal would be considered Begum, said her client was "devastated" by the over the next few days: "The decision today does ruling. create a great deal of legal ambiguity as far as She said of the judgment: "What it education law is concerned." effectively states is that a pupil who is behaving She said it also involved other issues under disruptively in class has a better right to the Human Rights Act. education than a pupil who asks a school to "The point remains that Shabina has been breach the rules on uniform and wear religious out of education for two whole years," she said. dress in accordance with genuine and sincerely "She is a bright exemplary pupil and it's important held religious beliefs." to the family that she is found a new school place During the trial Yasmin Bevan, the as soon as possible, and we will be in headteacher, said one of the reasons the school negotiations with the local education authority maintained its ban on the jilbab was to help this afternoon." children to resist the efforts of extremist Muslim Ms Spencer said that the case sent a groups to recruit them. message that Muslim communities should really She added that to allow the jilbab would risk think carefully about where they placed their creating cliques and factions among pupils and children. that more moderate Muslims might be treated as Iqbal Javed, a solicitor speaking on behalf second class. of the school and the Luton Borough Council, the Muslim thought on dress code is divided but local education authority, said: "Denbigh High Dr Anas Abushady, of the London Central School's uniform was agreed by the governing Mosque Trust and the Islamic Cultural Centre, body after wide consultation and pupil told the court the shalwar kameez was generally involvement." agreed among Muslim scholars to meet Islamic requirements. However, Abdul Bari, of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the ruling was objectionable. "Many other schools have willingly accommodated Muslim girls wearing the jilbab

73 Is it a human right to make girls wear Islamic dress? Evening Standard, Wednesday June 16th 2004

THE story of Shabina Begum, the Muslim schoolgirl who has just lost a legal battle for the right to wear full Islamic dress in class, could not be more sensitive. Muslim groups have already branded Britain's education system Islamophobic and called for Muslim children to be offered their own faith schools. The trouble is that what looks to one culture like modest religious dress appears suspiciously like oppression to another. Years ago, I taught in a London school with a large number of Muslim girls. At the front of the class, there were 14-year-olds from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds who were as innocent and co-operative as British girls would I PROTESTED that the bed was 500 years have been in 1930. old and no longer in use, but to no avail. Such an In the back two rows, meanwhile, were impasse makes a mockery of multiculturalism. white girls who managed to customise school How could I, as a teacher, feel entirely positive uniform so it looked like something J-Lo would about a culture that denies valuable experiences draw the line at, and whose idea of group to its young women? On the other hand, how discussion was cheery banter comparing their can Muslims entrust their precious children to a favourite flavour condom. society where kids appear to have lost all respect I could readily imagine the horror of any — for their elders, for their teachers, even for Muslim parent at their daughter being exposed to their own bodies? such values, or lack of them. There were days in For two years, Shabina Begum happily front of those sheltered young women when I wore trousers and a tunic, permitted by the rules blushed myself at the depths to which my own of her Luton school. When she returned after the liberal, God-less culture had sunk. summer in 2002 wearing the jilbab, which covers As a Westerner, I had a passionate sense the entire body except for the hands and face, of the advantages my society offered to women. she was told to go home and change. It was hard not to get upset when my Muslim girls The 15-year-old's lawyers argued that her were barred from the pleasures of swimming human rights had been breached. because it would involve removing some of their I suspect that the majority of Britons would clothes. Hard not to fret for them on a baking wonder what kind of human right would put a June day when they sat in the airless classroom teenager into a costume that marked her out so in the designated modesty costume: roll-necks cruelly from her peers. under tunics, which were worn over trousers. And Shabina Begum, let us not forget, is One day, a girl was not allowed to come on British. a trip to Hampton Court because rumours had Allison Pearson spread that the visit involved a large bed. Henry VIII's bed.

74 Revealed: radicals who backed girl in dress fight The Sunday Times, June 20th 2004 Nicholas Hellen Social Affairs Editor

THE teenage girl who fought a two-year legal battle to wear full Islamic dress to school was influenced by an extremist Muslim splinter group. Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT), which is legal in Britain but banned in Germany and much of the Middle East, advised Shabina Begum, a 15-year-old the wearing of the jilbab," he said in a statement. orphan. Her case, which was funded by legal aid, He emphasised that the group had not was thrown out by the High Court last week. contributed financially towards the legal action or Mainstream Muslim leaders reacted angrily to her family. to news of extremist involvement in the case. According to Dr Nazreen Nawaz, also an They fear it risks stirring up the sort of HuT spokesman, one of the group's supporters, controversy sparked in France when the Rebekha Khan, 23, has been in contact with government banned the wearing of the hijab, or Begum for the past two years. This weekend, headscarf, in school. Khan played down her role: "The first time I met Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Shabina was at an Islamic event two years ago. Birmingham's Perry Bar constituency, said: "Most It was clear to me even then that she was already Muslims are happy with the existing dress code. very orientated to Islam." I think they [HuT] are trying to pick a fight. The Mahmood, who has in the past likened HuT Home Office needs to look at some of their to the British National party, said it had a record activities. At the moment they are very close to of targeting young people in schools and the edge." universities to lure them away from the Mahmood said HuT's role was particularly mainstream of the Muslim community in Britain. disturbing because of Begum's vulnerability. She "It is important that social services look into that was 13 when, in September 2002, she was sent role," he said. home from Denbigh high school in Luton for Denbigh High school was an unlikely target wearing a jilbab, an ankle-length dress that for criticism. Almost 80% of its 1,000 pupils are leaves only the face and hands visible. Muslim, and its dress code, which allows pupils Begum, who was regarded as a promising to wear a shalwar kameez (trousers and a long pupil, was orphaned last April with the death of tunic), was introduced with the support of the her mother. Her father had died in 1992. Her 21- town's Council of Mosques. year-old brother, Shuweb Rahman, who helped The school argued that going further, by her bring the case, is an HuT supporter. permitting the jilbab, might create divisions by Although she still intends to sit seven implying that those who did not wear it were not GCSEs next year, she has not attended any as devout as those who did. It also suggested classes for almost two years. Her teachers have that the garment posed a safety hazard. sent her schoolwork and have taught her outside Earlier this year, another Luton school, school hours on a small number of occasions. Icknield High, was targeted by extremists after Dr Imran Waheed, an HuT spokesman, the head teacher, Keith Ford, insisted that Muslim confirmed that leading activists had encouraged girls should not wear hijabs. Ford took early Begum in the dispute. "Our members in Luton retirement, although insisted he would not be have consistently advised Shabina and her family forced to “retire over a matter of a piece of cloth". to stand up for her right to an education and her According to Geoff Lambert, then chairman right to observe the Islamic ordinances, including of the board of Governors, the picket by the

75 radical Muslim group al-Muhajiroun was 1974. It has sent a delegation to President counterproductive. He said the governors had Jacques Chirac urging him to reconsider the already decided on legal advice in January that French ban on the wearing of the hijab. they had to permit the wearing of the hijab. Yvonne Spencer, Begum's solicitor The announcement of the decision was advocate, said she had no knowledge of HuT's delayed until March because the governors were influence on the schoolgirl and insisted that she concerned that they should not be seen to bow to had tried to resolve the dispute rather than take pressure. Al-Muhajiroun is headed by the Syrian- the case to court. born radical Sheikh Omar Bakri, who led a Spencer blamed Luton borough council for breakaway from the London branch of HuT. failing to agree to mediation and failing to assist HuT's ultimate aim is a worldwide Muslim Begum's application to join other schools in the state, ruled by sharia, Islamic law, and it urges area. She said Begum and her family had Muslims not to participate in democratic politics. decided not to take the legal battle to appeal. It was founded in 1953 in the Middle East, and was banned in Egypt after an attempted coup in Additional reporting: Nina Goswami

76 As a Muslim, I say no to the cover-up The Sunday Times, June 20th 2004

Mona Bauwens is delighted that the judge last week threw out the case brought by Shabina Begum, who wanted to wear the jilbab to school

I am delighted that the Muslim schoolgirl Shabina Begum has lost her battle to wear the jilbab to school. As an Arab Muslim woman brought up in this country, I was angry that Shabina demanded to wear the strict head-to-toe gown to school because wearing the school's uniform was "eroding her human rights". To me, her demand see Muslim women in this country who were fully was a flagrant abuse of the human rights this covered up, but recently I've seen a huge country has given her, and I feel strongly that increase in the number of women who are fully Shabina should show more respect for life in covered on any high street. Britain. To me, this is a direct symptom of the Shabina is a British subject. This is where political repression that takes us backwards as her parents brought her from Bangladesh and Arabs and Muslims. What you wear does not where she gets all the benefits of being a British indicate your political morality. The real reason national; the NHS, education, sexual equality and Islamic extremists feel that women should be so on. The school she attended for two years, modest and covered up seems to be that women Luton's Denbigh high school, devised a dress are becoming more educated and moving ahead code with local Muslim clerics that was of the men, and this is men's way of controlling acceptable to the majority of the students. Girls them. have the option of wearing trousers, skirts or a Shabina has to understand that in a free shalwar kameez (trousers and tunic) with a scarf society a school's rules and regulations are there if they wish to cover their hair. The school didn't for the benefit of all the students and the rules want its pupils to wear the jilbab because it should be respected. What if the 20% of non- worried that those who did might be regarded as Muslim students in her school said they found it "better Muslims" and because there was a simple offensive that one of their schoolmates should safety risk of tripping over it. wear a shroud? Or what of the other Muslim girls Shabina, who was orphaned earlier this who may be under pressure from home to cover year following the death of her mother, wore a up more and don't want to — what are their shalwar kameez to school for two years. But, human rights? I fear whoever has been advising abruptly, in September 2003, she changed her Shabina has a political agenda that would take mind and demanded to cover up, branding the us back to the Dark Ages. shalwar kameez "too revealing". The school Part of the joy of living in England as a would not allow her to attend wearing a jilbab. Muslim woman is not having to cover up in the Shabina claimed this violated her right to an way you have to in places such as Saudi Arabia. education and her human right of religious The matter of a dress code seems trivial expression. but by backing Shabina's desire to cover up While I respect Shabina's interpretation of completely pressure would be put on her peers to Islam, I am disturbed at the attempt to link choice do so too. This is the thin end of the wedge. To of dress to human rights. I am worried because give in on this instance would provide great there seems to be a very strong revival in credibility to the religious forces of conservatism traditional Muslim women's dress in Britain. As a in our society. child growing up here, it was extremely rare to I am so worried about this that I would be

77 very reluctant to go back and live in the Middle code is silly. Most teenagers dislike restrictions East at the moment. Existing regimes deny the on their dress irrespective of religion or culture — majority of Arabs any protection under the rule of I hated my ugly uniform at my boarding school, law and any respect for human rights. Shabina Tudor Hall. But schools have rules, let's not should be grateful that the UK allows us Muslims confuse those with the bigger issues. to retain our culture, our tradition, our food — and My daughter Soraya wears clothes typical in return we should respect our host country's of most British teenagers: she has a bare midriff great freedoms. and her navel is pierced, which might horrify the As an Arab Muslim woman who came to more traditional members of the Islamic England as a child, there were many instances community. But, more importantly, I teach my where I felt I was an outsider, an Arab thrust into daughter that what is important in life is respect an alien culture. I felt I had no identity and and understanding. belonged nowhere. To Arabs I was too When she was eight I arranged special westernised to be normal; to my British friends, lessons with one of London's leading Muslim too conservative. Thanks to the liberal attitude of clerics. After three lessons, Soraya was coming my host culture and learning what was home in tears because the cleric was insisting appropriate in different countries I learnt to feel she cover her self from head to toe — at eight! I comfortable about myself. had a huge row with this man, and told him: "I I am greatly concerned that some want you to teach my daughter the principles of immigrants who have fled here for protection end love and compassion, which are the basic tenets up abusing the rights extended to them. Take Abu of Islam, not about clothes." Not long afterwards, Hamza, the hook-handed cleric from Finsbury this revered cleric left his wife and ran off with a Park mosque who faces extradition to America Moroccan dancer. There is much hypocrisy on on terrorism charges. He left Egypt because he the subject of Islamic dress, which is often about felt persecuted there, and proceeded to abuse controlling women. Britain's freedoms of speech and association to I am not anti-Islam. I am not anti what propagate dangerous and subversive anti- Shabina or others want to wear. But don't go western sentiment. imposing it, don't play into the hands of freedom- I am pleased that he has now been hating extremists. What matters, I think, is to arrested. It should have happened a long time wear something appropriate to your ago; he has abused the very rights the UK surroundings, a lesson I learnt early on, when extended to him. The great majority of Muslims aged seven I was taken to the desert wearing a in this country take great offence at Abu Hamza's tiny pair of shorts and a T-shirt. An old bedouin preachings and have no desire to see young brought me a towel to cover my legs. I wasn't told women clad in jilbabs. off: he demonstrated that what I was wearing Today, living in Britain, I feel safe. I am wasn't acceptable. Ever since, I have tried to incredibly lucky compared with thousands of my show my respect for whatever culture I am people who live in danger in Palestine. As a visiting or living in by what I wear. result, I passionately believe in human rights, Now I live in London and I more or less which is why I am so furious that a 15-year-old wear what I want, as do most women in London's such as Shabina should confuse human rights sophisticated Arab community. I love fashion and with an issue about school uniform and play into wearing designer clothes — a very short skirt, the hands of those who would repress us. .." maybe, or, a strapless bustier or décoletté As a mother of a teenager I frequently have cocktail dress — and I don't feel disrespectful in to listen to arguments from my 16-year-old any way to my religion. I want it to stay that way. daughter who believes that her school dress Mona Bauwens

Mona Bauwens is correct in all she writes, except in the way she allows her daughter to dress and in the way she herself dresses. Even the most liberal of Muslim scholars would say that there is no way under the sun that Muslim women should dress like that.

78 Lifting the veil on women's suffering The Mail on Sunday, June 20th 2004 Suzanne Moore

THERE is no uniform at my daughter's school but the pupils are not allowed to wear hoods and caps. It could indicate gang membership or act as a disguise. After school the hoods are defiantly up, a statement of cool or intimidation depending on where you're coming from. Is this an infringement of anyone's human right I wonder, that teenagers cannot observe their allegiance to a gang or a fashion? For surely, if any of these kids were smart enough to claim they needed their hoods up for religious, rather than cultural, reasons we would all have to bow down our heads in reverence. If clothes symbolise one's allegiance to a gang, what bigger gangs are there than the some Muslims see this ruling as objectionable, religious ones? others find it entirely reasonable, pointing out the We now find ourselves in the peculiar jilbab is not based on the teachings of the Koran situation where Muslim girls are going to court to but on the dress codes of the Arab world. argue for the right to be covered from head to toe Most Muslim scholars agree that the while other girls are getting kicked out of school shalwar kameez meets the requirements of for wearing far too little. modesty. Britain is properly laissez-faire on most The judge in the case of Shabina Begum, such issues, much more so than France, the 15-year-old Muslim girl who went to court although it is worth noting that Turkey manages a because she wants to wear a jilbab, a loose more secular education system than either garment that covers the entire body, dismissed country. her demand. Shabina has not been to school for On Panorama last week, some Muslim two years, insisting that because of her religious women explained why they choose to veil beliefs the wearing of the hijab (headscarf) and themselves. They were articulate, thoughtful and the shalwar kameez (tunic and trousers) was not challenging but still when I see a fully veiled enough. woman it is almost impossible for me to think, What helped convince me that the judge 'Here is an honoured woman.' Quite the opposite. was right was listening to the view of Shabina's I cannot see the female body as the sole classmates, bright, sassy, Muslim girls who don't repository of all desire and responsible for all want to wear the jilbab or have their religious impure thoughts, so no I wouldn't make a great devotion assessed by what they wear. Catholic either. Yet as a non-Muslim am I even entitled to I've tried being liberal, respectful, even an opinion on this? For we now live in such multicultural, down the years but I have stood in overheated times that we only have to put the enough school playgrounds with enough women word Islam in front of any other word for it to in jilbabs to know that they are not allowed to talk mean very bad things. to the likes of me, and that their English will never So we now have 'Islamo-facists', bad men improve as their sons speak for them. who think and do very bad things, but to say so I have been in maternity wings with women might mean you have a bad case of who have had dreadful complications at birth 'Islamophobia'. because they have been forbidden from As always, what we end up with is a total attending antenatal appointments. inability to separate culture from religion. While So yes I see that burkhas, jilbabs, whatever, 79 may shelter women from some kinds of male lust. discussion of rights must include those of women But in the end they still suffer the consequences who never get given any kind of choice. of it. We know who Shabina Begum is. But it's I don't doubt there are certain benefits to the women we literally can't see who I worry wearing a shroud - none of the 'does my bum about. look big in this?' dilemma - but surely any

At the other extreme, exhibitionism is frequently uppermost in the mind of the indigenous non- Muslim schoolgirl. Often, looking as sexy as possible is all that matters to them. Three newspaper articles on this point follow.

School bans all skirts The Sunday Times, June 20th 2004

A MIXED state school has banned girls from wearing skirts because their hemlines were getting too short, writes Sarah-Kate Templeton. The governors at Kesgrave high school near Ipswich, Suffolk, have ordered all female pupils to wear trousers because girls were turning up for lessons in skimpy miniskirts. It is believed to be the first British school to ban skirts. Although many parents are sympathetic to the drive to regulate school uniforms, others claim that the move is draconian. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) even believes that the pupils may be able to challenge the ruling on the grounds that they are being denied the normal dress options available to women. George Thomas, the school's head teacher, said the ban was necessary because the girls' attire had become impractical as well as immodest. "There is a tendency for some of the girls to wear really short skirts," he said. "Some of them are Lycra skirts. Kesgrave has a huge percentage of pupils who cycle to school and "But one would think they could enforce short skirts are inappropriate for girls cycling to some sort of regulation skirts rather than ban school. them completely." "Nor are they suitable for an active Kesgrave, however, found that trying to curriculum. Rather than have teachers regulate hemlines was impossible. Its policy was continually shout at the girls for wearing short for girls to wear skirts just above the knee; but skirts, we are switching to a new uniform." pupils were opting for much shorter skirts or, in The new dress code has attracted a mixed some cases, very long ones worn by girls aiming response from parents. The father of a 15-year- for a "grunge" look. old girl said: "It's an extreme measure but I can The EOC said: "From a legal point of view see their point. When I see my daughter and the issue would be about whether the uniform some of the other girls come out of school at the was more restrictive for girls than for boys. If we end of the day, they do look a bit inappropriate. look at business dress, it would be equally 80 acceptable for women to wear a smart trouser suit Cosmopolitan magazine, believes the school has or a dress. made the right decision: "I am with the school on "This [uniform change] could be restricting this one. Children are at school to learn and girls girls as they would have fewer options than the wearing skirts hardly covering their bottoms with normal dress choices open to women." skimpy underwear showing, just as the boys' Marcelle D'Argy Smith, the former editor of testosterone levels are soaring, is not ideal."

Trousers only ...school bans skirts after girls refuse to cover up The Mail on Sunday, 20th June 2004 By Richard Allen and Peter Zimonjic

A SECONDARY school has taken the extraordinary step of banning girls from wearing skirts because too many pupils wear them indecently short The school is thought to be the first in the country to ban skirts and will now allow girls to wear only trousers. George Thomas, headteacher of Kesgrave High School near Ipswich, Suffolk, said: 'Some girls wear really short skirts, not helped by the fact that not many practical skirts are stocked by shops. 'Many of our pupils cycle to school and Margaret Young, said: 'Two years ago we sent some of the things the girls wear are not suitable. out an edict saying that skirts had to be school- 'Rather than have teachers continually uniform length but some mothers said it was very shout at the girls for wearing short skirts, we will difficult to enforce because of peer pressure. switch to a new uniform.' 'Girls were rolling them up at the top to From September, girls will have a choice of make them shorter or changing into a different two styles of dark-blue trousers. And their skirt once they left the house. We decided we traditional shirt and tie will be replaced by a light- couldn't send them all home. blue polo shirt and navy sweatshirt. 'The teachers were getting fed up with But last night some parents said the ban concentrating on uniforms when they could have was an over-reaction. One mother of a 13-year- been concentrating on other things. old girl, who asked not to be named, said: 'It We did consult pretty widely. We've had makes no sense to introduce rules on the type of very few criticisms and those have been more on trousers when they could do the same thing for the grounds of expense.' skirts.' The Equal Opportunities Commission The father of a 15-year-old girl said: 'It's an website devotes a page to the trousers-for-girls extreme measure but I can see their point. When debate, with details on what to do if a school bans I see my daughter and some of the other girls trousers for girls - but nothing on what to do if coming out of school, they do look a bit skirts are banned. inappropriate. But surely they could enforce a A spokesman for the Commission said: 'I've regulation skirt rather than ban them.' never heard of such a case. We would advise Chair of Kesgrave High School's governors, schools to make sure that their uniform 81 guidelines reflect common sense and the modern National Association of Schoolmasters and working wardrobe.' Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) spokes- A spokesman for the Secondary Heads woman Kathy Duggan said: 'As a mother and a Association said: 'It is still the case that some primary school teacher, I think this is silly. But so schools ban trousers for girls but this is a new long as our members are not expected to one on me. overburden themselves to enforce the policy, 'In the Sixties, they used to make the girls then the union would not have a problem with it. kneel, and if the skirt didn't touch the ground they Last week, a 15-year-old girl's fight to wear sent them home to get a longer one. I can't full Islamic dress to school was thrown out by a imagine girls taking kindly to wearing trousers in High Court Judge. Shabina Begum wanted to summer.’ wear a jilbab, a long dress that leaves only the Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign For face and hands visible. Real Education, said: 'Students have to be taught to respect a dress code but this can be done without forcing them to wear trousers.'

underpants" were distracting pupils and "making Headmaster's ban on the teachers' jobs almost impossible. In any case it is a matter of good taste". bellies and bottoms... He said that he had acted because parents The Times, Wednesday October 13th had asked him to do so. "They told me their 2004 children wouldn't listen to them and they didn't From Richard Owen know what else they could do to make them dress suitably." in Rome Some teenagers bared their midriffs or wore ITALIANS are renowned for their sense of style. But the fashion for bare midriffs and low-slung jeans proved too much for the headmaster of one of the country's largest secondary schools and his efforts to make pupils cover up have caused uproar across the country. Angelo Bernardini, 61, Headmaster of the 1,600- pupil Liceo Vitruvio Pollione at Avezzano, in the Abruzzo region, has tried to impose a new dress code to counter "vulgar and indecent exhibitions of bare flesh". Schools across Italy including some in Milan and Rome are considering similar rules or even an outright ban on the styles. Signor Bernardini said displays of "navels, bare bottoms, thongs and

82 low-slung jeans with "natural grace", but not all Certain ways of dressing risk overstepping the had the figure to carry it off, Signer Bernardini limits of good taste and cause embarrassment said. and disturbance in the life of the community." This led to "ribald comments, especially Signor Bernardini, a classics teacher and when you can see pubic hair sticking out or an headmaster at Avezzano for the past 15 years, excessively generous amount of bottom". He said that he had merely sought to offer "sensible said mini-skirts used to be a problem, "but now advice dispensed with humour". His motto was both boys and girls wear trousers". castigat ridendo mores, or "castigate bad habits Signor Bernardini said that his patience had with a smile". He regretted that Italian snapped during a school trip last year to Vienna. schoolchildren did not wear uniform, which was a "We were standing in front of St Stephen's "democratic and equal" form of dress. Instead, a Cathedral and one of the boy's trousers fell down law dating from 1925 — during the Fascist period in front of my eyes," he told Corriere della Sera. — simply refers to a "moral obligation to dress in "Fortunately the boy had underpants on. a manner consonant with a scholastic But that is part of the problem — it seems to be environment". the fashion to show your brand-name underpants Most pupils at the school appeared unfazed off by wearing trousers on the hips." by the row. Vanessa, 17, said that the Whereas previous attempts to persuade headmaster was "probably right — you should schoolchildren to "cover up" have been wear normal, discreet clothes to school". halfhearted, Signor Bernardini's forthright Francesco, also 17 and a member of the school language prompted nationwide television and council, said that the council was going to see the newspaper coverage. It also sparked a boycott headmaster to try to clear things up. "But we by pupils, with children milling about and resisting don't agree that low-waisted trousers are at the the headmaster's attempts to usher them into the opposite end of the spectrum from the burka. The empty classrooms. opposite of the burka is wearing no clothes at all." In a circular to staff and pupils entitled From Antonio Floris, the Mayor of Avezzano, said: Burkas to Bare Bottoms, Signor Bernardini noted "With all due respect to the headmaster, parents that some mayors in northern Italy had tried to come to me more worried about the lack of ban Muslim women from wearing face-covering school facilities than about what their children veils because they could not be identified. Going wear." to the opposite extreme and uncovering bare Signor Floris, a member of the far-right flesh was equally unacceptable, however. Alleanza Nazionale, said that he was "much "There are rules which govern what we more concerned about other habits", a reference wear in different situations," said the circular, to drug taking. which was read out by teachers in every class. Antonio Marziale, head of the Association "You don't go to the beach wearing an overcoat. for the Rights of Minors, said that Signor Ber- You don't wear bikinis in the main town square. nardini's ruling was "good sense. But frankly the Dress should be in keeping with the kind of place decline of standards in our schools is far more you are in and the activities you carry out there. important."

83 We make a social contract with the Why it's right to ban countries we have migrated to. If we seek equality, it must mean just that — not special the hijab in schools privileges when it suits us. By aggressively Evening Standard, Wednesday 1st exacting unacceptable concessions, Muslims are September 2004 jeopardising their own lives and futures.

I AVOID France on holiday because of the Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes for overt racism I have experienced there. While The Independent Paris is a global city, mostly at ease with itself, my children and I have been treated with contempt in some of the loveliest parts of the French countryside because they think we are Arabs. They stare, shut shop doors in our faces, ignore greetings, mutter xenophobic comments and make us feel wholly unwelcome. London is a tough and rude city too, but most black and Asian Britons no longer face such sustained bigotry. France has not done enough to protect immigrants and has been slow to ensure they get equal rights. Yet today I find myself on the side of the French state, as the country is held to ransom by Iraqi militants over France's ban on the Muslim headscarf, the hijab, in schools. Two French journalists, taken hostage two weeks ago, have been paraded on TV, their helplessness and horror put on show in the most repulsive way. Muslim spokespeople have finally been moved to condemn this blackmail. About time, too. For months these leaders have been inciting a revolt against the hijab ban. The French did not communicate the reasons for the new law well: the tone was provocative. But it was right to insist that in a multiracial country, education institutions should be secular spaces. Yet in the UK, Islamicist hardliners keep testing institutions and rules: the girl in Luton who refused to go to school unless they let her wear a full body cloak is just the latest case. Millions of us Muslims do not agree with this provocation at all. We do not cover our heads; our mothers only do so when praying. But how they castigate us, the hijab devotees. WHERE will this end? Already thousands are moving towards complete body-and-face concealment. Tiny girls now walk around, their bright eyes peering out of shrouds. Nowhere in our sacred texts does it say a woman must hide her face so she can't even smile at her babies in a park. This kind of covering is used in deserts simply to keep out sand during sand storms. It is suddenly an obligation. How do teachers know who is taking exams? How do the girls eat?

84 persuade them to comply. Muslim pupils bow to Many girls were, however, asked to remove bandanas and other less religious headgear. Sikh scarf ban boys, caught up in a law designed to curb Islamic The Times, Friday September 3rd fundamentalism, wore narrow headbands 2004 instead of turbans. From Charles Bremner Muslim leaders have been urging girls to obey the law to avoid and Marie Tourres encouraging the kidnappers, in Paris who are demanding that the French ban be lifted in return for IN WARM sunshine, Nisba the lives of the captive Mohamad, 18, yesterday journalists. walked into the Lycée Jacques After four days of hectic Brel at La Courneuve, a French diplomacy and northern Paris suburb, and mediation by Muslim leaders, reluctantly slipped the black hope was rising last night that hijab off her head and on to her they might soon be released. shoulders. The Courneuve lycée, in a "I feel very bad about rundown area of immigrant taking it off. I feel as if I am housing estates and with about going naked," said Ms three quarters of its 1,200 pupils Mohamad, who has been of Muslim background, was one wearing the full Muslim head of a dozen around France that covering in public since she was was closely watched for 13. incidents as pupils returned. She had aimed to wear a The school made the news last bandana instead, but had year when it allowed 15 girls to discovered that this was out too. wear head scarves, despite a Her gesture was repeated seven-year-old education by hundreds of girls across ministry rule against them. Head teachers had France yesterday as a law against religious dress freedom to interpret the old rule. in state schools came into force with the new While widely condemned abroad, the school year. outright ban is backed by France's mainstream Ms Mohamad, who was one of several political parties, teachers' unions and about 80 pupils to wear the hijab up to the school gate, per cent of the public, according to polls. said that she deplored the law and did not agree Opponents, who include about half of France's that it reinforced France's tradition of secularism, five million Muslims, see it as discrimination. which keeps religion out of schools. "I find it very On Wednesday, the Courneuve school unfair. This is not about secularism. Secularism received a morale-boosting visit from Francois should be about freedom to practise your own Fillon, the Education Minister. He praised the religion," she said. sense of responsibility that France's Muslim To the relief of teachers and the leaders had shown during the kidnap crisis. "It Government, fewer than ten pupils out of 12 was not their aim, but the kidnappers have million were reported to have disobeyed the law managed to forge a sense of national cohesion against religious dress and symbols. that is almost without precedent," he said. Tensions over the ban were heavily muted Emerging yesterday for a cigarette in the by this week's crisis over two French journalists street, Paul Morin, the headmaster, said he was who are being held by Islamic extremists in Iraq. relieved that the first day had gone quietly. "I think In Strasbourg, two 17-year-olds left their the girls have understood, because there was no school after being barred from class. In Lille, problem today. We did have one girl who decided Lyons, Marseilles, the Paris region and other not to come back this year." places, teachers kept the few scarf-wearing girls One girl pupil, Ehleme, 17, said: "We are in out of the classroom and spent the day trying to France and you have to obey the law."

85 radicalism in schools, reflected in the wearing of First girls expelled the hijab, denial of the Holocaust, the intimidation of non-practising Muslims and attacks on Jewish over headscarf ban pupils. The boys took off their full turbans and The Times, Thursday October 21st wore a simpler cloth cover to hold their hair, but 2004 the school said this still breached the law. From Charles Bremner in Paris Similarly, the two Mulhouse girls had swapped their full headcover for bandanas, but the head teachers deemed these still to breach the law. FIVE Muslim girls have been expelled from Francois Fillon, the Education Minister, said school in eastern France in the first of what are the introduction of the law had been a success expected to be a dozen similar actions this week because only 72 pupils in France were refusing arising from refusal to obey a ban on religious to obey it. Teachers had succeeded in changing symbols and clothing in state schools. the minds of the great majority of 620 girls who Dounia and Khouloude, both 12-year-olds turned up at their schools with headcovers at the of Algerian origin, were told to leave their college start of the school year, he said. The ministry had (junior secondary school) at Mulhouse after earlier delayed action against the girls in order to refusing to remove their headcovering since the avoid raising tension while kidnappers in Iraq new law took effect in early September. continued to hold two French journalists. Two other girls were expelled by different The pair is still being held by Islamic schools in Mulhouse, and the fifth girl was militants whose original demand, when they banned by her school in Caen. The remaining seized them in August, was that France abandon cases are expected to be decided before half- the ban on headcovers. term next week. The Government said yesterday it believed At Bobigny, in the northern Paris outskirts, that the hostages were still alive and was three teenage Sikh boys have appealed to a local continuing efforts to contact their captors. court to order their school to allow them to return Khouloude told Le Monde: "They have to classrooms from which they have been destroyed my life." Dounia said: "They put us in excluded for refusing to remove their headcover. quarantine. They wouldn't let us into the France's small Sikh community of about playground ... What they want is for us to wear 30,000 has been caught up in a law which was tight trousers like all the other girls in the school." primarily aimed at countering rising Islamist

86 Schoolgirl banned from wearing Muslim dress wins appeal The Independent, Thursday 3rd March 2005

A MUSLIM schoolgirl has won her battle to wear traditional "head-to-toe" dress in the classroom. The Court of Appeal has decided that her school acted unlawfully in barring her. Shabina Begum, 16, won her case against Denbigh High School in Luton after Lord Justice Brooke ruled yesterday that the school denied her right to manifest her religious beliefs. Muslim leaders welcomed the ruling as a "landmark decision" that should lead to more tolerance of religious beliefs. But community leaders in Luton warned that it could create problems for schools and insisted that the vast majority of Muslims would not want their daughters to wear a jilbab - a full- length gown which exposes only the face and hands. The case could have important implications for multifaith schools across the country which could be forced to reassess the way they enforce their uniform policies. Schools in Britain set their own uniform regulations. But Lord Justice Brooke called on the Government to give schools more guidance on how to comply with the Human Rights Act. Shabina described the ruling as a victory for all Muslims who wished to "preserve their identity and values" in the face of "prejudice and bigotry". The school insisted that it had only lost on a technical breach of the Human Rights Act. Shabina had worn a shalwar kameez (trousers and tunic) in accordance with the school's uniform policy until September 2002 when she informed teachers that she would in future only wear a jilbab. The school, where nearly 80 per cent of pupils are Muslim, would not allow her to attend lessons until she wore approved clothing. It argued that its uniform policy had been agreed to wear a jilbab would impact on the rights of as acceptable with Islamic scholars and if she other Muslim girl pupils who opposed allowing could no longer abide by it she should change the jilbab as they felt that it would create a schools. hierarchy of belief at the school. Shabina took the school to court but her The Court of Appeal agreed that the school case was rejected by High Court judges last had a right to set a school uniform policy but said summer. The school had argued that allowing her it had failed to consider Shabina's rights under 87 the Human Rights Act. first court challenge, said; "There is no prescribed Alter the judgment, Shabina, who attends a Islamic dress code. People of Islam, like other school where the jilbab is allowed, condemned religions, say that you should dress modestly. her treatment by Denbigh School. "[Their] How do you define that? This will create a lot of decision to prevent my adherence to my religion complications." ... was a consequence of an atmosphere created In a statement, Denbigh High School said it in Western societies post 9/11, in which Islam has was proud of its multiracial policy. "The case was been made a target for vilification in the name of lost due to a small technical breach of the Human the ‘war on terror'," she said. Rights Act. The judges accepted that the school Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the is entitled to have a uniform policy and could see Muslim Council of Britain, argued that schools nothing wrong with it." should accommodate a wide spectrum of beliefs. Luton Borough Council said schools would "Those that choose to wear the jilbab and be advised to take pupils' religion into account consider it to be part of the faith requirement for when imposing uniform rules. modest attire should be respected," he said. But Yasin Rehman of the Luton Council of BY SARAH CASSIDY Mosques, which supported the school during the Education Correspondent

socks and shoes. Girls might wear a skirt, Muslim girl had been trousers or a shalwar kameeze. Except in hot weather the girls wore their school jumper under denied right to the kameeze. Girls were also permitted to wear headscarves. The claimant contended that, for a manifest religion Muslim woman who had started to menstruate, The Independent, Thursday 8th March the shalwar kameeze did not comply with the 2005 strict requirements of her religion. She insisted that she shoud be allowed to wear the jilbab, which was a form of dress worn by Muslim Regina (on the application of B) v Governors of women which effectively concealed the shape of Denbigh High School ([2005] EWCA Civ 199) their arms and legs. Court of Appeal, Civil Division (Lord Justice At the start of the school year in September Brooke, Lord Justice Mummery and Lord Justice 2002 the claimant attended the school dressed Scott Baker) 2 March 2005 in a jilbab. She was told to go away and change into proper school uniform. She refused to attend A MUSLIM schoolgirl who had not been allowed school unless she was wearing the jilbab. to attend school wearing a jilbab, a form of She applied for judicial review of the Muslim dress, because it did not conform with the school's decision to refuse to allow her to attend school uniform, was granted declarations that school unless she was wearing proper uniform. she had been unlawfully excluded from school, Her application was dismissed, and she that she had been unlawfully denied the right to appealed. manifest her religion, and that she had been Cherie Booth QC, Carolyn Hamilton and unlawfully denied access to suitable and Eleni Mitrophanaus (the Children's Legal Centre), appropriate education. for the claimant; Simon Birks (R.J. Stevens, The Court of Appeal allowed the claimant's Luton) for the governors. appeal against the dissmisal of her application for Lord Justice Brooke said that the school judicial review of a decision not to allow her to had undoubtedly excluded the claimant. She had attend school wearing a jilbab. been sent away for a disciplinary reason because A Muslim girl of Bangladeshi origin (the she was not willing to comply with the discipline claimant) was a pupil at a mixed-community of wearing the prescribed school uniform, and school. The school's uniform requirements for she had been unable to return to the school for girls were a school jumper, a white shirt, a tie, the same reason.

88 There was no issue as to the sincerity of the claimant's belief in the correctness of her view that she was obliged to wear the jilbab. It followed that her freedom to manifest her religion or belief in public was being limited, and under the European Convention on Human Rights it would be for the school, as an emanation of the state, to justify the limitation on her freedom created by the school's uniform code and by the way in which it had been enforced. The position of the school was already distinctive in the sense that despite its policy of inclusiveness it permitted girls to wear a headscarf which was likely to identify them as Muslim. Therefore, the central issue was the more subtle one of whether, given that Muslim girls could already be identified in that way, it was necessary in a democratic society to place a particular restriction on those Muslim girls at the school who sincerely believed that when they arrived at the age of puberty they should cover themselves more comprehensively than was permitted by the school-uniform policy. The school had approached the issues in the case from entirely the wrong direction, and had not given the claimant's beliefs the weight they deserved. KATE O'HANLON Barrister

89 Cherie Booth QC, Carolyn Hamilton and The Queen on the Eleni Mitrophanous (instructed by the Children’s Legal Centre) for the Appellant application of Simon A Birks (instructed by Head of Legal Services, Luton BC) for the Respondents Shabina Begum v. ------Judgment Headteacher and As Approved by the Court

Governors of Denbigh Crown Copyright © High School Court of Appeal judgment 2nd March 2005 Lord Justice Brooke:

Case No: C1/2004/1394 This is an appeal by SB against an order Neutral Citation Number: [2005] EWCA Civ 199 made by Bennett J in the Administrative Court on IN THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE 1st June 2004 whereby he dismissed her COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION) application for judicial review of a decision of the ON APPEAL FROM THE ADMINISTRATIVE Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh High COURT School, Luton (“the School”), who had refused to BENNETT J allow her to attend the School if she was not [2004] EWHC 1389 (Admin) willing to comply with their school uniform Royal Courts of Justice requirements. The same judge refused to grant Strand, London, WC2A 2LL her permission to apply for judicial review of the local education authority’s actions in the matter, Tuesday, 2 March 2005 and she has not been granted permission to Before : appeal against that refusal.

LORD JUSTICE BROOKE 1. The School is a mixed community school Vice-President of the Court of Appeal (Civil for children between the ages of 11 and 16. Division) Children at the school speak 40 different LORD JUSTICE MUMMERY languages, and 21 different ethnic groups (and and 10 different religious groups) are represented in LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER the school population. In 1993 90% of the pupils ------were Muslim, but since that time the school’s Between : intake has become more diverse. 79% of the pupils now classify themselves as Muslim. About The Queen on the application of SB 71% are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage. Claimant/ Appellant 2. The Headteacher, Yasmin Bevan, was - and - born into a Bengali Muslim family. She grew up in Headteacher and Governors of Denbigh India, Pakistan and Bangladesh before coming High School Defendants/ to this country. She has had a great deal of Respondents involvement with Bengali Muslim communities in this country and abroad, and she says that she ------understands the Islamic dress code and the (Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment of practices adopted by Muslim women. She does Smith Bernal Wordwave Limited, 190 Fleet not, however, purport to have a detailed Street London EC4A 2AG knowledge of the theological issues which Tel No: 020 7421 4040, Fax No: 020 7831 8838 surfaced in this dispute. Official Shorthand Writers to the Court) ------3. She qualified as a teacher in 1977, and became headteacher at the school in 1991. In

90 those days its performance was well below the visible. The shalwar consists of loose trousers national average, and it was viewed negatively which taper at the ankles. Except in hot weather by the local community. Its performance is now the girls wear their school jumper under the well above average for schools with a similar kameeze. intake, and it cannot accommodate all the pupils who wish to attend it. It has ranked tenth in the 7. Girls are also permitted to wear country for adding value to its pupils’ prior headscarves so long as they comply with three attainment. It has won school achievement specific requirements. They must be lightweight awards from the Department for Education and and navy blue, and worn so that the collar and tie Science (DfES), and it featured in a video on can be seen. They must also cover the head, be ethnic minority achievement which the folded under the chin and taken round to the back department produced. of the neck, with their ends tucked in in conformance with health and safety 4. For many years the School has taught requirements. pupils from a wide variety of ethnic origins, cultural backgrounds and religious factions. The 8. The claimant contends that for a Muslim School’s policy has been to accommodate woman who has started to menstruate the everyone so far as it reasonably can, whilst shalwar kameeze does not comply with the strict providing a suitable environment in which requirements of her religion. She insists that she children may learn and live together in harmony. should be allowed to wear the jilbab, which is a The headteacher believes that a school uniform form of dress worn by Muslim women which forms an integral part of the school’s drive for effectively conceals the shape of their arms and high standards and continuous improvement. In legs. Very strong religious beliefs are close to the her view a clear school uniform policy promotes centre of this dispute. a positive ethos and sense of community identity, and ensures that students are dressed in a way 9. For the purposes of this judgment I will that is safe, practical and appropriate for learning. adopt the spelling of the words “kameeze” and It also prevents them from feeling disadvantaged “jilbab” that was used by the parties to this because they cannot afford the latest designer litigation. items, and makes them less vulnerable to being teased because they are wearing the wrong 10. The shalwar kameeze had featured in clothes. the school uniform policies prior to 1993, but in that year a Working Party report led to changes 5. This case is concerned with the School’s being made to details of the school uniform, and uniform requirements for girls. No real issue permission being given to girls to wear arises over the requirements for the school headscarves for the first time. jumper (navy blue v-neck jumper with school logo), shirt (plain white cotton/ shirt, 11. The shalwar kameeze was seen as short or long sleeve with collar), tie, socks and satisfying the religious requirement that Muslim shoes. Girls may wear a skirt, trousers or a girls should wear modest dress, and girls from shalwar kameeze, and there are specifications different faith groups, such as Hindus and Sikhs, for each. For the shalwar kameeze the also wear it. Parents, staff and students were all specification reads: consulted over the new design, and there was “Shalwar: tapered at the ankles, not baggy. also consultation with the local mosques. The Kameeze: between knee and mid-calf design had to take into account not only religious length, not gathered or flared. Fabric must be considerations, such as the need for modesty, cotton or , not shiny, silky or crinkly.” but also health and safety considerations, and it had to be suitable for all school activities. 6. The uniform requirements are accompanied by a sketch of the front and back 12. The School’s uniform policy has always views of a girl wearing a shalwar kameeze, with had the support of the School’s governing body. appropriate commentary. The kameeze is a A quarter of the present governors have held that sleeveless smock-like dress with a square office since at least 1991. Four of the six parent neckline, so that the girl’s collar and tie are governors are Muslim, as are three of the

91 governors appointed by the local education rapidly reached an impasse, with the claimant authority. One of the community governors chairs refusing to attend school unless she was allowed the Luton Council of Mosques. In March 2004, to wear the jilbab, and the School refusing to shortly before the judge heard this case, the allow her to attend unless she was wearing the governors reaffirmed their unanimous support for shalwar kameeze. What was sadder still was that the uniform policy. the attempts to provide her with some form of education while the impasse lasted did not bear 13. The claimant’s family came to England any very fruitful results, and she lost the better from Bangladesh. She has two older sisters and part of two years’ schooling. In September 2004, two older brothers. She was born in this country following the hearing before the judge, she was in September 1988. Her father died in 1992, and accepted by a different local school which through most of the history of the dispute she permitted her to wear the jilbab. was living at home with her mother (who did not speak English) and one sister and one brother: 17. If the claimant succeeded in her claim the others had moved out. Her mother died in that her rights under Article 9 of the European 2004. One of her brothers is acting as her Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”) were litigation friend in these proceedings. violated, a court would have had to hear contested evidence in relation to her claim for damages about the reasons why she did not avail 14. She first attended the School in herself of the educational opportunities the September 2000, and during her first two years School maintained that it made available to her. there she wore the shalwar kameeze without It would have had to decide whether an award of complaint. As she grew older, however, she took damages was appropriate, and if so, the amount. an increasing interest in her religion, and she We were told after the hearing of the appeal, formed the view that the shalwar kameeze was however, that she does not wish to pursue that not an acceptable form of dress for mature claim. We are therefore concerned only with her Muslim women in public places. In her brother’s application for a declaration. This raises three view the shalwar kameeze originated as a questions: Pakistani cultural dress without any particular religious foundation, and she believed that the i) Was the claimant excluded from the Islamic Shari’a required women over the age of school? 13 to cover their bodies completely, apart from ii) If “Yes”, was it because her rights under their face and hands. The shalwar kameeze was ECHR Article 9(1) were being limited? not acceptable, because the white shirt (which at iii) If “yes”, were they being justifiably limited the School is covered by a jumper except in hot pursuant to Article 9(2)? weather) revealed too much of the arms, and the (I should note here that she also claims that skirt length (which at the School may extend to her right to education under Article 2 of the First the mid-calf) should go down to the ankles. Protocol to the ECHR was violated in the course of this dispute). 15. At the start of the new school year in September 2002 she attended the School 18. The judge’s answers to these three dressed in a jilbab. She was accompanied by her questions were: brother and another young man. They saw the i) No assistant headteacher, Mr Moore, who told her to ii) No (on the premise that the first answer go away and change into proper school uniform. had been “Yes”). He felt that the young men were being iii) Yes (on the premise that the first two unreasonable and threatening. The three then answers had been “Yes”). went away, with the young men saying that they were not prepared to compromise on this issue. 19. In recent years the topic of exclusion from a school has been the subject of a good deal of attention both in Acts of Parliament and 16. In his careful judgment ([2004] EWHC departmental guidance. In this context 1389 (Admin)) the judge set out in great detail the “exclusion” means “exclusion on disciplinary subsequent history of events. Sadly, the parties grounds” (see section 64(4) of the Schools

92 Standards and Framework Act 1998 (“the 1998 22. Departmental guidance on school Act”) and section 52(10) of the Education Act uniform (DfES circular 0264/2002) contains 2002 (“the 2002 Act”). A headteacher may advice at a high level of generality which was exclude a pupil from the school for a fixed period superfluous at Denbigh High School. Thus it or permanently, and in the former case, any fixed advises that schools must be sensitive to the periods of exclusion may not exceed more than needs of different cultures, races and religions, 45 school days in any one school year (1998 Act. and contains the expectation that schools should s 64(1) and (2); 2002 Act s 52 (1)). A pupil may accommodate these needs within a general not be excluded from a maintained school uniform policy: “For example, allowing Muslim (whether by suspension, expulsion or otherwise) girls to wear appropriate dress and Sikh boys to except by the headteacher in accordance with s wear traditional headdress.” Para 11 of that 64 of the 1998 Act. Statute provides for rights to guidance states: make representations, and for rights of appeal in “The Department does not consider it the event of an exclusion. appropriate that any pupil should be disciplined for non-compliance with a school uniform policy 20. DfES Circular 10/99 gives special which results from them having to adhere to a guidance to schools in relation to exclusions. It particular cultural, race or religious code.” included the following statements: 23. The judge held on the evidence that the “6.4 Exclusion should not be used for claimant had not been excluded. The School breaching school uniform[. earnestly and sincerely wanted her to attend school and placed no impediment or obstacle in 6.5 The law allows head teachers to her way. All it did was to insist that when she exclude a pupil for up to 45 days in a school year. came to school she was dressed in accordance However, individual exclusions of more than a with the School’s uniform policy, as indeed she day or two make it more difficult for the pupil to had been happy to do for two years prior to reintegrate into the school[. September 2002: “The Claimant had a choice, either of 6.8 The Government is committed to returning to school wearing the school uniform or ensuring that by 2002 all pupils excluded for of refusing to wear the school uniform knowing more than 15 school days at a time receive full- that if she did so refuse the Defendant was time and appropriate education whilst excluded.” unlikely to allow her to attend. She chose the latter. In my judgment it cannot be said the 21. DfES Guidance 0087/2003 states: actions and stance of the school amounted to exclusion, either formal, informal, unofficial or in “22. If the head teacher is satisfied that, on any way whatsoever.” the balance of probabilities, a pupil has committed a disciplinary offence and the pupil is 24. I do not accept this analysis. The school being removed from the school site for that undoubtedly did exclude the claimant. They told reason, formal exclusion is the only legal method her, in effect: “Go away, and do not come back of removal. Informal and unofficial exclusions are unless you are wearing proper school uniform.” illegal regardless of whether they are done with They sent her away for disciplinary reasons the agreement of parents or carers. because she was not willing to comply with the discipline of wearing the prescribed school 21. Exclusion should not be used for: uniform, and she was unable to return to the (c) breaches of school uniform rules, except school for the same reason. Education law does where these are persistent and in open defiance not allow a pupil of school age to continue in the of such rules.” limbo in which the claimant found herself. It was As soon as a pupil has been excluded for very soon clear that she was not willing to more than 15 days, the local education authority compromise her beliefs despite the best efforts is responsible for ensuring that he/she receives of the educational welfare officers who visited her suitable full-time education (DfES Circular 11/99 home and the teachers at the school who tried to para 5.1). persuade her to return. If the statutory procedures and departmental guidance had been

93 followed, the impasse would have been of very ‘freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief’. In much shorter duration, and by one route or so doing, it recognises that in democratic another her school career (at one school or societies, in which several religions co-exist another) would have been put back on track very within one and the same population, it may be much more quickly. necessary to place restrictions on this freedom in order to reconcile the interests of the various 25. Was she excluded because her groups and ensure that everyone’s beliefs are freedom to manifest her religion or beliefs under respected.” ECHR Article 9(1) was being limited? Article 9 provides, so far as is material: 27. On this second issue the judge took note of the fact that the claimant had been “(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of content to wear the shalwar kameeze for her first thought, conscience and religion; this right two school years. He was willing to accept that includes freedom to change his religion or belief, her motives and beliefs in desiring the change and freedom[.in public or private to manifest his were completely genuine, but he held that the religion or belief[. School’s Governing Body Complaints Committee, who eventually considered the (2) Freedom to manifest one’s religion or matter in October and November 2003, were beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as entitled to find that the school uniform policy are prescribed by law and are necessary in a satisfied all the requirements of the Islamic dress democratic society in the interests of public code. safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals or the protection of the rights and 28. He annexed a copy of the committee’s freedoms of others.” decision to his judgment. After setting out the history of how the school’s uniform policy had 26. The importance of the values set out in developed, the committee took into account the Article 9(1) was articulated by the European following matters when reaching its decision: Court of Human Rights in Kokkinakis v Greece, 25 May 1993, Series A No 160-A, p 17, at paras i) The current school uniform policy was 31 and 32: concluded after consultation (which included local mosques) had found it to be acceptable; “31. As enshrined in Article 9, freedom of ii) The policy was reviewed regularly, and thought, conscience and religion is one of the this was the first complaint that had ever been foundations of a ‘democratic society’ within the made about its compatibility with the meaning of the Convention. It is, in its religious requirements of the Islamic dress code; dimension, one of the most vital elements that go iii) Since the complaint had been made, the to make up the identity of believers and their School had consulted various authoritative conception of life, but it is also a precious asset bodies and received the following advice: for atheists, agnostics, sceptics and the a) The Islamic Cultural Centre in Regent’s unconcerned. The pluralism indissociable from a Park had confirmed that the shalwar kameeze democratic society, which has been dearly won constituted appropriate Islamic dress; over the centuries, depends on it. b) The Muslim Council of Britain had While religious freedom is primarily a matter confirmed that the dress code prescribed by the of individual conscience, it also implies, inter alia, School was in accordance with the tenets of freedom to ‘manifest [one’s] religion’. Bearing Islam. witness in words and deeds is bound up with the iv) The committee took note of the fact that existence of religious convictions. the Imams of two local mosques had given the [ Claimant’s solicitors different advice from the 33. The fundamental nature of the rights advice they had previously given to the School, guaranteed in Article 9 para 1[is also reflected but they could see no good reason for this in the wording of the paragraph providing for change of mind; limitations on them. Unlike the second v) The committee also took into account a paragraphs of Articles 8, 10 and 11[which cover written reply from the London Central Mosque all the rights mentioned in the first paragraphs of Trust on these matters. those Articles, that of Article 9 refers only to 94 29. Against this background the committee inappropriate. made the following findings of fact about the requirements of the Islamic dress code for a 32. The main sources of the Muslim religion young woman of menstruation age: are the Holy Quran, which Muslims believe to represent the word of Allah, and Hadiths, or i) A Muslim woman’s dress should be strictly sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, on different modest in public; topics. A secondary source of authority is a canon ii) It should cover all her body with the of practices and sayings that are ascribed to exception of her face and hands; Muhammad. These are known as the Sunnah, iii) It should not be tight or revealing but and a combination of the Holy Quran, the Hadiths must be loose and thick enough in order to and the Sunnah provide the basis for the Islamic maintain complete modesty in public. laws known as the Shari’a. Scholars differ about The committee concluded: the authority of the Sunnah, and some of these “The committee decided that the shalwar differences are apparent in the present dispute. kameeze of the design illustrated as part of the In this field familiar problems arise when early school uniform policy[.satisfied all those traditions pass down the generations by word of requirements of the Islamic dress code. Whilst mouth, and there is much scholarly dispute about accepting that the jilbab such as [SB] wishes to the authority and authenticity of the earliest wear constitutes proper Islamic dress for adult surviving written texts. Muslim women in a public place, the evidence presented to the committee does not suggest 33. All Muslims endeavour to follow the that it is the only form of dress that meets these teachings in the Holy Quran, which include the requirements. Indeed, the evidence in the form following: of the letter from the Islamic Cultural “And tell the believing women to lower their Centre[.specifically refers to the fact that a wide gaze and guard their sexuality, and to display of variety of garments are found throughout the their adornment only what is apparent, and to Muslim world that meet those requirements.” draw their head-coverings over their bosoms[.”

30. I now turn to consider the relevant “O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters evidence in rather greater detail. and the believing women to draw their outer garments around them when they go out or are 31. There was no expert evidence before among the men.” the court, still less any evidence that has been tested and explored in cross-examination. There A Hadith of the Prophet states: were, however, letters and expressions of opinion from a number of well-informed sources, “Whenever a woman begins to menstruate, including the Imams of local mosques, whom the it is not right that anything should be seen except parties consulted during the course of this her face and hands.” dispute. For anyone with a deep knowledge of So much is common ground. What I will the teachings of Islam, what follows is bound to describe as the mainstream modern view among appear superficial, but this superficiality Muslims in England today was expressed by Dr necessarily flows from the nature of the limited Anas Abushudy, the deputy director-general of evidential material that is before the court. For the the London Central Mosque Trust, and chairman purposes of this judgment, because the epithet of its Religious Affairs Department. He told the “fundamentalist” has resonations which it would School that “looking around the Muslim world” be inappropriate to carry into the discussion of there was an amazing variety of garments which the issues in this difficult case, I will refer to those met the requirements in these writings. The Muslims who believe that it is mandatory for clothes worn by Muslim women differed from women to wear the jilbab as “very strict Muslims”, country to country, and sometimes in different and those Muslims whose South Asian culture regions in the same country. He did not see any has accustomed them to consider the shalwar anti-Islamic act in wearing a shalwar kameeze. kameeze to be appropriate dress for a woman as The important thing was that the dress of Muslim “liberal Muslims”, while being conscious that women must be within the Islamic guidelines, experts may find these epithets equally and that whatever was worn should be a full and

95 honest Islamic hijab (veil) which clearly reflected ordinary trousers, rather than loose trousers the wearer’s identity. gathered at the ankle: it may be that the opinions of other people consulted by the claimant’s 34. He said that that there were many advisers might have been different if they had schools of thought on Islam, which differed seen the School’s actual design). sometimes in the interpretation of the sayings of Allah. What he described represented the 38. Dr Belouafi annexed to his response a general consensus of the vast majority of Muslim copy of an article drawn down from the Internet. scholars. Although it is entitled “Hijab in the Light of the Quran and Hadith”, it is clear that Sheikh Al- 35. A contrary view was expressed to the Albani also drew from other early texts when he claimant’s solicitors by Dr Ahmed Belouafi, of the drew up his “eight rules of hijab”. Centre for Islamic Studies in Birmingham. He originally gave this brief response: 39. Dr Abushudy, for his part, had told the “[W]e can confirm that with respect to the School that because the interpretation of sayings dress code of the female in Islam is the fact that sometimes differed, what he described as the Hijab is the minimum required dress. The Seven Conditions of Hijab were not totally traditional dress, be it Pakistani or accurate and therefore not valid for all. Egyptian[etc., that some females wore are not enough if they do not meet the required 40. These two differing viewpoints, one conditions of the dress code as laid down in the more liberal, the other more strict, recurred again teaching of the Quran and the Sunnah of the and again in the opinions expressed by other Prophet.” consultees, and sometimes within the same organisation. For instance, within the Muslim 36. In a follow-up letter he set out, with Council of Britain (which was founded in 1997 regard to “the issue of the dress code of a woman and now has over 350 institutions affiliated to it) in Islam”, certain rulings derived by Sheikh Al- there was a striking difference of approach Albani, a famous scholar and traditionalist, from between the chair of its Social Affairs Committee various sources of Islamic jurisprudence: and the Chair of its Mosque and Community Affairs Committee. i) The whole body except for the exempted parts [face and hands] should be covered; 41. The former, when consulted by the ii) Any veil, which itself becomes an Comparative Religion Centre, produced a list of attraction, is to be avoided; about 20 guiding principles entitled “Dress Code iii) Garments should not be semi- for Woman in Islam”. This code said that Islam transparent; was a very practical and pragmatic religion. It iv) Dress should not be tight-fitting; allowed flexibility within its prescribed tenets. v) Garments should not be perfumed; “Follow the middle path” was the proper vi) The form of dress should not in any way approach. The wardrobe of a young Muslim girl resemble that of a man; or woman could be as varied as one would like it vii) It should not resemble that of non- to be. Modesty should be observed at all times. If believers; the headdress did not cover the bosom it could viii) Garments should not reflect worldly be covered by a separate cloth, scarf or jacket, honour. and trousers with long tops and shirts for school wear were absolutely fine. A Muslim schoolgirl’s 37. Dr Belouafi said that these basic uniform did not have to be so long that there requirements must be observed in any garments would be a risk of tripping over and causing that women wore under the Islamic dress code, accidents. and that it was clear that the shalwar kameeze shown to him by the claimant’s solicitors did not 42. The latter, however, said that in order to comply. (Unfortunately he had been sent a fulfil the obligation prescribed by the Holy Quran photograph of a girl in a shalwar kameeze whose a Muslim woman must wear an outer garment, arms were not covered, whose kameeze stopped such as a jilbab, that was loose-fitting and did not at the knees, and whose shalwar consisted of show her body or shape in public. He said that

96 the majority view of ulama (jurists) was that the school). He was of the opinion that the claimant’s shalwar kameeze would not be sufficient to fulfil jilbab was “a requirement from Islam”. the requirements of Shari’a, because the shape of the bodily parts was not hidden, although it was accepted culturally as the female dress of 47. This was clearly the professor’s many South Asian Muslims. His own considered personal view as a theologian. He also happened opinion, in the light of rulings of Shari’a, was that to chair the Luton Council of Mosques, which was the shalwar kameeze did not fulfil the Islamic formed in April 2003 as an umbrella organisation dress requirement in public. representing about 36,000 local residents who embraced the Muslim faith. In that capacity he 43. This opinion was shared by the Muslim told the School in March 2004 that the council Welfare House in Seven Sisters Road, London, believed that the School’s uniform policy was who gave advice along the lines of that given by satisfactory for the majority of the Muslim Dr Belouafi. They said that descriptively these community. requirements could be translated as a headscarf to cover the head and an outer body garment 48. From all this evidence one can see similar to at least a three-quarter length coat. clearly the two main schools of thought (I They added that the Pakistani clothing known as exclude, for instance, those who rely on the shalwar kameeze dress did not meet the interpretation of other ancient texts for their belief requirement of an outer garment. There is no that a woman’s face should also be covered). evidence that they were shown the School’s The first, which represents mainstream opinion design. among South Asian Muslims, from whom most of this country’s Muslim population are descended, 44. In December 2002 the Imams of two is that a garment like the shalwar kameeze local mosques in Luton advised the School that (coupled with a headscarf) complies sufficiently the shalwar kameeze was the dress that fulfilled with Islamic dress requirements, and that there the requirements of Islamic dressing and that for is no need to go any further. The other, which is a lady it was not an anti-Islamic dress. However, a minority view among Muslims in this country, when they were each approached by the but is nevertheless sincerely held, is that the claimant’s solicitors six months later they shalwar kameeze, even when it goes down to qualified this advice. The Imam of the Madinah mid-calf, is not compliant, and that a garment like mosque in Luton quoted not only from a the jilbab, which disguises the shape of the translation of the Holy Quran which refers to the wearer’s arms and legs, is required. This minority jilbab (“Jalbaab”) but also from a commentary on view received respectable support among those the Quran in these terms: who were consulted during the course of this “It is related from the son of Abbas[that the dispute. It was no doubt what Professor Masood definition of Jalbaab is that it be a long cloak in Hazarvi had in mind when he told the School that which a woman be covered from head to toe.” the Luton Council of Mosques believed that the (Commentary of Huwair in refce from Al School’s uniform policy was satisfactory “for the Quran, vol 7, p 217) majority of the Muslim community”.

45. After reciting advice similar to that given 49. The sincerity of the claimant’s belief in by Dr Belouafi he said that in his opinion the the correctness of the minority view was not in claimant was correct in relation to the rights she issue in these proceedings. She believed that her was demanding from the School. religion prohibited her from displaying as much of her body as would be visible if she was wearing the shalwar kameeze, particularly if she 46. The Imam of the Central Mosque in was not wearing the school jumper over it in hot Luton, Professor Masood Akhtar Hazarvi, made a weather. So far as the legitimacy of her belief is distinction between his earlier answer to the concerned, in Hasan and Chaush v Bulgaria effect that the shalwar kameeze was not anti- (26th October 2000: Appln No. 30985/96) the Islamic and his new answer that it did not comply European Court of Human Rights said (at para with the Islamic rules for the dress required of a 78): mature Muslim lady in a public place (like a “[The court] recalls that, but for very

97 exceptional cases, the right to freedom of religion would identify them as belonging to extreme as guaranteed under the Convention excludes Muslim sects. They do not wish to be identified any discretion on the part of the State to with such people. determine whether religious beliefs or the means used to express such beliefs are legitimate.” In a recent pupil survey, not connected with It follows that her freedom to manifest her wearing of the jilbab, there was a space for religion or belief in public was being limited, and further comments. Many pupils indicated how as a matter of Convention law it would be for the much they liked Denbigh High School and the School, as an emanation of the state, to justify uniform in particular. One pupil suggested that the limitation on her freedom created by the the school introduce the jilbab. She did not School’s uniform code and by the way in which it suggest that she wanted to wear one. As she was enforced. wears trousers to school and not the shalwar kameeze, I think it unlikely that she would wish 50. I turn now to the third question. For the to adopt the jilbab. There have been no other purposes of this case, SB’s freedom to manifest suggestions from pupils, parents, governors or her religion or beliefs may only be subject to teachers that we adopt the jilbab. limitations that are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests At the Appeal hearing the Claimant of public safety, for the protection of public indicated that although she does not regard morals, or for the protection of the rights and Muslims who wear the shalwar kameeze as bad freedoms of others. There was no suggestion people, she does think better Muslims wear the that the protection of public morals had any jilbab. I would not wish to see the introduction of relevance, and a justification on health and safety two classes of Muslim, the inferior class that grounds was dismissed by the judge and not wears the shalwar kameeze and the better resurrected on the appeal once evidence had Muslim who wears the jilbab. In my view that showed that other schools (including the local would lead to real risk of pressure being brought school which the claimant now attends) had been upon Muslim girls to wear the jilbab or be able to accommodate girls wearing the jilbab regarded as religious inferiors. I would fear that without any serious concern being raised on that this could lead to some girls feeling pressured ground. into wearing the jilbab when they would prefer to wear the shalwar kameeze and might wish to 51. Three witness statements from the avoid being classified with the kinds of people School addressed this issue. Mr Moore, the they believe wear the jilbab.” Assistant Headteacher, devoted most of his evidence to explaining why he was concerned to He ended by expressing a concern that if enforce the School’s uniform policy, and the the school uniform was changed in the way the support that policy had received from those the claimant suggested, this would lead to School had consulted, both locally and nationally. divisiveness within the school and would threaten His witness statement ends in these terms: the cohesion within the school. “Several staff have been approached by non-Muslim pupils saying that they are afraid of 52. Mr Connor, who has been the Deputy people wearing the jilbab, as they perceive this Headteacher since 1997, had six years’ form of dress to be associated with extreme experience in the culturally diverse London views. This makes them feel vulnerable. Whilst I Borough of Brent in the late 1980s. The earlier would not consider it right to pander to the part of his statement was devoted to the prejudices or fears of some pupils, I think it would concerns on health and safety grounds that are be most unfortunate if some pupils were to be not now being pursued on this appeal. He then held in fear by others, or regarded as in some turned to explain that a major learning objective way separate, because of the clothes they wear. on the part of the curriculum concerned with citizenship was for pupils to work together positively and co-operatively in a community that Similarly this view has also been reflected fosters respect for all. by some Muslim girls who have indicated to staff that they do not wish to wear the jilbab, as this 53. In this context he drew on his

98 experience of working in schools that incorporate Mr Connor about the concerns expressed by wide diversity. He said there is the potential for children at the school, both Muslim and non- pupils to identify themselves as distinct from Muslim, and also by a number of parents. She other groups along cultural, religious or racial said that she had been given the firm impression grounds, and for conflict to develop between that a number of girls relied on the school to help such groups. He recalled an earlier incident in them resist the pressures from the more extreme this school which had involved a very difficult and groups. She was afraid that if the school uniform potentially dangerous situation of intransigent were to be adapted to include the jilbab these conflict between two groups of pupils who girls would be deprived of proper protection and defined themselves along racial grounds. This would feel abandoned by those upon whom they was one of the reasons for a uniform policy that were relying to preserve their freedom to follow did not allow pupils to identify themselves their own part of the Islamic tradition. She also obviously as belonging to a particular religion or referred to the picketing that had taken place “by race. groups of mainly young men who would appear to be from the more extreme Muslim traditions”. 54. It was important in his experience to recognise that many adolescents require a lot of 57. She said that all the requirements of the support to understand the importance of school uniform were well publicised before the inclusion, equal opportunities, mutual respect claimant chose to attend the School. She was and social cohesion, such as was fostered by the being treated in exactly the same way as all other school’s uniform policy. He attested to the same pupils, a very high percentage of whom were concerns among a number of girls at the school Muslim, and since the requirements of the as Mr Moore had mentioned, and he believed uniform policy were satisfactory to her for two that the school had a duty to protect these pupils years, and were also satisfactory to all the from inappropriate peer pressures, or pressures School’s other pupils both past and present, she from outside extremist groups. There had been did not see how the School was discriminating an incident in February 2004 when some young against her. men who represented an extremist Muslim group had picketed the school gates and distributed 58. The reasons given by the Chair of the leaflets to the pupils which exhorted Muslims not Governors and by the Governors’ Complaints to send their children to secular schools. A Committee in the autumn of 2003 for rejecting number of pupils understandably felt harassed by SB’s complaints did not add significantly to the these activities. reasons given by the School’s senior staff. The Complaints Committee observed that they did not 55. At the end of his statement Mr Connor purport to have the legal knowledge to interpret expressed a concern that any erosion of the complex legislation. uniform policy would make it more difficult for the school to recruit and retain staff. This was partly 59. On the assumption (which he had because he believed that the present clear policy rejected) that Article 9(1) was engaged in this contributed to the school’s ethos of good case, the judge accepted the School’s case that behaviour and discipline. It was also partly the limitations on the claimant’s right to manifest because this was a secular school, and this was her religion or beliefs were necessary for the very important to many teachers who believe protection of the rights and freedoms of others. strongly that they do not wish to be associated His reasons can be summarised in this way: with promoting a particular faith. If a new school uniform policy resulted in a significant proportion i) The School is a multi-cultural, multi-faith of pupils outwardly identifying themselves secular school; according to their faith, this could create the ii) The school uniform policy clearly impression that this was a school which favoured promoted a positive ethos and a sense of that faith. communal identity; iii) There was no outward distinction 56. Mrs Bevan, the Headteacher, gave between Muslim, Hindu and Sikh female evidence similar to that given by Mr Moore and students, and the shalwar kameeze also satisfied

99 the right of Muslim female students to manifest cases we were shown which related to their religion; employment disputes. iv) Any distinction between Muslim students who wore the jilbab and those who wore the 63. In Dahlab v Switzerland (15th February shalwar kameeze was avoided; 2001; Appln No 42393/98) the court declared v) The present policy protects the rights and inadmissible a complaint by a primary school freedoms of not an insignificant number of teacher who had been prohibited from wearing Muslim female pupils who do not wish to wear the an Islamic headscarf at her school. The court jilbab and either do, or will feel pressure on them acknowledged the margin of appreciation to do so from inside or outside the school; afforded to the national authorities when vi) If the choice of two uniforms were determining whether this measure was permitted for Muslim female pupils, it could be “necessary in a democratic society”, and readily understood that other pupils of different or explained its role in these terms (at p 11): no faiths might well see this as favouring a “The Court’s task is to determine whether particular religion. the measures taken at national level were justified in principle – that is, whether the reasons 60. The judge concluded in these terms (at adduced to justify them appear ‘relevant and para 91): sufficient’ and are proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued[ In order to rule on this latter point, “In my judgment the school uniform policy the Court must weigh the requirements of the and its enforcement has, and continues to have, protection of the rights and liberties of others a legitimate aim and is proportionate. The against the conduct of which the applicant stood legitimate aim was the proper running of a multi- accused. In exercising the supervisory cultural, multi-faith, secular school. The limitation jurisdiction, the court must look at the impugned was also proportionate to the legitimate aim judicial decisions against the background of the pursued. The limitation was specifically devised case as a whole...” with the advice of the Muslim community. Although it appears that there is a body of opinion 64. In that case the need to protect the within the Muslim faith that only the jilbab meets principle of denominational neutrality in Swiss the requirements of its dress code there is also a schools was treated as a very important factor body of opinion that the Shalwar Kameeze does which militated successfully against the as well. In my judgment, the adoption of the applicant’s case. Shalwar Kameeze by the Defendant as the school uniform for Muslim (and other faiths) 65. In Sahin v Turkey (29th June 2004; female pupils was and continues to be a Appln No 44774/98) the applicant had been reasoned, balanced, proportionate policy.” denied access to written examinations and to a lecture at the University of Istanbul because she 61. I turn now to set out my conclusions on was wearing an Islamic headscarf. This was this appeal. In my judgment, the limitation on the prohibited not only by the rules of the university claimant’s Article 9(1) freedom was one that was but also by the Constitution of Turkey, as prescribed by law in the Convention sense. The interpreted in 1989 and 1991 by the governors were entitled by law to set a school Constitutional Court of Turkey. The European uniform policy for the School. They published a Court of Human Rights noted (in paragraphs 53 clear, written policy which was available to all to 57) that attitudes towards wearing the Islamic who might be affected by it, and the requirements headscarf in schools differed in different of the ECHR for law that is both accessible and European countries. It accepted (at para 71) that clear were satisfied in this respect. But was that the applicant was motivated by her desire to limitation necessary? comply strictly with the duties imposed by the Islamic faith. It found (at para 81) that there was 62. The ECHR caselaw to which we were a basis for interference in Turkish law which was referred related to countries like Switzerland and accessible and sufficiently precise in its views. Turkey which maintain a national policy of The applicant conceded (at para 83) that in view secular education in their state maintained of the importance of upholding the principle of schools. I did not derive any assistance from the secularism and ensuring the neutrality of

100 universities in Turkey, the interference could be from external pressure. It added that restrictions regarded as compatible with the legitimate aims could be placed on freedom to manifest one’s of protecting the rights and freedoms of others religion in order to defend those values and and of protecting public order. She vigorously principles. disputed, however, the contention that the interference was necessary in a democratic 106. This notion of secularism appears to society. the Court to be consistent with the values underpinning the Convention and it accepts that 66. The Court first discussed the relevant upholding that principle may be regarded as principles and then applied them to the facts of necessary for the protection of the democratic this particular case. Although it made reference to system in Turkey.” the principle of gender equality, it placed most weight on the principle of secularism in Turkey. It 69. The court also noted (at para 107) the said (at para 99) emphasis placed on the Turkish constitutional “In a country like Turkey, where the great system on the protection of the rights of women. majority of the population belong to a particular Gender equality – recognised by the European religion, measures taken in universities to Court as one of the key principles underlying the prevent certain fundamentalist religious Convention and a goal to be achieved by movements from exerting pressure on students member States of the Council of Europe – had who do not practise that religion or on those who also been found by the Turkish Constitutional belong to another religion may be justified under Court to be a principle implicit in the values Article 9(2) of the Convention.” underlying the Turkish constitution.

67. It went on to say (at para 101) that 70. Matters the court took into account (at where questions concerning the relationship paras 108-109) when concluding that the national between State and religion were at stake, on authorities in Turkey were entitled to prohibit the which opinion in a democratic society might wearing of a Muslim headscarf in a university reasonably differ widely, the role of the national included: decision-making body had to be given special importance. In such cases it was necessary to i) The impact which wearing a headscarf, have regard to the fair balance that must be which is presented or perceived as a compulsory struck between the various interests at stake: the religious duty, might have on those who chose rights and freedoms of others, avoiding civil not to wear it; unrest, the demands of public order, and ii) The fact that Turkey was a country where pluralism. the majority of the population, while professing a strong attachment to the rights of women and a 68. In applying these principles to the facts secular way of life, adhered to the Islamic faith; of the particular case the court said (at paras iii) In such a context, imposing limitations on 104-6) freedom in this sphere might be regarded as meeting a pressing social need by seeking to “104. It must first be observed that the achieve those two legitimate aims, especially interference was based, in particular, on two since the Muslim headscarf had taken on political principles – secularism and equality – which significance in Turkey in recent years; reinforce and complement each other[. iv) The fact that there were extremist political movements in Turkey which might seek 105. In its judgment of 7 March 1989, the to impose on society as a whole their religious Constitutional Court stated that secularism in symbols and conception of a society founded on Turkey was, among other things, the guarantor religious precepts: a Contracting State was of democratic values, the principle that freedom permitted, in accordance with the ECHR of religion is inviolable – to the extent that it stems provisions, to take a stance against such political from individual conscience – and the principle movements, based on its historical experience. that citizens are equal before the law[.Secularism also protected the individual 71. Against this background the court

101 dismissed the applicant’s complaint, saying (at 74. The position of the School is already para 110) that it was understandable in such a distinctive in the sense that despite its policy of context where the values of pluralism, respect for inclusiveness it permits girls to wear a headscarf the rights of others and, in particular, equality of which is likely to identify them as Muslim. The men and women before the law, were being central issue is therefore the more subtle one of taught and applied in practice, that the relevant whether, given that Muslim girls can already be authorities would consider that it ran counter to identified in this way, it is necessary in a the furtherance of such values to accept the democratic society to place a particular restriction wearing of religious insignia, including, as in the on those Muslim girls at this school who sincerely present case, that women students cover their believe that when they arrive at the age of heads with a headscarf while on university puberty they should cover themselves more premises. comprehensively than is permitted by the school uniform policy. 72. I have considered the case of Sahin in some detail for four main reasons. First, it is a 75. The decision-making structure should recent judgment in which the European Court of therefore go along the following lines: Justice has set out carefully the structured way in which issues of this kind are to be considered 1) Has the claimant established that she under the Convention. Secondly, it shows that has a relevant Convention right which qualifies context is all-important: there are considerations for protection under Article 9(1)? to be applied in a state which professes the value 2) Subject to any justification that is of secularism in its Constitution which are not established under Article 9(2), has that necessarily to be applied in the United Kingdom. Convention right been violated? Thirdly – and we did not receive any argument 3) Was the interference with her Convention on this issue – there are clearly potential tensions right prescribed by law in the Convention sense between the rights and freedoms set out in a of that expression? Convention agreed more than 50 years ago 4) Did the interference have a legitimate between Western European countries which on arm? the whole adhered to Judaeo-Christian traditions, 5) What are the considerations that need to and some of the tenets of the Islamic faith that be balanced against each other when relate to the position of women in society. And determining whether the interference was fourthly, it is clear that a decision-maker is entitled necessary in a democratic society for the to take into account worries like those expressed purpose of achieving that aim? by the senior teaching staff of the School when it 6) Was the interference justified under is deciding whether it is necessary to prohibit a Article 9(2)? person like the claimant from manifesting her religion or beliefs in public in the way in which she 76. The School did not approach the matter would wish. in this way at all. Nobody who considered the issues on its behalf started from the premise that 73. The United Kingdom is very different the claimant had a right which is recognised by from Turkey. It is not a secular state, and English law, and that the onus lay on the School although the Human Rights Act is now part of our to justify its interference with that right. Instead, it law we have no written Constitution. In England started from the premise that its uniform policy and Wales express provision is made for was there to be obeyed: if the claimant did not religious education and worship in schools in like it, she could go to a different school. Chapter VI of the 1998 Act. Schools are under a duty to secure that religious education in schools 77. The chair of the governors, whose is given to pupils, and that each pupil should take decision is set out in full in paragraph 25 of part in an act of collective worship every day, Bennett J’s judgment, adopted this line. He unless withdrawn by their parent. Sections ended his decision dismissively by saying that it 80(1)(a) and 101(1)(a) of the 2002 Act require the would not be appropriate “to make any further inclusion of religious education in the basic provisions for individuals’ interpretations of curriculum. religious codes.” The Complaints Committee, too, was satisfied that the shalwar kameeze

102 constituted “appropriate Islamic dress” or was “in doubt need to consider include these: accordance with the tenets of Islam”, and while it accepted that the jilbab constituted proper i) Whether the members of any further Islamic dress for adult Muslim women, it did not religious groups (other than very strict Muslims) explore the reasons why the claimant sincerely might wish to be free to manifest their religion or believed that she must wear it. Indeed, the beliefs by wearing clothing not currently committee could see no good reason for the local permitted by the school’s uniform policy, and the mosques “apparently changing their minds”, effect that a larger variety of different clothes without appreciating that the two Imams had being worn by students for religious reasons been addressing two quite different questions would have on the School’s policy of (see paras 45-48 above), namely whether the inclusiveness; shalwar kameeze was or was not inappropriate ii) Whether it is appropriate to override the for Muslim girls, and what in their view the beliefs of very strict Muslims given that liberal teachings of Islam really required. Muslims have been permitted the dress code of their choice and the School’s uniform policy is not 78. In my judgment, therefore, because it entirely secular; approached the issues in this case from an iii) Whether it is appropriate to take into entirely wrong direction and did not attribute to account any, and if so which, of the concerns the claimant’s beliefs the weight they deserved, expressed by the School’s three witnesses as the School is not entitled to resist the declarations good reasons for depriving a student like the she seeks, namely: claimant of her right to manifest her beliefs by the clothing she wears at school, and the weight i) That it unlawfully excluded her from which should be accorded to each of these school; concerns; ii) That it unlawfully denied her the right to iv) Whether there is any way in which the manifest her religion; School can do more to reconcile its wish to retain iii) That it unlawfully denied her access to something resembling its current uniform policy suitable and appropriate education. with the beliefs of those like the claimant who consider that it exposes more of their bodies than they are permitted by their beliefs to show. 79. So far as this third matter is concerned, I am satisfied that the claimant is entitled to this 82. All this is for the future, and this case declaration without the need for any inquiry into has achieved the result of ensuring that schools the rights and wrongs of what actually happened will set about deciding issues of this kind in the during the two years in which she was away from manner now required of them by the Human school when the School maintained that it was Rights Act. It may be thought desirable for the trying to send schoolwork to her at home. Any DfES to give schools further guidance in the light such expedient would have been inferior to a of this judgment: one is bound to sympathise with proper education, at best: compare A v the teachers and governors of this school when Headteacher and Governors of Lord Grey School they have had to try and understand quite [2004] EWCA Civ 382 per Sedley LJ at [60]. complex and novel considerations of human rights law in the absence of authoritative written 80. The claimant no longer seeks a guidance. For the present, however, I would allow mandatory order that the School make swift this appeal and grant the claimant the three arrangements for her return to school, and she declarations she seeks. also no longer seeks damages. Lord Justice Mummery : 81. Nothing in this judgment should be taken as meaning that it would be impossible for 83. For the reasons given by Brooke and the School to justify its stance if it were to Scott Baker LJJ I agree that this appeal should reconsider its uniform policy in the light of this be allowed. I only wish to add short comments on judgment and were to determine not to alter it in three points. any significant respect. Matters which it (and other schools facing a similar question) would no A. Justification

103 individuals, who also possess rights and 84. The claimant has succeeded in freedoms. The right to manifest one’s religion demonstrating that her right under Article 9(1) under Article 9 is not necessarily a valid reason was engaged. She had the right to manifest her for overriding the social responsibilities of the religion in the matter of dress at School. The individual holder of the right to others living in the effect of the School’s stance on its uniform policy community. was that the claimant was unlawfully excluded from the School for not wearing the uniform, to 87. As is pointed out in the judgment of which, for religious reasons, she objected. It was Brooke LJ (paragraph 82) it would still be no answer for the School to say that she could possible for the School, on a structured have attended School if only she had chosen to reconsideration of the relevant issues, including wear the school uniform. Nor is it relevant to the Article 9 right of a person in the position of the compare her position with that of an employee claimant, to justify its stance on the school who is free to leave his employment and to find uniform policy. If it could, there would be no work with a different employer. (Ahmad v. UK breach of the Article 9(1) right. (1981) 4 EHRR 126 and Stedman v. UK (1997) 23 EHRR CD 168 were cited on the position of B. The Role of the Court employees asserting Article 9 rights). It is irrelevant to the engagement of Article 9 that the 88. In some quarters this decision may be claimant could have changed to a school which seen as an instance of the court and/or the accommodated her religious beliefs about dress. claimant overruling the Headteacher and the Education at the School or at another school was Governors of the School, undermining their not a contractual choice. There was a statutory authority on an internal school matter and duty to provide education to the pupils. The interfering in the running of the School. That School did not follow the proper statutory would be a misconception. The role of the court procedure for excluding her from education. is confined to deciding whether the claimant was unlawfully excluded from the School and unlawfully denied her right to manifest her 85. As the claimant has now moved to religion. The court has found that the relevant another school and will not be returning to the issues were, from a legal aspect, approached School, that is the end of the matter as far as she from the wrong direction. The result is that there is concerned. She does not pursue a claim for was unlawful treatment of the claimant. As damages. The case is about a point of principle. already explained, this does not mean that would Declaratory relief is an adequate remedy. It be impossible for the School, if the matter were should be emphasised, however, that, in general, approached from the right direction, to justify the the engagement of the right would not be the end school uniform policy with regard to another pupil of the matter. In fact, it would be the beginning of adopting the same position as the claimant. another stage. The next stage would be considerably more complex. The scope of the C. Guidance right and its exercise would be subject to the limitations in Article 9(2), which the School may 89. I agree with Brooke LJ on the need for seek to rely on to justify the school uniform policy. teachers and governors to be given authoritative Freedom to manifest one’s religion is subject, for written guidance on the handling of human rights example, to such limitations prescribed by law as issues in schools. There are many issues that “are necessary in a democratic society members of the staff, parents and pupils could [for..[the protection of the rights and freedoms raise under the Human Rights Act 1998 in of others.” respect of most of the Articles in the Convention. Headteachers and governors of all kinds of 86. The process of justification of a schools need help to cope with this additional limitation on the right to manifest one’s religion burden. They need to be made aware of the involves a careful and wise analysis in the very impact of the 1998 Act on schools. They need difficult and sensitive area of the relation of clear, constructive and practical advice on how to religion to various aspects of the life of the anticipate and prepare for problems, how to spot individual living in community with other them as and when they arise and how to deal

104 with them properly. It would be a great pity, if 93. As Brooke L.J. has pointed out, there through lack of expert guidance, schools were to are two different views in the Muslim community find themselves frequently in court having to use about the appropriate dress for women one, held valuable time and resources, which would be by very strict Muslims, being that it is mandatory better spent on improving the education of their for women to wear the jilbab. The fact that this pupils. view is held by a minority, or even a small minority is in my judgment nothing to the point in Lord Justice Scott Baker: considering the issue whether Article 9(1) is engaged. There is in my view force in the 90. I agree with the judgment of Brooke L.J criticism that it is not for school authorities to pick and the declarations that he proposes. In and choose between religious beliefs or shades particular I wish to associate myself with his of religious belief. observations about the decision-making structure that should have been followed and should be 94. The United Kingdom is not a secular followed in similar circumstances in future. state; there is no principle of denominational neutrality in our schools. Provision is made for 91. I have, however, considerable sympathy religious education and worship in schools under with the School and its governors in the Chapter VI of the School Standards and predicament that they faced. They did not Framework Act 1998. Every shade of religious appreciate that they faced four square an issue belief, if genuinely held, is entitled to due that engaged Article 9 of the ECHR. It is perhaps consideration under Article 9. What went wrong in understandable that a school that can rightly be this case was that the School failed to appreciate proud of its contribution to the welfare of that by its action it was infringing the claimant’s members of a multicultural society should have Article 9(1) right to manifest her religion. It should taken the line that it did, albeit one that on careful have gone on to consider whether a limitation of analysis has been shown to be erroneous in law. her right was justified under Article 9(2) in the light of the particular circumstances at the 92. Had the School approached the School. As it did not carry out this exercise it is problem on the basis it should have done, that not possible to conclude what the result would the claimant had a right under Article 9(1) to have been. The way matters progressed the manifest her religion, it may very well have claimant was excluded from the school without concluded that interference with that right was following the appropriate procedures and her justified under Article 9(2) and that its uniform Article 9(1) rights were violated in the process. policy could thus have been maintained. Regrettably, however, it decided that because the shalwar kameeze was acceptable for the majority of Muslims the claimant should be required to toe the line.

Looking at point 33 of the Court of Appeal judgement mention is made of a hadith of the Prophet:

“Whenever a woman begins to menstruate, it is not right that anything should be seen except her face and hands.”

Dr. Zaki Badawi, former chief imam at the Central London Mosque, as I have previously mentioned, has gone on record to state that this very hadith of Al-Bayhaqi is acknowledged by Muslim scholars as not being of proven authenticity. This included Zaki Badawi’s former colleague at the Central London Mosque, Dr S.M. Al-Darsh. Dr Darsh wrote a booklet called Hijab or Naqab (Publishers - Dar Al Dawa Bookshop, London) and on page 20 related the ancient scholar Ibn Kathir as saying of the above hadith, “This, however, is not based on a strong report.”

So the Court of Appeal is wrong to state that, ‘So much is common ground,’ for all Muslims for this hadith. It is only ‘common ground’ for those that gave evidence in court and they had a particular agenda: to rely on a very weak hadith to promote their hijab-at-all-costs view.

105 Religion and school rules must both be respected The Daily Telegraph, Thursday March 3rd 2005 - Leader column

Shabina Begum, 16, spouted a great deal of nonsense yesterday after the Appeal Court upheld her right to wear the full head-to-toe jilbab, in defiance of her former school's policy on uniform. Every word that this Muslim schoolgirl uttered smacked more of politics than of true religious feeling. The court's decision, she said, was a victory for all Muslims against prejudice and bigotry. "The decision of Denbigh High School to prevent my adherence to my religion cannot unfortunately be viewed merely as a local decision taken in isolation. Rather it was a consequence of an atmosphere that has been created in Western societies post-9/11, an atmosphere in which Islam has been made a target for vilification in the name of the 'war on terror'." To portray Denbigh High School in Bedfordshire as a hotbed of bigotry and prejudice against Muslims would be outrageous and absurd. No fewer than 79 per cent of its 1,000 pupils are Muslims. Its head, Yasmin Bevan, was herself born into a Bengali Muslim family. The school rules allow pupils to wear the hijab head- dress and the trousers-and-tunic shalwar kameez. As the court acknowledged, one of Denbigh High's reasons for refusing to allow Miss Begum to wear the full jilbab was that other Muslim girls did not want to be put under pressure to wear it, while non-Muslim pupils were also afraid of its associations with extremism. Here was a school doing everything it thought reason for having to take the power to put Britons best to allow all its pupils, from every under house arrest without trial. Nor, indeed, do background, to get on together. When Miss we see anything wrong in principle with allowing Begum confronted the school, accompanied by pupils to wear the dress that their religious beliefs her brother and another young fnan whose require - as long as their purpose in dressing behaviour the assistant head teacher found differently is not simply to provoke ill-feeling or to “unreasonable and threatening", it is pretty clear stick two fingers up at the school authorities. that she was out to make a fuss. The sooner the Human Rights Act is We cannot blame Lord Justice Brooke, repealed, the sooner British justice will be able to however, for ruling in favour of this bloody- re-establish its contact with common sense. minded 16-year-old against the school. His job Meanwhile, we hope that as Miss Begum grows was simply to interpret the disastrous Human up, she will begin to realise how lucky she is to Rights Act as it applied to Miss Begum's case - live in a tolerant society. the very Act now cited by this Government as its 106 agree to marriages or just because the girls want Revealed: the brutal a little more independence, to go to college and that. Then they make them wear the burqa to truth that hides inside keep this violence a secret. They know the police are now getting wise to 'honour' killings and so the burqa they have this sheet to hide the proof." Evening Standard, 30th November 2005 Over the afternoon she sobbed and told me By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown about the horrors of her life. She was 25, came from a lower-middle-class Pakistani background in Bolton and was a chemistry graduate. She LAST week when I was browsing in shops on wanted to be a teacher, but her brothers and Chiswick High Road, I became aware of a father had resented her desire for independence woman shadowing me, rather too close in that and grown distrustful of her. private space we all subconsciously carry At least she was alive. She told me of a around us. She was covered from head to toe in dead friend, killed, she claims, by family a black burqa. Tight white gloves covered her members who felt she had shamed them: hands and her heels clicked. She wore perfume, "Someone told the family they had seen their or hair oil smelling of roses. At one point I nearly daughter talking to a couple of men at the bus tripped over her foot and she said “sorry” softly. stop and that she was holding the hand of one of I drove home, and 20 minutes later the them. It was a lie. This gossip can kill us," she doorbell rang. I opened the door to see the same said. In her own case she says at first her father woman standing there, her raven cloak billowing and brothers wanted to know if she, too, was as as a gust of wind blew up. Her eyes were light "bad" as her friend. Any contact or flirtation with brown. She said nothing at first, then asked in a man they had not chosen for her was enough perfect English if she could come in. I admit I felt to merit an argument— and violence. panic rising. Because I write on controversial So they beat her, to get her to confess to issues at this fraught time, death threats come things she hadn't done. Then they tried to get her my way and I have been advised by the police to be extremely careful about loitering strangers. “Please," she said, "I know who you are and I must speak to you. I saw you in the shops and followed you. I must show you something." "Who are you?" I asked, even more scared. She pleaded some more, told me her name, showed me her EU passport. I let her in. She took off her burqa to reveal a sight I shall never forget. There before me was a woman so badly battered and beaten that she looked painted, in deep blue, purple and livid pink. The sides of her mouth were torn — "He put his fist in my mouth because I was screaming," she explained. "My father and two brothers have forced me to wear the niqab (burqa) so no one can see what they've done. Many families do this. They beat up the women and girls because they want them to 107 to quit her teacher-training course. When she silently. In a kebab shop in Southall last week, a refused, they locked her in a bedroom and woman in a burqa sat there passively while her carried on abusing her; the youngest brother, in family ate — she couldn't put food into her own particular, was, she said, maddened with mouth. One mother told her young daughter in suspicion. A few days ago, she escaped, with her Urdu to walk away from me, a "kaffir" in her eyes. passport, and a friend drove her to London. Domestic violence is an evil found in all She was living with a friend's friend now, but countries, classes and communities. Millions of she knew her family would find her and she was female sufferers hide the abuse with concealing desperate to move on before they did. clothes and fabricated stories. But this total I have a contact who runs a safe refuge in covering makes it completely impossible to north-west London. I got "S" a place there and detect, which is why "S" and other victims of gave her some money, enough to live on for a family brutality are forced to wear it. few weeks. She has my number and I hope she I now have 12 letters from young British calls if she needs to. As I dropped her off, she Muslim women making allegations like these, all said she was feeling guilty that her escape would too terrified to go public. Several say that in some break her mother's heart. Where had her mother areas where hard-line imams hold sway the hijab been in all of this? Equally powerless, it seemed. is seen as inviting because it focuses attention Her mother's heart, I said, should have broken to on the face. If the women refused to comply with witness what was done to her daughter. wearing the burqa, they were beaten. Others This incident shook me — and set me write that their husbands insist on the covering thinking again about the burqa and whether we, because it is easier to conceal the brutality within as a liberal country should accept it. the marriage. Mariyam writes: "He says he There has been a marked increase in the doesn't want his name spoilt — that his honour use of burqas in Britain — they are now a is important. If they see what he is doing to me, common sight on London streets. This is the next his name will be spoilt." frontier for puritanical Muslims who believe Not all woman in burqas are the walking females are dangerous seductresses who must wounded, but some are, and the tragedy is that it be hidden from sight. is impossible to pick up the signs. The usual Women and girls as young as 12, they say, network of concerned people — neighbours, must cover up to avoid such provocation. colleagues, pupils, teachers, police or social The pernicious ideology is propagated by workers — would need to be approached by the misguided Muslim women who claim the burqa traumatised women and girls, as I was by "S". is an equaliser and a liberator. In a film that I Should the nation support all demands in made for Channel 4, I met an entire class of the name of cultural or religious rights? In several teenagers at a Muslim secondary school in schools now Muslim parents are refusing to let Leicester who told me that negating their physical their girls swim, act or take part in PE, selves in public made them feel great. interference I personally find appalling. This is a I was shocked at the time by their mixture of society which prizes individual autonomy and the modernity — they loved Madonna — and the principle of equality between the sexes. restriction of the burqa which they said was The burqa offends both of these principles, voluntary. I think they were kidding themselves: a yet no politician or leader has dared to say so. whole class of burqa-clad girls suggests to me Even more baffling is the meek acceptance of the that there was strong parental pressure brought burqa by British feminists, who must be repelled to bear. by the garment and its meanings. What are they I CONFESS now I respond to this garment afraid of? Afghan and Iranian women fight daily with aversion. I find the hijab and the jilbab (the against the shroud and there is nothing "colonial" full body cloak) problematic too, because they about raising ethical objections to this obvious again make women responsible for the sexual symbol of oppression. The banning of the responses of men and they define femininity as a headscarf in France was divisive — yes. But it threat. But the burqa is much, much worse. It was also supported by many Muslims. The state dehumanises half the human species. Why do was too arrogant and confrontational, but the women defend this retreat into shrouds? policy was right. When I try to speak to some of these A SECULAR public space gives all citizens shrouded women on the street, they stare back civil rights and fundamental equalities and

108 Muslim girls have not abandoned schools in brainwashed into thinking their invisibility is what droves as a result of the ban. God wants. That is not a choice. The British state The Shabina Begum case should have is based on liberal values — individuals can been the moment to confront the challenge. This decide what they want to do as long as it doesn't spring Shabina Begum took her school to the cause harm to others. Appeal Court for refusing to let her “progress” But within this broad liberalism, there are from the hijab to the jilbab. She won the right. For still restrictions and denials for the sake of a many of us modernist Muslims this was a body greater good. Nudists cannot walk our streets blow, and today we fear the next push is well with impunity, and no religious cult can demand under way for British Muslim woman to wear the the legal right to multiple marriages. Why should body cage of Afghan women under the Taliban. the state then tolerate the burqa, which even in Who said a mother had to hide her face its own terms turns women into sexual objects to from her babies in the park? Not the holy Koran be packed away out of sight? for sure. Its injunctions simply call for women to There is much anxious tiptoeing around the guard their private parts, to act with modesty. issue but it is one that affects us all. Scholars disagree about the jilbab and even the Thousands of liberal Muslims would dearly hijab. More than half the world's Muslim women like the state to take a stand on their behalf. If it do not cover their hair except when in mosque. doesn't, it will betray vunerable British citizens There are some who do choose the and the nation's most cherished principles and garment without coercion — the nun's option, you encourage Islam to move back even faster into might say. I judge this differently. My experience the dark ages, when we all need to face the of "S" and other women who have written to me future together. in despair is that many are being forced or

109 House of Lords overturn Court of Appeal decision:

be asked to rule whether any feature of Islamic Uniform is no dress should be permitted in UK schools. Denbigh High School was a maintained interference with secondary community school taking pupils of both sexes aged 11-16. It had a diverse intake religious freedom with 21 different ethnic groups and 10 religious groupings represented. About 79 per cent of its pupils were now Muslim. It was not a faith school HOUSE OF LORDS and was therefore open to children of all faiths or none. Regina (Shabina Begum) The governing body of the school always contained a balanced representation of different v Denbigh High School sections of the school community. At the time of Speeches March 22nd 2006 these proceedings four out of six parent Times Law Report March 23rd 2006 governors were Muslim, the chairman of the Luton council of mosques was a governor and three of the local education authority governors A SCHOOL'S refusal to allow a pupil to attend were also Muslim. unless she wore the prescribed uniform did not The head teacher, Mrs Yasmin Bevan, was amount to an interference with her right to born into a Bengali Muslim family. She grew up in manifest her religion by wearing a garment which the Indian sub-continent and had had much was in accordance with her strict religious beliefs. involvement with Bengali Muslim communities The House of Lords allowed an appeal by here and abroad and was familiar with the ideas the defendant Denbigh High School, Luton, from and practices governing the dress of Muslim the Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Brooke, Lord women. Justice Mummery and Lord Justice Scott Baker) She believed that a school uniform played (The Times March 4, 2005; [2005] 1WLR 3372) an integral part in promoting a positive sense of allowing an appeal by the claimant, Shabina communal identity and avoiding manifest Begum, suing by her brother and litigation friend, disparities of wealth and style. The school offered Shuweb Rahman, from the refusal by Mr Justice three uniform options. One was the shalwar Bennett (The Times June 18, 2004) of her kameeze: a combination of the kameeze, a application for judicial review of the school's sleeveless smock-like dress with a square refusal to admit her while wearing a jilbab. neckline revealing the wearer's collar and tie, with Mr Richard McManus, QC, Mr Simon Birks the shalwar, loose trousers tapering at the and Mr Jonathan Auburn for the school; Ms ankles. Cherie Booth, QC, Ms Carolyn Hamilton and Ms There was no suggestion by those Eleni Mitrophanous for Shabina Begum; Mr consulted, including the imams of three local Jonathan Crow for the Secretary of State for mosques, that the shalwar kameeze failed to Education and Skills, as intervener. satisfy Islamic requirements. The school went to LORD BINGHAM said that Shabina, now some lengths to explain its dress code to aged 17, contended that the defendants prospective parents and pupils. excluded her from school, unjustifiably limited her Shabina Begum was a Muslim. Her father right under article 9 the European Convention on died before she entered the school. She lived Human Rights to manifest her religion or beliefs with her mother, who did not speak English and and violated her right under article 2 of the First had since died, a sister, two years older, and a Protocol to the Convention not to be denied brother, five years older who was now her education. litigation friend. His Lordship emphasised that the case The family lived outside the school's concerned a particular pupil and a particular catchment area, but chose it for Shabina and her school in a particular place at a particular time. It sister. They were told in clear terms of the school would be most inappropriate for their Lordships to uniform policy. For two years before September 2002 110 Shabina wore the shalwar kameeze happily and small minority. without complaint. It was also worn by her sister Thus it was accepted that article 1 was who continued to wear it without objection engaged. The main questions were whether throughout her time at school. Shabina's freedom to manifest her belief by her On September 3, 2002, the first day of the dress was subject to limitation or interference autumn term, Shabina, then aged nearly 14, went within the meaning of article 9.2 and if so, to the school with her brother and another young whether such limitation or interfence was man. They asked to speak to the head teacher, justified. who was unavailable, and they spoke to the The school went to great lengths to inform assistant head teacher, Mr parents of its uniform policy. Stuart Moore. There were three schools in the They insisted that Shabina area at which the wearing of the be allowed to attend the school jilbab was permitted. Shabina's wearing the long coat-like application for admission to one garment known as a jilbab that of them was unsuccessful she had on that day. They talked because the school was full, and of human rights and legal it was asserted in argument that proceedings. the others were more distant. Mr Moore felt that their But there was no evidence approach was unreasonable to show that there was any real and threatening. He told difficultly in her attending them, Shabina to go home, change as she has in fact done and and return wearing school could have done sooner than uniform. He did not believe he she had chosen. On the facts was excluding her, which he had and applying jurisprudence of no authority to do, but did not the European Court of Human allow her to enter the school Rights at Strasbourg, there was dressed as she was. no interference with her rights to The jilbab she said, was manifest her religious belief. the only garment which met her To be justified under article religious requirements because 9.2 a limitation or interference it concealed, to a greater extent must be (a) prescribed by law than the shalwar kameeze, the and (b) necessary in a contours of the female body and democratic society for a was appropriate for maturing permissible purpose, that is, it girls. Shabina then left with her must be directed to a legitimate brother and the other young purpose and must be man. The young men said they proportionate in scope and were not prepared to effect. compromise over the issue. The school was, in his After solicitors for the Lordship’s opinion, fully justified respondent had written to the in acting as it did. It had taken school and the local education immense pains to devise a authority, the latter, in December 2002, sought uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs independent advice on whether the school but did so in an inclusive, unthreatening and uniform offended the Islamic dress code. Two uncompetitive way. mosques in Luton, the London Central Mosque The school had enjoyed a period of Trust and he Islamic Cultural Centre advised that harmony and success to which the uniform policy it did not. was thought to contribute. It still appeared that It was common ground that at all material the rules were acceptable to mainstream Muslim times Shabina sincerely held the religious belief opinion. It was feared that acceding to Shabina's which she professed to hold. It was not the less request would or might have significant adverse a religious belief because her belief might have repercussions. changed or because it was a belief shared by a It would be irresponsible of any court,

111 lacking the experience, background and detailed also had a place in religious life. knowledge of the head teacher, staff and Shabina's discovery that her religion did not governors to overrule their judgment on such a allow her to wear the uniform she had been sensitive matter. wearing for the past two years created a problem The power of decision had been given to for her. them for the compelling reason that they were She could have sought the help of the best placed to exercise it and there was no school and the local education authority in reason to disturb their decision. solving the problem. They would no doubt have As to article 2 of the First Protocol, the advised her that if she was firm in her belief, she question was whether between September 3, could change schools. That might not have been 2002, and the date, some two years later, of entirely convenient for her, particularly when her Shabina's admission to another school, the sister was remaining at Denbigh, but people defendants denied her access to the general sometimes had to suffer some inconvenience for level of educational provision available in this their beliefs. Instead, she and her brother country. decided that it was the school's problem. In his Lordship's opinion they did not. The They sought confrontation and claimed interruption was the result of her unwillingness to that she had a right to attend the school of her comply with a rule to which the school was own choosing - in the clothes she chose to wear. entitled to adhere and of her failure to secure The jurisprudence of the European Court of prompt admission to another school where her Human Rights was clear that in such religious convictions could be accommodated. circumstances there was no infringement of It was also clear that the school did not article 9. intend to exclude Shabina in the statutory sense Lord Scott delivered a speech agreeing with of that word nor believed that it was doing so. It Lord Bingham and Lord Hoffman. was therefore entirely unsurprising that it did not Lord Nicholls and Lady Hale agreed that invoke the statutory procedures. any interference with Shabina's article 9.1 rights LORD HOFFMANN, agreeing, said that was justified under article 9.2. article 9 did not require that one should be allowed to manifest one's religion at any time and Solicitors: Mr R.J. Stevens, Luton; place of one's own choosing. Common civility Sharpe Pritchard; Treasury Solicitor

ARTICLE 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights

9.1. Everyone has the right to freedom of 9.2. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs thought, conscience and religion; this right shall be subject only to such limitations as are includes freedom to change his religion or belief, prescribed by law and are necessary in a and freedom, either alone or in community with democratic society in the interests of public others and in public or private, to manifest his safety, for the protection of public order, health or religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice morals, or the protection of the rights and and observance. freedoms of others.

112 Chapter 5

top-to-toe veil and urge her female counterparts The Legacy of to do the same. Under strict secular laws dating back to Mrs Ataturk Ataturk's reforms, the headscarf is banned from The Independent 1st July 2006 public places such as schools, state-run universities and even the president's palace. But Eighty years ago, a best selling new Mrs Erdogan, famously, has yet to attend a reception at the palace – when invited, her biography reveals, Turkey’s first lady, husband goes alone, as indeed do many of his Latife Ataturk, helped liberate her MPs for the same reason. countrywomen by urging them to cast For decades, the principle of secularism, off their veils. But as her key role in the separation of religion and the state, was the the secularisation of Turkey comes to guiding force of the modern Turkish republic. light, the headscarf is once again Ataturk, with his sweeping reforms and visionary politics, raised his country from the ashes of the stirring passionate debate in Anatolia. Ottoman Empire and recreated it as a modern, Pelin Turgut reports from Istanbul dynamic society that was still largely Muslim but embraced Western values. Getting Turkish Turkey in the 21st century women out of the kitchen and out from under the Deep in the heart of Istanbul's bustling business veil was central to Ataturk's modernising agenda capital, emerging from the crowd of sharply- and, for many Turks, his most enduring legacy. dressed female executives, Emine Erdogan, the But who was the real modernising force in wife of Turkey's Prime Minister, takes centre Ataturk's campaign to build a modern Turkey? stage. Quietly poised and softly spoken, she talks Previously unseen documents now reveal the eloquently and passionately to her audience crucial role played by another first lady - Latife about the need to encourage more young girls to attend school. It is an issue she has made her own. But there is something strikingly different about this particular champion of women's rights. Dressed in a smart beige suit, with a skirt that reaches to her ankles, Mrs Erdogan's earnest face is framed by a matching cream- coloured headscarf. The thrust of her talk is that Turkey's strict ban on head- scarves in schools violates gender equality because it means families keep their daughters at home rather than educate them. It has taken some getting used to for the Turks, this leading lady who covers her hair with pride. It is, after all, somewhat different from the turbulent 1920s, when the revolutionary leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was placing modern Turkey on the road to Western-style reform. At his side was a woman whose achievement, above all others, was to throw off her Islamic-style

113 Ussaki, Ataturk's wife - in liberating Turkish A veteran journalist, Calislar paints a women. detailed picture of a feisty young woman who A daring new biography, 25 years in the played a far larger role in the radical reform and making, has finally been released in Turkey that creation of the modern republic than has been challenges the cult of Ataturk and tells the true previously thought. Educated abroad, story of his marriage to the young suffragette who multilingual, charming and confident, Latife has, until now, remained a footnote in the history fearlessly broke with tradition. of both her husband and her country. Arguably, At a time when women were consigned to Latife's most important symbolic step was to the home and veiled from head to toe outside it, shun Islamic attire, donning Western garb she lobbied for laws, such as the right to vote, instead. She showed her face to the world with a that gave Turkish women rights few European defiance that simultaneously shocked and countries had at the time. Foreign delighted onlookers. correspondents wrote that she symbolised "the The New York Times reported: "Her clothes birth of a new Turkey". are a pledge of reform. Her riding breeches She even sought to become an MP, but was indicate her intention of sweeping away harem snubbed by Ataturk. So forceful a character was conventions." Shortly after their wedding, Ataturk she, Calislar suggests, that ultimately it was the took her on a tour of Anatolia by train to show off couple's clash of wills that led to the breakdown his unveiled wife as a role model for modern of their marriage. After a heated argument one Turkish women. "It's not just a honeymoon, it's a evening in 1925, Ataturk decided to divorce her - lesson in reform," one observer wrote. by decree - and sent her back to her parental Ironically, more than 80 years later, the way home in Izmir. They never spoke again. Latife Turkey's prime ministerial spouse dresses is still went on to live the life of a recluse. She never a subject of national debate. While her husband, spoke in public, and died in 1975, thoroughly air- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been brushed out of Turkish history. compared in some quarters with Ataturk thanks Not so her husband. No taboo is greater in to his dogged pursuit of Turkish membership of Turkey than the inviolability surrounding Ataturk, the EU and, Emine Erdogan makes headlines for whose name means literally Father of the Turks doing precisely the opposite of her 1920s and figuratively carries equal significance. His counterpart. Instead of shunning the headscarf, picture stares down from every classroom wall in she wears it with pride. the country, every office, every shop. Banknotes Official history portrays Latife as a rude, carry his portrait, his statue is in every town and shrewish woman whose penchant for stomping his sayings are regarded as sacrosanct. He may downstairs to wrest her husband away from late- have died in 1938, but rather than fading into the night drinking sessions and chastising him in background over the past seven decades, public eventually wrecked their marriage. She is Ataturk has attained an almost mythical, mentioned only in passing in the drama that was omnipresent status that is rivalled by none. Ataturk's premiership. Not surprisingly for a man with such godlike Yet, bizarrely for someone considered credentials, the details of Ataturk's personal life apparently so insignificant, Latife's diaries and have always been strictly off-limits. Little is known other papers were for years judged so potentially of his existence outside the public arena; the very explosive that they were kept under lock and key idea of delving into his romantic life is considered in a sealed vault by the Turkish History Institution akin to sacrilege. This, coupled with the for 25 years. Her family subsequently refused to disappearance of Latife, his wife for a brief two- make the vault's contents public out of respect, and-a-half years, from the collective national they said, for Ataturk. memory, has fuelled enormous interest in the The author Ipek Calislar, who spent several new biography. years researching Latife's life, said: "The Mrs Erdogan's headscarf has now become biography sheds light on the real Latife, her the central issue in the debate over whether her marriage, her ideas, in a way that official history husband should run for president next year. The hasn't. It also lays bare a different side of Mustafa presidency is largely ceremonial, but it is the post Kemal - as a husband." The book is already a held by Ataturk and so comes with many smash hit in Turkey, selling 20,000 copies in two symbolic strings attached. Secularists are weeks. incensed at the prospect of a veiled woman as

114 first lady because they see it as an affront to the sharia law. Islamists, meanwhile, see the issue reforms that Ataturk strove to introduce. as a basic human right. Although the AKP came "Turkey cannot have a president whose to power in 2002 by pledging to lift the ban on wife wears a headscarf," insists Deniz Baykal, headscarves in universities and schools, it has leader of the main opposition People's not dared defy the military, for whom this is a Republican Party (CHP). To hardline secularists cornerstone of Turkey's secular identity. The AKP such as Mr Baykal, the headscarf is a symbol of had hoped that Turkey's European Union "backwardness". accession bid and attendant human-rights The female deputy leader of the CHP, progress would help them ease restrictions but Canan Aritman, recently wrote and made public those hopes were dashed last year when the a letter to Mrs Erdogan that said: "The way you European Court of Human Rights ruled to uphold dress while on trips abroad where you are the ban and said that it was constitutional. representing the Republic of Turkey offends And the fact remains that Turkey's EU Turkish women. I respect your personal membership is looking increasingly unlikely. Only preference. But women in the modern Republic yesterday, the Finnish Prime Minister, Matti Van- of Turkey have accepted a non-veiled, hanen, said that the European Union could contemporary Western style of dress. If you must suspend entry talks with Turkey during his go on visits abroad with your husband, be like a country's presidency if Ankara failed to meet the contemporary Turkish woman. If you can't be that bloc's requirements. "There is always the way then please stay at home." possibility to stop the negotiations, I believe All this outrage over a headscarf might Turkey knows that." seem bizarre to the outside world. But that small The future, then, is uncertain, both for Mrs square of cloth has become the arena in which Erdogan and her husband's presidential Turkey's secularists - who include the military and ambitions, and for Turkey itself. More than four the courts - and the ruling, Islamic-rooted Justice decades after Latife made a very public point of and Development Party (AKP) do battle. removing her veil, the tensions tugging at Secularists argue that it has become a symbol of Turkey's soul are still embodied in the piece of political Islam and is one step towards a secret fabric that a woman wears on her head. agenda that seeks to convert Turkey to Islamic

Ermine Erdogan, wife of the Prime Minister of Turkey, is just another ill-informed hijabi Muslim trying to foist on her country’s female population the idea that God instructed Muslim women to cover up from head to toe. The Turkish authorities must stand firm and continue their efforts to ban the headscarf wherever and whenever possible. Secularisation should not come into it. The headscarf, simply, is not required in Islam for daily use. It is only required when women are at prayer. The likes of Ermine Erdogan perpetuate the myth that Islam obligates women to cover themselves.

115 family of practising Muslims and considers it her European Court of religious duty to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Human Rights At the material time she was a fifth-year student at the faculty of medicine of the University of judgements regarding Istanbul. On 23 February 1998 the Vice- Chancellor of the University issued a circular the headscarf directing that students with beards and students 29th June 2004 and 10th November wearing the Islamic headscarf would be refused 2005 admission to lectures, courses and tutorials.

330 In March 1998 the applicant was denied access 29.6.2004 to a written examination on one of the subjects she was studying because was wearing the Press release issued by the Registrar Islamic headscarf. Subsequently the university authorities refused on the same grounds to enrol CHAMBER JUDGMENTS IN THE CASES OF her on a course, or to admit her to various lectures and a written examination. LEYLA SAHIN v. TURKEY AND ZEYNEP TEKIN v. TURKEY The faculty also issued her with a warning for contravening the university’s rules on dress and The European Court of Human Rights has today suspended her from the university for a term for notified in writing judgments[1] in the cases of taking part in an unauthorised assembly that had Leyla Sahin v. Turkey (application no. 44774/98) gathered to protest against them. All the and Zeynep Tekin v. Turkey (application no. disciplinary penalties imposed on the applicant 41556/98). were revoked under an amnesty law. In the case of Leyla Sahin v. Turkey the Court held unanimously that there had been no Zeynep Tekin v. Turkey violation of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (freedom of thought, The applicant, Zeynep Tekin Pomer is a Turkish conscience and religion); and no separate national who was born in 1975 and lives in Izmir. question arose under Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and 10 (freedom of At the material time she was a second-year expression), Article 14 (prohibition of student at nursing college at the University of discrimination) taken together with Article 9 of the Ege. The Higher-Education Authority issued a Convention, and Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 (right circular on 22 December 1988 requiring student to education). nurses to wear special headwear when doing In the case of Zeynep Tekin v. Turkey, the Court clinical training. In December 1993 the applicant decided unanimously to strike the case out of the was reprimanded for wearing the Islamic list. headscarf instead of the regulation headwear. (The Leyla Sahin v. Turkey judgment is available She was subsequently caught wearing the in English and French; the Zeynep Tekin v. Islamic headscarf on a number of occasions and Turkey judgment is available only in French). on 23 December 1993 was suspended from the college for 15 days in accordance with the 1. Principal facts circular of 22 December 1988.

Leyla Sahin v. Turkey The applicant appealed against the disciplinary penalty to the administrative court. It dismissed The applicant, Leyla Sahin, is a Turkish national her appeal on the grounds that the principle of who was born in 1973. She has lived in Vienna secularism established by Article 2 of the since 1999, when she left Istanbul to pursue her Constitution prevailed. In a judgment of 16 medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine at October 1997 the Supreme Administrative Court Vienna University. She comes from a traditional upheld the lower court’s judgment.

116 2. Procedure and composition of the Court interference with her right to manifest her religion.

The applications were lodged with the European There was a legal basis for that interference in Commission of Human Rights on 2 March 1998 Turkish law, as the case-law of the Constitutional and transmitted to the Court on 1 November Court made it clear that authorising students to 1998. They were declared admissible on 2 July “cover the neck and hair with a veil or headscarf 2002. A public hearing was held in Strasbourg on for reasons of religious conviction” in universities 19 November 2002. was contrary to the Constitution. In addition, the Supreme Administrative Court had for many Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven years taken the view that wearing the Islamic judges, composed as follows: headscarf was not compatible with the fundamental principles of the Republic. Nicolas Bratza (British), President, Furthermore, it was beyond doubt that Matti Pellonpää (Finnish), regulations on wearing the Islamic headscarf had Antonio Pastor Ridruejo (Spanish), existed well before the applicant had enrolled at Elisabeth Palm (Swedish), the university. Students, particularly those who, Riza Türmen (Turkish), like the applicant, were studying a health-related Marc Fischbach (Luxemburger), subject, were required to comply with rules on Josep Casadevall (Andorran), judges, dress. In those circumstances, it would have been clear to Miss Sahin, from the moment she and also Michael O’Boyle, Section Registrar. entered the University of Istanbul, that there were regulations on wearing the Islamic headscarf 3. Summary of the judgment[2] and, after the circular was published in 1998, that she was liable to be refused access to lectures if Complaints she continued to do so.

In both cases the applicants complained under The Court found that the impugned measure Article 9 of the Convention that they had been primarily pursued the legitimate aims of prohibited from wearing the Islamic headscarf at protecting the rights and freedoms of others and university. They also complained of an unjustified of protecting public order. interference with their right to education, within the meaning of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 to the As to the “necessity” of the interference, the Convention. Court observed that it was based on two principles – secularism and equality – which Miss Sahin further complained of a violation of reinforced and complemented each other. Article 14, taken together with Article 9, arguing that the prohibition on wearing the Islamic Under the Constitutional Court’s case-law, headscarf obliged students to choose between secularism in Turkey was, among other things, education and religion and discriminated the guarantor of: democratic values; the principle between believers and non-believers. Lastly, she that freedom of religion was inviolable, to the relied on Articles 8 and 10. extent that it stemmed from individual conscience; and, the principle that citizens were Decision of the Court in the case of Leyla Sahin equal before the law. Restrictions could be placed on freedom to manifest one’s religion in Article 9 of the Convention order to defend those values and principles. That notion of secularism appeared to the Court to be Without deciding whether it was always the case consistent with the values underpinning the that Islamic headscarves were worn to fulfil a Convention and it noted that upholding that religious duty, the Court noted that Miss Sahin’s principle could be regarded as necessary for the decision was inspired by a religion or belief. protection of the democratic system in Turkey. It Accordingly, it proceeded on the assumption that further noted the emphasis placed in the Turkish the regulations in issue, which placed restrictions constitutional system on the protection of the of place and manner on the right to wear the rights of women. Gender equality – recognised Islamic headscarf in universities, constituted an by the European Court as one of the key

117 principles underlying the Convention and a goal Muslim students were free to perform the to be achieved by member States of the Council religious duties that were habitually part of of Europe – was also regarded by the Turkish Muslim observance. In addition, the resolution Constitutional Court as a principle implicit in the adopted by Istanbul University on 9 July 1998 values underlying the Constitution. had treated all forms of dress symbolising or manifesting a religion or faith on an equal footing Like the Constitutional Court, the Court in barring them from the university premises. considered that, when examining the question of the Islamic headscarf in the Turkish context, Irrespective of the case-law of the Turkish courts there had to be borne in mind the impact which and the applicable rules, the fact that some wearing such a symbol, which was presented or universities might not have applied the rules perceived as a compulsory religious duty, could rigorously – depending on the context and the have on those who chose not to wear it. The special features of individual courses – did not issues at stake included the protection of the mean that the rules were unjustified. Nor did it “rights and freedoms of others” and the mean that the university authorities had waived “maintenance of public order” in a country in their right to exercise the regulatory power they which the majority of the population, while derived from statute, the rules governing the professing a strong attachment to the rights of functioning of universities and the needs of women and a secular way of life, adhered to the individual courses. Likewise, whatever a Islamic faith. Imposing limitations on freedom to university’s policy on the wearing of religious wear the Islamic headscarf could, therefore, be symbols, its regulations and the individual regarded as meeting a pressing social need by measures taken to implement them were seeking to achieve those two legitimate aims, amenable to judicial review in the administrative especially since that religious symbol had taken courts. on political significance in Turkey in recent years. The Court did not lose sight of the fact that there The Court noted that by the time the circular was were extremist political movements in Turkey issued on 23 February 1998 there had already which sought to impose on society as a whole been a lengthy debate on whether students could their religious symbols and conception of a wear the Islamic headscarf. When the issue had society founded on religious precepts. It surfaced at Istanbul University in 1994 in relation considered that the regulations concerned were to the medical courses, the university authorities also intended to preserve pluralism in the had reminded the students of the applicable university. rules. Rather than barring students wearing the Islamic headscarf access to the university, the It was the principle of secularism which was the university authorities had sought throughout the paramount consideration underlying the ban on decision-making process to adapt to the evolving the wearing of religious insignia in universities. It situation through continued dialogue with those was understandable in such a context where the concerned, while at the same time ensuring that values of pluralism, respect for the rights of order was maintained on the premises. others and, in particular, equality between men and women, were being taught and applied in In those circumstances and having regard in practice, that the relevant authorities would particular to the margin of appreciation left to the consider that it ran counter to the furtherance of Contracting States, the Court found that the such values to accept the wearing of religious University of Istanbul’s regulations imposing insignia, including as in the case before the restrictions on the wearing of Islamic Court, that women students covered their heads headscarves and the measures taken to with a headscarf while on university premises. implement them were justified in principle and proportionate to the aims pursued and, therefore, As to the manner in which the university could be regarded as “necessary in a democratic authorities had applied the measures, the Court society”. noted that it was undisputed that in Turkish universities, to the extent that they did not Articles 8 and 10, and Article 14 taken together overstep the limits imposed by the organisational with Article 9, of the Convention and Article 2 of requirements of State education, practising Protocol No. 1

118 ------The Court found that no separate question arose under these provisions, as the relevant [1] Under Article 43 of the European Convention circumstances were the same as those it had on Human Rights, within three months from the examined in relation to Article 9, in respect of date of a Chamber judgment, any party to the which it had found no violation. case may, in exceptional cases, request that the case be referred to the 17-member Grand Decision of the Court in the case of Zeynep Tekin Chamber of the Court. In that event, a panel of five judges considers whether the case raises a In a letter of 19 February 2003, the applicant serious question affecting the interpretation or informed the Court that she wished to withdraw application of the Convention or its protocols, or her application, without offering any explanation. a serious issue of general importance, in which She did not reply to a letter from the Court case the Grand Chamber will deliver a final requesting further information about the reasons judgment. If no such question or issue arises, the for her decision and the Turkish Government did panel will reject the request, at which point the not comment on it. judgment becomes final. Otherwise Chamber judgments become final on the expiry of the The Court found that it was no longer justified to three-month period or earlier if the parties declare continue the examination of the application within that they do not intend to make a request to refer. the meaning of Article 37 of the Convention (striking out applications) and decided [2] This summary by the Registry does not bind unanimously to strike the case out of the list. the Court.

*** ------

The Court’s judgments are accessible on its 608 Internet site (http://www.echr.coe.int). 10.11.2005

Registry of the European Court of Human Rights Press release issued by the Registrar F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex Press contacts: Roderick Liddell (telephone: +00 GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT 33 (0)3 88 41 24 92) LEYLA SAHIN v. TURKEY Emma Hellyer (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15) The European Court of Human Rights has today Stéphanie Klein (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 delivered at a public hearing its Grand Chamber 54) judgment [1] in the case of Leyla Sahin v. Turkey Fax: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 27 91 (application no. 44774/98).

The European Court of Human Rights was set up The Court held: in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of by sixteen votes to one, that there had been no the 1950 European Convention on Human violation of Article 9 (freedom of thought, Rights. Since 1 November 1998 it has sat as a conscience and religion) of the European full-time Court composed of an equal number of Convention on Human Rights; judges to that of the States party to the by sixteen votes to one, that there had been no Convention. The Court examines the violation of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 (right to admissibility and merits of applications submitted education); to it. It sits in Chambers of 7 judges or, in unanimously, that there had been no violation of exceptional cases, as a Grand Chamber of 17 Article 8 (right to respect for private and family judges. The Committee of Ministers of the life); Council of Europe supervises the execution of unanimously, that there had been no violation of the Court’s judgments. More detailed information Article 10 (freedom of expression); about the Court and its activities can be found on unanimously, that there had been no violation of its Internet site. Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).

119 (The judgment is available in English and the case to be referred to the Grand Chamber, in French.) accordance with Article 43 [2] of the Convention. On 10 November 2004 a panel of the Grand 1. Principal facts Chamber accepted her request. The Grand Chamber held a hearing in public in Strasbourg The applicant, Leyla Sahin, is a Turkish national on 18 May 2005 . who was born in 1973. She has lived in Vienna since 1999, when she left Istanbul to pursue her Judgment was given by the Grand Chamber of medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine at 17 judges, composed as follows: Vienna University . She comes from a traditional family of practising Muslims and considers it her Luzius Wildhaber (Swiss), President, religious duty to wear the Islamic headscarf. Christos Rozakis (Greek), Jean-Paul Costa (French), At the material time she was a fifth-year student Boštjan M. Zupancic (Slovenian), at the faculty of medicine of Istanbul University . Riza Türmen (Turkish), On 23 February 1998 the Vice-Chancellor of the Françoise Tulkens (Belgian), University issued a circular directing that students Corneliu Bîrsan (Romanian) with beards and students wearing the Islamic Karel Jungwiert (Czech), headscarf would be refused admission to Volodymyr Butkevych (Ukrainian), lectures, courses and tutorials. Nina Vajic (Croatian), Mindia Ugrekhelidze (Georgian), In March 1998 the applicant was refused access Antonella Mularoni (San Marinese), to a written examination on one of the subjects Javier Borrego Borrego (Spanish), she was studying because was wearing the Elisabet Fura-Sandström (Swedish), Islamic headscarf. Subsequently the university Alvina Gyulumyan (Armenian), authorities refused on the same grounds to enrol Egbert Myjer (Netherlands), her on a course, or to admit her to various Sverre Erik Jebens (Norwegian), judges, lectures and a written examination. and also Lawrence Early, Deputy Grand The faculty also issued her with a warning for Chamber Registrar. contravening the university's rules on dress and suspended her from the university for a semester 3. Summary of the judgment for taking part in an unauthorised assembly that had gathered to protest against them. All the Complaints disciplinary penalties imposed on the applicant were revoked under an amnesty law. The applicant complained under Article 9 that she had been prohibited from wearing the Islamic 2. Procedure and composition of the Court headscarf at university, of an unjustified interference with her right to education, within the The application was lodged with the European meaning of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 and of a Commission on Human Rights on 21 July 1998 violation of Article 14, taken together with Article and transmitted to the Court on 1 November 9, arguing that the prohibition on wearing the 1998 . It was declared admissible on 2 July 2002 Islamic headscarf obliged students to choose . The Chamber held a hearing in public in between education and religion and Strasbourg on 19 November 2002 . discriminated between believers and non- believers. Lastly, she relied on Articles 8 and 10. In its judgment of 29 June 2004 the Chamber held that there had been no violation of Article 9 Decision of the Court and that no separate question arose under Articles 8 and 10, Article 14 taken together with Article 9 Article 9, and Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. Like the Chamber, the Grand Chamber proceeded on the assumption that the circular in On 27 September 2004 the applicant asked for issue, which placed restrictions of place and

120 manner on the right to wear the Islamic headscarf and of protecting public order. in universities, constituted an interference with the applicant's right to manifest her religion. As to whether the interference was necessary, the Court noted that it was based in particular on As to whether the interference had been the principles of secularism and equality. “prescribed by law”, the Court noted that the According to the case-law of the Constitutional circular had been issued by the Vice-Chancellor Court, secularism, as the guarantor of democratic within the statutory framework set out in section values, was the meeting point of liberty and 13 of Law no. 2547 and in accordance with the equality. The principle prevented the State from regulatory provisions that had been adopted manifesting a preference for a particular religion earlier. According to the applicant, the circular or belief; it thereby guided the State in its role of was not compatible with transitional section 17 of impartial arbiter, and necessarily entailed that law, which did not proscribe the headscarf freedom of religion and conscience. It also but instead provided that students were free to served to protect the individual not only against dress as they wished provided that their choice arbitrary interference by the State but from did not contravene the law. external pressure from extremist movements. The Constitutional Court added that freedom to The Court reiterated that, under its case-law, manifest one's religion could be restricted in “law” was the provision in force as the competent order to defend those values and principles. courts had interpreted it. In that connection, it noted that the Constitutional Court had ruled that Like the Chamber, the Grand Chamber freedom of dress in institutions of higher considered that notion of secularism to be education was not absolute. The Constitutional consistent with the values underpinning the Court had held that authorising students to “cover Convention. Upholding that principle could be the neck and hair with a veil or headscarf for considered necessary to protect the democratic reasons of religious conviction” in the universities system in Turkey. was contrary to the Constitution. That decision of the Constitutional Court, which was both binding The Court also noted the emphasis placed in the and accessible, as it had been published in the Turkish constitutional system on the protection of Official Gazette of 31 July 1991, supplemented the rights of women. Gender equality – the letter of transitional section 17 and followed recognised by the European Court as one of the the Constitutional Court's previous case-law. In key principles underlying the Convention and a addition, the Supreme Administrative Court had goal to be achieved by member States of the by then consistently held for a number of years Council of Europe – had also been found by the that wearing the Islamic headscarf at university Turkish Constitutional Court to be a principle was not compatible with the fundamental implicit in the values underlying the Constitution. principles of the Republic. Furthermore, regulations on wearing the Islamic headscarf had In addition, like the Constitutional Court, the existed at Istanbul University since 1994 at the Court considered that, when examining the latest, well before the applicant enrolled there. question of the Islamic headscarf in the Turkish context, there had to be borne in mind the impact In these circumstances, the Court found that which wearing such a symbol, which was there was a legal basis for the interference in presented or perceived as a compulsory religious Turkish law and that it would have been clear to duty, may have on those who chose not to wear the applicant, from the moment she entered the it. As had already been noted, the issues at stake university, that there were restrictions on wearing included the protection of the “rights and the Islamic headscarf and, from the date the freedoms of others” and the “maintenance of circular was issued in 1998, that she was liable to public order” in a country in which the majority of be refused access to lectures and examinations the population, while professing a strong if she continued to wear the headscarf. attachment to the rights of women and a secular way of life, adhered to the Islamic faith. Imposing The Court considered that the impugned limitations on the freedom to wear the headscarf interference primarily pursued the legitimate aims could, therefore, be regarded as meeting a of protecting the rights and freedoms of others pressing social need by seeking to achieve those

121 two legitimate aims, especially since that view for that of the university authorities. Besides, religious symbol had taken on political having found that the regulations pursued a significance in Turkey in recent years. legitimate aim, it was not open to the Court to apply the criterion of proportionality in a way that The Court did not lose sight of the fact that there would make the notion of an institution's “internal were extremist political movements in Turkey rules” devoid of purpose. Article 9 did not always which sought to impose on society as a whole guarantee the right to behave in a manner their religious symbols and conception of a governed by a religious belief and did not confer society founded on religious precepts. on people who did so the right to disregard rules that had proved to be justified. Against that background, it was the principle of secularism which was the paramount In those circumstances, and having regard to the consideration underlying the ban on the wearing Contracting States' margin of appreciation, the of religious symbols in universities. In such a Court found that the interference in issue was context, where the values of pluralism, respect justified in principle and proportionate to the aims for the rights of others and, in particular, equality pursued, and could therefore be considered to before the law of men and women were being have been “necessary in a democratic society”. It taught and applied in practice, it was therefore found no violation of Article 9. understandable that the relevant authorities should consider it contrary to such values to allow Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 religious attire, including, as in the case before the Court, the Islamic headscarf, to be worn on Contrary to the decision of the Chamber on this university premises. complaint, the Grand Chamber was of the view that, having regard to the special circumstances As regards the conduct of the university of the case, the fundamental importance of the authorities, the Court noted that it was common right to education and the position of the parties, ground that practising Muslim students in Turkish the complaint under Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 universities were free, within the limits imposed could be considered as separate from the by educational organisational constraints, to complaint under Article 9 and therefore warranted manifest their religion in accordance with habitual separate examination. forms of Muslim observance. In addition, a resolution that had been adopted by Istanbul On the question of the applicability of Article 2 of University on 9 July 1998 showed that various Protocol No. 1, the Court reiterated that it was of other forms of religious attire were also forbidden crucial importance that the Convention was on the university premises . interpreted and applied in a manner which rendered its rights practical and effective, not When the issue of whether students should be theoretical and illusory. Moreover, the Convention allowed to wear the Islamic headscarf had was a living instrument which had to be surfaced at Istanbul University in 1994 in relation interpreted in the light of present-day conditions. to the medical courses, the university authorities While the first sentence of Article 2 essentially had reminded them of the relevant rules. Further, established access to primary and secondary throughout the decision-making process that had education, there was no watertight division culminated in the resolution of 9 July 1998 the separating higher education from other forms of university authorities had sought to adapt to the education. In a number of recently adopted evolving situation in a way that would not bar instruments, the Council of Europe had stressed access to the university to students wearing the the key role and importance of higher education Islamic headscarf, through continued dialogue in the promotion of human rights and with those concerned, while at the same time fundamental freedoms and the strengthening of ensuring that order was maintained on the democracy. Consequently, it would be hard to premises. imagine that institutions of higher education existing at a given time did not come within the As to how compliance with the internal rules of scope of the first sentence of Article 2 of Protocol the educational institutions should have been No 1. Although that Article did not impose a duty secured, it was not for the Court to substitute its on the Contracting States to set up such

122 institutions, any State that did so was under an the Islamic headscarf after 23 February 1998. obligation to afford an effective right of access to them. In a democratic society, the right to In these circumstances, the ban on wearing the education, which was indispensable to the Islamic headscarf had not impaired the very furtherance of human rights, played such a essence of the applicant's right to education and, fundamental role that a restrictive interpretation in the light of the Court's findings with respect to of the first sentence of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 the other Articles relied on by the applicant. would not be consistent with the aim or purpose Neither did it conflict with other rights enshrined of that provision. in the Convention or its Protocols. The Court therefore found that there had been no violation Consequently, the Court considered that any of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1. institutions of higher education existing at a given time came within the scope of the first sentence Articles 8, 10 and 14 of Article 2 of Protocol No. 1, since the right of access to such institutions was an inherent part The Court did not find any violation of Articles 8 of the right set out in that provision. or 10, the arguments advanced by the applicant being a mere reformulation of her complaint In the case before it, by analogy with its under Article 9 and Article 2 of Protocol No. 1, in reasoning on the question of the existence of respect of which the Court had concluded that interference under Article 9, the Court accepted there had been no violation. that the regulations on the basis of which the applicant had been refused access to various As regards the complaint under Article 14, the lectures and examinations for wearing the Islamic Court noted that the applicant had not provided headscarf constituted a restriction on her right to detailed particulars in her pleadings before the education, notwithstanding the fact that she had Grand Chamber. Furthermore, as had already had access to the university and been able to been noted, the regulations on the Islamic read the subject of her choice in accordance with headscarf were not directed against the the results she had achieved in the university applicant's religious affiliation, but pursued, entrance examination. As with Article 9, the among other things, the legitimate aim of restriction was foreseeable and pursued protecting order and the rights and freedoms of legitimate aims and the means used were others and were manifestly intended to preserve proportionate. the secular nature of educational institutions.

The measures in question manifestly did not Consequently the Court held that there had been hinder the students in performing the duties no violation of Articles 8, 10 or 14. imposed by the habitual forms of religious observance. Secondly, the decision-making Judges Rozakis and Vajic expressed a joint process for applying the internal regulations concurring opinion and Judge Tulkens expressed satisfied, so far as was possible, the requirement a dissenting opinion. These opinions are to weigh up the various interests at stake. The annexed to the judgment. university authorities judiciously sought a means whereby they could avoid having to turn away *** students wearing the headscarf and at the same time honour their obligation to protect the rights of The Court's judgments are accessible on its others and the interests of the education system. Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ). Lastly, the process also appeared to have been accompanied by safeguards – the rule requiring Registry of the European Court of Human Rights conformity with statute and judicial review – that F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex were apt to protect the students' interests. Press contacts: Roderick Liddell (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 24 92) Further, the applicant could reasonably have Emma Hellyer (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 foreseen that she ran the risk of being refused 15) access to lectures and examinations if, as Stéphanie Klein (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 subsequently happened, she continued to wear 54)

123 Beverley Jacobs (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 54 21) Fax: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 27 91

The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1 November 1998 it has sat as a full-time Court composed of an equal number of judges to that of the States party to the Convention. The Court examines the admissibility and merits of applications submitted to it. It sits in Chambers of 7 judges or, in exceptional cases, as a Grand Chamber of 17 judges. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the execution of the Court's judgments. More detailed information about the Court and its activities can be found on its Internet site.

[1] Grand Chamber judgments are final (Article 44 of the Convention).

[2] Under Article 43 of the European Convention on Human Rights, within three months from the date of a Chamber judgment, any party to the case may, in exceptional cases, request that the case be referred to the 17 member Grand Chamber of the Court. In that event, a panel of five judges considers whether the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention or its protocols, or a serious issue of general importance, in which case the Grand Chamber will deliver a final judgment. If no such question or issue arises, the panel will reject the request, at which point the judgment becomes final. Otherwise Chamber judgments become final on the expiry of the three-month period or earlier if the parties declare that they do not intend to make a request to refer.

[3] This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

124 Arab women The Economist, June 19th 2004

Their time has come

Arab women are demanding their rights—at last

Even the Saudis - or rather, the small number of men who actually rule their troubled country - are giving ground in the struggle for women's rights. For sure, the recommendations handed this week to Crown Prince Abdullah at the end of an unprecedented round of "national dialogue" concentrating on the role of women were fairly tame (see page 27). In the reformers-versus- reactionaries litmus test of whether women should be allowed to drive cars (at present they cannot do so in the kingdom, nor can they travel unaccompanied, by whatever means of motion), the king was merely asked to "assign a body to rights in the Arab world been so vigorously study a public-transport system for women to debated. That alone is cause to rejoice. facilitate mobility". No mention, of course, of the right to vote—but then that has been denied to Don't blame the Koran men too, though local elections, on an apparently One of the great falsehoods deployed by universal franchise, are supposed to be held in the conservatives, nearly all of them men, is that October. In sum, it is a tortoise's progress. But the Koran, the word of God as imparted to the very fact of the debate happening at all is Muhammad more than 13 centuries ago, decrees remarkable—and hopeful. that women should remain in second place. The It is not just in Saudi Arabia that more rights trouble in Saudi Arabia (and in Iran, just outside for women are being demanded but across the the Arab fold but still influential in parts of it, such whole of the Arab and Muslim world. The pushy as Iraq and Lebanon) is that conservatives, on Americans have made women's rights part of whom—for reasons of history and realpolitik - the their appeal for greater democracy in what they regime still relies, have grabbed a near-monopoly now officially call the "Broader Middle East", to of religious authority, imposing an exceptionally include non-Arab Muslim countries such as Iran, narrow interpretation of Islam on the people, Turkey and even Afghanistan. Many Arabs have especially women. To take but one example, it is cautioned the Americans against seeking to written that women should dress modestly, but impose their own values on societies with such nowhere is it stated that they should be covered different traditions and beliefs. Many leading from top to toe in black. Nor, for that matter, is it Muslims have accused the culturally imperious stated that women should be denied an equal Americans of seeking to destroy Islam. The say in decisions of state. appeal for more democracy in the Muslim world Saudi Arabia, it should be stressed, is issued by leaders of the eight biggest industrial exceptionally behindhand. Yet, compared with countries was watered down for fear of giving most of their western sisters, Arab women offence. Yet, despite the Arabs' prickliness, the elsewhere still, on the whole, enjoy fewer rights. Americans have helped pep up a debate that is But they have generally been gaining ground now bubbling fiercely in the Arab world, even apace. And there are now numerous examples though many Arab leaders, none of whom is in the Muslim (but not yet in the Arab) world directly elected by the people, are where, without in any way disavowing Islam, understandably wary of reforms that could lead women have actually headed governments: for to their own toppling. Never before have women's instance in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and 125 Turkey. centuries they fought bloody wars over It cannot be denied that there are problems, competing versions of their faith, and bodies such for liberals and supporters of full female as the Catholic Inquisition testify to the cruelties emancipation, with the application of Sharia, the that can flow, within any religion, from a dogmatic body of laws deemed to derive from the Koran, in determination to impose a particular set of those countries where the judicial system is beliefs. Over the years, however, a separation of wholly or partly based on it. Laws of inheritance, church and state has helped to nurture individual the relative weight of evidence given in court by creativity alongside reasonable governance men and women, rights of divorce and of under temporal laws. A wider measure of children's custody - these, if taken literally, all separation of mosque and state would probably diminish women. But there is far more flexibility provide similar benefits, as it has done, for and fuzziness, even here, than the conservatives instance, in Turkey. concede. Sharia is not an actual code nor is it In the end, democracy, entailing a freedom clearly defined; it is merely a basis for a system of choice, is the prerequisite, for Muslims as inspired but not dictated by the Koran. It is much as anyone else, for creating a society that certainly not incumbent on all good Muslims to is both cohesive and fair. There is no reason why insist that the government use Sharia—or indeed Muslim Arabs, women included, should not have the Koran—as the sole source of law. And both the democratic freedom enjoyed by people of are open to wide interpretation, as they should other faiths. It would, after all, liberate men too. be, to meet the changing demands of modernity. Christians hardly need reminding that for

risks being "hanged"; that is, suspended in legal Special report - Arab limbo, often penniless and trapped indoors, until such time as he deigns to grant a divorce. And women then she will lose custody of her children. The 19 The Economist, June 19th 2004 recommendations that went to Crown Prince Abdullah on June 15th would change matters somewhat, if they are ever enacted. Participants Out of the shadows, into the asked for special courts to deal with women's world issues, more women's sections in existing courts, and a public-transport system for them. They Slowly, but sometimes showily, the female wanted more education, more jobs and more half of the population is beginning to find a voluntary organisations dealing with women's voice issues. Amid much vague good feeling, the phrase that recurred was "more awareness"—not IT WAS called a "national dialogue", but to just of women's rights, but of women as human western eyes it was a strange kind of beings. conversation. From June 13th-15th, in Medina, Saudi Arabia certainly presents male Saudi Arabian women and men discussed how chauvinism at its worst. Yet it is a mistake to women's lives could be improved. The women, imagine, as many westerners do, that Arab however, were invisible to the men, except on a women as a whole suffer strictures as tight as television screen. their Saudi sisters'. It is equally incorrect to judge From kindergarten to university to the few the donning of veils and headscarves—attire that professions they are permitted to pursue, as well is optional everywhere save in Saudi Arabia and as in restaurants and banks and in other public non-Arab Iran—to be a sign of exclusion. For places, the female half of Saudi Arabia's some it is simply a personal expression of population is kept strictly apart. Women are not religious devotion; for others, a means of escape allowed to drive a car, sail a boat or fly a plane, or from the tyranny of fashion. to appear outdoors with hair, wrists or ankles It is even wrong to assume that life for the exposed, or to travel without permission from a purdahed women of Saudi Arabia is necessarily male guardian. A wife who angers her husband hard. Boring, yes, and cluttered with minor annoyances, but also full of compensating 126 richness. Many Saudi women take pride in the protectiveness, family-centredness and Muslim piety of their society—aspects that were stressed first in the list of recommendations. Slowly but surely, too, the lot of Saudi women is improving, just as it has been for women in most Arab countries. Saudi girls were not even allowed to go to school until 1964. Now, some 55% of the kingdom's university students are female. Similar trends can be seen elsewhere. In Kuwait's and Qatar's national universities, women now make up fully 70% of the student body. Across the wider region, the average time girls have spent in school by the age of 15 has increased from a mere six months in 1960 to 4.5 years today. This may still be only three-quarters of the schooling that Arab boys get, but female education has improved faster in Arab countries than in any other region. Tunisia has narrowed the literacy gap between young men and women by 80% since 1970. Jordan has achieved full literacy for both sexes. The Arab performance in improving women's health is also unmatched. Female life expectancy is up from 52 years in 1970 to more than 70 today. The number of children borne by the average Arab woman has fallen by half in the past 20 years, to a level scarcely higher than world norms. In Oman, fertility has plummeted from ten births per woman to fewer than four. A main reason for this is a dramatic rise in the age at which girls marry. A generation ago, three- quarters of Arab women were married by the time they were 20. That proportion has dropped by half. In large Arab cities, the high cost of housing, added to the need for women to pursue degrees or start careers, is prompting many to delay marriage into their 30’s. Again, that is not much different from the rest of the world.

Houris and hijabs Outsiders may think of Arab women as shrouded, closeted ghosts, but the images that come to Arab minds these days are likely to be quite different. Flick on a television in Muscat or Marrakesh, and you find punchy, highly competent and pretty female presenters. Competition between Lebanese television networks is so keen that their gorgeous weather- announcers, pantomiming, say, rain on the mountains, can be rather startling. More eye- opening still is the procession of video clips on the many highly popular satellite channels broadcasting round-the-clock Arabic pop music.

127 Strapless houris (beauties), such as Lebanon's Even the many Arabs who dismiss MTV Nancy Ajram and Egypt's Ruby, croon and gyrate and on-line dating as the preserve of gilded, with scarcely less abandon than their western westernised youth will admit that female role- prototypes. models have changed a great deal. In all but True, such imagery remains deeply three out of 22 countries in the Arab League, controversial, and not just to feminists. In women have the right to vote and run for office. relatively open-minded Egypt, the state (Recall that the Swiss canton of Appenzell did not broadcasting monopoly has banned the more grant such rights until 1991). Arab women also provocative female stars and has forbidden work as ambassadors, government ministers, top costumes that reveal belly buttons, saying they business executives and even, in Bahrain, army corrupt the country's youth. The saucy video clips officers. A fifth of Algeria's Supreme Court judges are regularly blasted at Friday sermons in the are women, and women hold 15% of the top mosques. judicial posts in Tunisia. Even in Saudi Arabia, It is also true that provocatively clad starlets Lubna Olayan heads the kingdom's leading are hardly representative of Arab womanhood. private industrial group, and Thoraya Obeid runs Broadly speaking, the percentage of Arab women the UN'S family-planning agency, though who wear some form of hijab, or veil, does seem admittedly in New York. to be inching upwards. Numbers vary hugely, however, from around 10-20% in Lebanon or The darker side Tunisia to perhaps 60% in Syria and Jordan, to Yet Arab women should not rest complacent. It is 80% in Kuwait and Iraq. In rural Egypt, the near- for good reason that the UN's devastating, and universal adoption of the veil in recent years is much-quoted, Arab Human Development Report as much a reflection of city fashions creeping into cites women's rights, along with education and the countryside (where women traditionally governance, as the main challenge facing the worked in the fields unveiled) as of rising region. Statistics cannot easily capture, for conservatism. The popularity of veils in Egyptian example, the fact that the very idea of an cities, meanwhile, is partly due to a rise in the unmarried woman living alone remains taboo in number of women who leave home to work or all but a few Arab countries. Numbers do not study. In a sense, for traditional families the hijab adequately measure the harassment that is a sort of convenient half-way station to fuller "immodest" dress routinely attracts in most Arab freedom. cities, or the destructive social impact of habits At the same time, the late-night club-culture such as female circumcision (still practised of cities such as Cairo, Dubai and Beirut is widely in Egypt and Sudan), polygamy thriving as never before. Even those women who (sanctioned by Islam, yet rare except in the shun the packed bars and discos may now wealthy Gulf states), or "honour killings" venture into the cafes, once a male preserve. (sanctioned by tribal custom, not religion, and The sight of groups of women smoking declining—but in Jordan, more than 20 women waterpipes has become quite common. Such are still murdered by their own suspicious delights have helped attract a fast-growing relatives every year). number of tourists, especially Gulf Arabs, for The numbers can still be revealing, though. whom the free mingling of sexes is itself a In Egypt, a recent study showed that among spectacle. Inevitably, these looser strictures have families with low levels of education, baby girls an influence back home. are twice as likely to die as baby boys. In Yemen, Those other modern media, the internet the illiteracy rate among young women (54%) is and the mobile phone, increasingly reinforce three times that of men. And as for those proud such shifts in attitude. Hard as it may still be to Saudi women who are now earning most of the meet members of the opposite sex openly, ever- kingdom's university degrees, their prospects of growing numbers of young Arabs are chatting, careers are dim. Barely 6% of the country's flirting and even getting hitched over the ether. workforce is female. Across the Arab region as a And that is the innocent side. This whole, only a third of adult women have jobs, correspondent's wholly unscientific survey of compared with three-quarters of women in East internet cafes in several Saudi cities revealed Asia. that virtually all the websites recorded as Just as disturbingly, movement towards "favourites" were blatantly pornographic. equality in some Arab countries has shunted into

128 reverse. Such is the case of Iraq, a country that instance, Morocco adopted a progressive family during the 1960’s and 1970’s was in the status code which, among other things, grants vanguard of progress. Saddam Hussein's two both sexes equal rights to seek divorce and to decades of war and sanctions crushed the life out argue before a judge for custody of children. It of the country's once large and rich middle class. also places such tight conditions on polygamy as Their decline discredited social models, such as to render the practice virtually impossible. Yet the the nuclear family, which had begun to replace new law won backing not just from King the old patriarchal clan system. The lot of most Muhammad VI, who declared it to be "in perfect Iraqi women has worsened even more accordance with the spirit of our tolerant religion", dramatically since the war. In the cities, women but also from the country's main Islamist parties. are simply afraid to go out alone. The rise of In Kuwait, too, religion is being used to push religious radicalism has prompted many to adopt reform. Five years ago, Islamists in the country's the veil, out of fear as much as conviction. parliament blocked a law that would have Even in more peaceable Arab countries, the granted women the right to vote and run for gains women have made are not fully secure. As office. The same law is being tabled again this far back as the 1950’s, for example, secularist year, but this time several Islamist MP’s have Tunisia granted women full equality, going so far defected to the liberals. One reason is a fatwa as to contravene Islam and ban polygamy. With recently issued by a prominent cleric, which their rights to vote, divorce, work in any questions the reliability of the source who, 14 profession and so forth, Tunisian women remain centuries ago, reported the Prophet Muhammad the envy of Arab feminists elsewhere. Yet they as saying "A nation commanded by woman will themselves complain that male attitudes have not not prosper." really changed. A Tunisian sociologist notes a Aside from giving them the short stick on trend by wealthy men to seek brides from poor inheritance, and having their testimony in law villages, since city women are "too independent". considered half as weighty as men's, and letting And the incidence of wife-beating remains high. husbands marry up to four wives, whom they Egypt was another Arab pioneer in women's may beat if they are disobedient, the Koran itself rights. The first Arab feminist manifesto, "The is not unkind to women. Centuries before Liberation of Woman", was published in Cairo in Christian women in the West, Muslim women 1899. By the 1920’s, society women were freely enjoyed full property rights. In many Arab dropping their veils; by the 1960’s, the country societies, it has been customary to evade had more female doctors than many in the West. statutory inheritance laws by simply signing over But progress stalled in the 1980’s, when the property to female relations before your death. parliament scotched a law that would have The trouble, in places like Saudi Arabia, lies ensured nearly full sexual equality. more in how the holy text—as well as the hadiths, Discriminatory laws still hinder women's or Prophet's sayings, that inform the Sharia—are progress in many other countries. Algeria's 1984 interpreted. Such texts are often not so much family statutes give men an automatic right to interpreted, as twisted to fit pre-existing divorce, with no legal obligation to their former traditions. The ban on driving, for instance, is spouse. In all but a few Arab countries, unique to Saudi Arabia. Yet even Saudi clerics citizenship may only be passed on by the father are hard-put to find support for the rule in holy of a child, not its mother. Similarly, custody of scripture. (And in any case, according to one children customarily goes to the father, a fact that survey, 29% of Saudi women say they already comes into tragic prominence every year in know how to drive.) consulates across the region, when the foreign The extreme Saudi phobia regarding ik- divorcees of Arab men discover that they may htilat, or mixing of the sexes, also has no textual lose their children. And Islamic inheritance law justification. And although the Koran mentions grants female heirs only half the portion given to modesty in dress, how much is a matter of males. opinion. Most scholars agree that hadiths about fuller covering relate to the Prophet's own wives. Islam's importance Whether to follow their example should be a free Outsiders commonly assume that Islam itself is choice, as indeed it is in most Muslim societies. the cause of sexual inequality in the Arab world. Some countries, such as non-Arab Tunisia, This is not strictly true. Earlier this year, for have simply bypassed such questions by

129 imposing fully secular laws. For the time being, banks, with little opportunity to make use of it. In Arab public opinion is strongly opposed to this; 2001, they won the right to have their own identity the link to Islamic roots is seen as essential. Yet cards (though a male guardian must apply for when it comes to women's rights, the evidence is them). Saudi businesswomen spoke eloquently, that Arabs, even the men among them, to long applause, at a major conference in acknowledge the need for improvement. In a Jeddah earlier this year. Since January, Saudi 2002 survey of social attitudes carried out in state TV has employed female newscasters. seven Arab countries by Zogby International, The kingdom's best-known TV personality 50% of respondents considered the improvement also happens to be a woman. Rania al-Baz won of women's rights a high priority (see chart on further fame earlier this year when her husband previous page). Significantly, the firmest support beat her almost to death. Instead of staying for change came from Saudi Arabia. silent, as her mother would have done, Mrs al- The reformers will eventually get their way. Baz invited photographers into her hospital room Saudi women are, in fact, already chalking up to show the world her broken face. She has now important gains. Last month they were granted formed a group to combat the abuse of women in the right to hold commercial licences, a Saudi Arabia. significant advance considering that women own a quarter of the $100 billion deposited in Saudi

This feature by the Economist is very informative, but not completely fair when it describes the Koran as giving women, ‘...the short stick on inheritance, and having their testimony in law considered half as weighty as men's, and letting husbands marry up to four wives, whom they may beat if they are disobedient...’ The detail and the historical background to these edicts has to be explained properly, which is beyond the scope of this book. However, the Economist should not be too self-righteous when one sees the massive exploitation of (very willing) women by men in the porn industry, the high divorce rates, record delinqency and abortion levels etc. etc. in the ‘liberated’ West.

130 Chapter 6

Muslims are right about Britain The Spectator, 6th August 2005

John Hayes says Islamic moderates are correct to despise our decadent culture of gay rights and lager louts

Many moderate Muslims believe that much of Britain is decadent. They are right. Mr Blair says that the fanatics who want to blow us up despise us, but he won't admit that their decent co-religionists — who are the best hope of undermining the extremists at source — despair of us. They despair of the moral decline and the ugly brutishness that characterise much of urban Britain. They despair of the metropolitan mix of gay rights and lager louts. And they despair of the liberal establishment's unwillingness to face the facts and fight the battle for manners and morals. They are not alone. The Windrush worse, wicked militancy. generation of Caribbeans came to Britain with the It is unreasonable to expect Muslim leaders most traditional of values — proud Christians with to put right what's wrong in their communities if dignity and a sense of duty — the kind of people we are not going to be honest about what's so steeped in our history that they gave their wrong with ours. children names like Winston, Milton and Some of rural Britain (including the area in Gladstone. As vice-chairman of the British which I live and represent) still has strong Caribbean Association, I recently had the chance communities. There, many of the old-fashioned to ask such people why so many young British values lost elsewhere prevail. Beyond these blacks had got into trouble with the law. They heartlands, much else is ailing. A sickening unequivocally blamed the licence they decadence has taken hold. People's sense of encountered almost as soon as they arrived identity has been eroded as our traditions and the here, which made it so hard to inculcate their institutions that safeguard them have been standards in the next generation. derided for years. People's sense of history has The alienation felt by young blacks and been weakened by an education system that too Asians is not a result of any intolerance shown often emphasises the themes in history rather towards them, but of the endless tolerance of than its chronology, and which indoctrinates a those who would allow everything and stand up guilt-ridden interpretation of Britain's contribution for nothing. It is the excesses permitted by a to the world. People's sense of responsibility has culture spawned by the liberal Left that have been undermined by a commercial and media produced a generation that feels rootless and preoccupation with the immediate gratification of hopeless. The young crave noble purposes as material needs, regardless of consequences — children need discipline; neither get much of we want everything and we want it now, so we them in modern Britain and the void is filled by spend and borrow, cheat and hurt. People's self- disrespect, fecklessness, mindless nihilism or, regard has diminished as, robbed of any sense of

131 worth beyond their capacity to consume and to debating how efficiently their respective parties fornicate, they feel purposeless. We have can disinfect hospitals. Most Church leaders forgotten that pleasure is a mere proxy for the have also given up the fight. Many have true happiness which flows from commitment and convinced themselves that to be fashionable is the gentle acceptance that it is what we give, not to be relevant and that being relevant is more what we take, that really matters. important than being right. Is it any wonder that The vulnerable are the chief victims of the family-minded, morally upright moderate decadence. Children suffer when families break Muslims despair? down. The old suffer as their needs are seen as So, with little understanding of the past, little inconvenient and their wisdom is no longer thought for the future, little respect for others and valued. For the rich, decadence is either a virtually no guidance from those appointed or lifestyle choice or something you can buy your elected to give it, many modern Britons — each way out of. But for the less well off — stripped of with their wonderful, unique God-given potential the dignities which stem from a shared sense of — are condemned to be selfish, lonely creatures belonging and pride — the horror of a greedy in a soulless society where little is worshipped society in which they can't compete is stark. The beyond money and sex. civilised urban life that was available to my The roots of this brutal hedonism are in working-class parents is now the preserve of soulless liberalism. Against all the evidence, the those whose wealth shields them from liberal elite — who run much of Britain's politically lawlessness and frees them from the inadequate correct new establishment — continue to preach public services that their less fortunate their creed of freedom without duty, and rights contemporaries are forced to endure. without obligations. Pope John Paul II:— perhaps Safely gated, the liberal elite do not merely the greatest figure of our age — said 'only the turn a blind eye — though that would be bad freedom which submits to the truth leads the enough. They voyeuristically feed the masses human person to his true good'. Freedom without with Big Brother and legislate to allow 24-hour purpose is the seed corn of social decay. It is drunkenness. In answer to the desperate call for through the constraints on self-interest and the much-needed restraint, we hear from those with restraint that good Muslims revere that we can power only the shrill cry for ever more unbridled rebuild civil society. The most fitting response to liberty. the terrorist outrages would be the kind of moral Politicians who should know better fear and cultural renaissance that would make Britons debates about values, preferring to retreat to of all backgrounds feel more proud of their morally neutral, utilitarian politics, as uninspiring country. as it is unimaginative. It is the kind of discourse John Hayes is Conservative MP for South which leaves those who aspire to govern reduced Holland and The Deepings. — in the heat of a general election campaign —

132 Letters section: Some liberals remain The Spectator, 13th August 2005 in denial, unwilling to face the decadent conse- Our 'decadent' quences of years of their ideas being put into society practice. But whether it is From Brian Binley MP and others lawlessness, family Sir: As Conservative MPs elected at this year's breakdown, the menace of general election we represent a new generation drugs, binge-drinking, unencumbered by the political baggage of the teenage pregnancies or past. In this spirit we enthusiastically endorse the merely the coarse rejection articulated by John Hayes ('Muslims are brutishness which, as Mr right about Britain', 6 August) of the liberal Hayes suggests, has establishment's assumptions about our society. infested popular culture, For too long politicians of the centre and centre- the results of years of Left — including some who curiously wear the woolly-minded liberal badge of Conservatism — have ignored the thinking (with the common-sense opinions of the hard-working, licentiousness it has patriotic majority of Britons who retain their belief created) are plain to see. Conservatives can in traditional values. In a recent Centre for Social choose either to help prop up the failed ideas of Justice pamphlet, Iain Duncan Smith suggests the liberal elite, or answer the people's plea for ‘that it is noteworthy — even remarkable — that certainty, order and decency. Choosing the latter [what he calls] Britain's conservative majority has is the key to success. persisted in the face of a largely hostile broadcast Brian Binley MP, Peter Bone MP, David Burrowes media and hesitant Church leaders'. MP, Philip Davies MP, Robert Goodwill MP, Mark Harper MP

failed to control their children's yobbish Yes we DO need behaviour. The worst families would be moved to secure gated areas guarded by wardens and drastic measures - CCTV cameras where they would be confined under curfew. because Labour has And there was also a suggestion that children under ten — the age of criminal engineered a collapse responsibility — might be subject to antisocial behaviour orders for the first time. in morality No sooner had these reports surfaced than the Government distanced itself from them, with Daily Mail, Monday October 10th 2005 Downing Street claiming that it 'did not recognise' The Melanie Phillips column such proposals. Obscenities THE disclosure that the Government is apparently drawing up sweeping powers to deal This has all the hallmarks of the classic with anti social behaviour is likely to provoke Government tactic of floating measures which relief, belly-laughs and outright hostility in equal are likely to be deeply contentious — not least measure. within government, where there are reportedly According to weekend Press reports, tensions between the Home Secretary and the Whitehall's 'respect' unit is preparing a set of Prime Minister's 'respect czar' Louise Casey — radical proposals which will target 'nightmare in order to gauge public reaction while denying neighbour' households, parents of out-of-control that the plan has any substance. children and binge-drinkers. Feckless parents The fact is that measures such as these would face community penalties, and those in would be greeted with overwhelming relief by council houses would lose their homes if they thousands of people whose lives are being

133 wrecked on a daily basis by antisocial behaviour. of all kinds, resulting in a corresponding eruption People are being terrorised not just by of criminal behaviour among users for whom yobbish children and teenagers but by their these drugs destroy moral inhibitions against disorderly parents. Those who have done no wrong-doing. wrong are running a gauntlet of vandalism, litter What we are experiencing in parts of our and noise, and are forced to country is nothing less than become prisoners inside their own social and moral meltdown. homes for fear of the violence or These proposed measures, obscenities that threaten them if however tough they might sound, they step outside. merely amount to an incoherent Moreover, all the cards are attempt to deal with the stacked against them by a state symptoms by a government which seems to privilege those which is itself a serial offender. who do wrong, rewarding miscreants with houses and Nihilistic benefits while being unable or unwilling to protect their victims One also has to be sceptical through the criminal justice about whether any of this will system. actually see the light of day. Last The sheer scale of this year, the Labour MP Frank Field breakdown in order indicates why introduced a Bill to strip antisocial these new proposals deserve a households of welfare benefits. measure of scepticism. Whole But his Bill was scuppered by swathes of the country have John Prescott while Mr Blair simply descended into anarchy, stood mutely by. with feral children who have been The new package would abandoned to fatherlessness and require massive resources to parents whose response to any fund all the resettlement and the remonstration is to turn violent themselves. policing involved. Who can be confident that Our once-civilised country has been turned these would be forthcoming? Isn't this just what into this social battleground because of a we have heard so many times before — collapse of the disciplines that once governed rhetorical fire-breathing by the Prime Minister people's behaviour. But this is a collapse which while nothing actually gets done? the Government itself has wilfully accelerated. And if these measures were to be enacted, The single most important reason for this they would provide no more than a sticking widespread disorder is the disintegration of the plaster approach unless the Government family. Yet the Government has promoted the abandoned its nihilistic approach to family life, society-busting myth that 'all lifestyles are equal'. drinking and drug-taking. It has actually encouraged lone parenthood by That said, we are where we are. Even if weighting welfare benefits towards unmarried there were the political will to address the root parents — a critical incentive for those at the causes of this disaster, that would take time. For bottom of the financial scale. thousands of law-abiding people, there is a social It has made the chronic problem of teenage emergency that simply has to be dealt with right pregnancy even worse through sex education now. which projects sexual relations among the young As a matter of urgency, we have to end the as normal and effectively condones illegal sexual situation where decent people are being held activity among under-age children. hostage by hooligans who are indulged by the Its professed aim to curb binge-drinking is state. We have to put power back into the hands absurd given the way it has presided over an of the law-abiding. explosion of drinking which it is now further That means — as these proposals suggest exacerbating by allowing alcohol to be sold all — ending the lunatic practice of rewarding anti- night. social families. It does mean punishing parents And its reclassification of cannabis as a less who fail to control their children. It does mean dangerous drug has fuelled a rise in drug-taking taking away their houses, and it should mean

134 taking away their welfare benefits. by human rights lawyers and other comfortable This might seem unfeeling. But how much folk in our governing class. But they don't have more unfeeling is it to allow decent people to live to live in these blighted communities. They in daily terror and misery? Is it not better to merely create them. withdraw the means by which people are able After eight years in government, Mr Blair inflict the terror and misery and to teach them has precious little to show for his ambitious plans instead how to lead responsible lives? to heal the divisions in society. 'Tough on crime, In ultra-liberal Holland, after all, disruptive tough on the causes of crime' was the inspired families are uprooted from their estate and re- slogan that first brought him to power. housed in vandal-proof steel containers. Houses This latest package is his last desperate and benefits are the privileges of citizenship — attempt to avoid the looming judgment of history and citizenship requires a duty to behave in ways that his legacy was instead to create large areas that do not make other people's lives intolerable. of Britain where the life of the law-abiding had turned into the seventh circle of hell. Blighted Yes, tough measures such as these are probably now necessary. But they will have little Communities should be given back their power. impact unless Mr Blair reverses the whole They should be able to go to the police and get a direction of his Government, which has ruthlessly delinquent removed instantly, not after months of encouraged disorderly lifestyles on the grotesque judicial procedure. grounds of 'anti-discrimination', 'self-esteem', The onus should be on the miscreant to 'social inclusion' and all the rest of the politically argue why this should not happen, not on his correct group-think of metropolitan trendydom. victims to argue that it is necessary. After all, As ever, the Prime Minister wills the socially summary justice is meted out for parking desirable ends — but refuses to acknowledge the offences; aren't public safety and the relief from difficult means by which he must achieve them. intimidation more important? Of course, this will be ferociously opposed [email protected]

135 136 Chapter 7

Octoberfest 2006

Take off the veil, says Straw - to immediate anger from Muslims

The Guardian, 6th October 2006

Cabinet minister opens debate with claim that veil is a symbol of separation Jack Straw provoked anger and indignation among broad sections of the Muslim community yesterday after he encouraged Islamic women to stop wearing veils covering their face, saying the practice hindered community relations. The former home secretary said the full veil - known as a niqab - made "better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult". He added it was "such a visible statement of separation and of difference". would not tolerate "no-go" neighbourhoods. He A likely candidate for the deputy leadership, had already been criticised after telling Muslim whose Blackburn constituency has a large parents in east London that fanatics were Muslim population, Mr Straw said last night that "looking to groom and brainwash your children he had chosen his words carefully. "We are able for suicide bombing". to relate to people we don't know by reading their Muslim leaders accused the government of faces and if you can't see their faces, that destabilising already precarious community provides some separation," he told a local radio relations, which have been buffeted by clashes station. "Those people who do wear the veil this week between white and Muslim youths in should think about the implications for community Berkshire. Scotland Yard's withdrawal of a relations." Muslim officer from duty at the Israeli embassy is His aide added that this was an important now the subject of an inquiry ordered by the Met issue that needed to be debated. commissioner, Sir Ian Blair. But his comments surprised British Muslim Reefat Bravu, chair of the Muslim Council leaders and fellow Labour MPs, who pointed to a for Britain's social and family affairs committee, series of statements from ministers which have said yesterday that Mr Straw's comments had challenged attitudes towards multiculturalism. At exacerbated existing tensions. "We had John the launch of the Commission on Integration and Reid first and now we have Jack Straw... This is Cohesion, Ruth Kelly, the communities secretary, going to do great damage to the Muslim questioned whether multiculturalism was now community, again we are being singled out by encouraging segregation. At the Labour this government as the problem. Women have a conference last week John Reid insisted Britain right to wear a veil and this is just another would not be bullied by Muslim fanatics, and he example of blatant Muslim-bashing by this

137 government." Straw," said this pleasant lady, in a broad Mussoud Shadjareh, chair of the Islamic Lancashire accent. She had come to my Human Rights Commission, said he found Mr constituency advice bureau with a problem. I Straw's comments distasteful. "Would he say to smiled back. "The chance would be a fine thing," the Jewish people living in Stamford Hill [in I thought to myself but did not say out loud. The London] that they shouldn't dress like Orthodox lady was wearing the full veil. Her eyes were Jews?" uncovered but the rest of her face was in cloth. Mr Straw, who made the comments in the Her husband, a professional man whom I Lancashire Telegraph, said he had asked women vaguely knew, was with her. She did most of the wearing the niqab to remove it when they visited talking. I got down the detail of the problem, told his Constituency surgery because face-to-face the lady and her husband that I thought I could conversations were of "greater value". sort it out, and we parted amicably. Recalling a conversation with one women, All this was about a year ago. It was not the he wrote: "I said I would reflect on what the lady first time I had conducted an interview with had said to me. Would she, however, think hard someone in a full veil, but this particular about what I said — in particular about my encounter, though very polite and respectful on concern that wearing the full veil was bound to both sides, got me thinking. In part, this was make better, positive relations between the two because of the apparent incongruity between the communities more difficult." signals which indicate common bonds - the Political allies of the leader of the house entirely English accent, the couple's education said yesterday that they thought Mr. Straw's (wholly in the UK) - and the fact of the veil. Above sentiments were misjudged. all, it was because I felt uncomfortable about Lord Patel, who helped Mr Straw win his talking to someone "face-to-face" who I could not Blackburn seat and has known him for more than see. 20 years, said: " I don't agree with Jack that he So I decided that I wouldn't just sit there the should ask women to take off their veil." next time a lady turned up to see me in a full veil, Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for and I haven't. Birmingham Perry Barr, said: "I think Jack is at Now, I always ensure that a female member risk of providing succour to people who hold anti- of my staff is with me. I explain that this is a Muslim prejudices. Someone of his stature and country built on freedoms. I defend absolutely the understanding of the community, he needs to right of any woman to wear a headscarf. As for look at this a bit more in depth and not stereotype the full veil, wearing it breaks no laws. a small minority in the Muslim community." I go on to say that I think, however, that the But the Muslim peer Lady Uddin defended conversation would be of greater value if the lady Mr Straw's decision to raise the issue, although took the covering from her face. Indeed, the she said Muslim women should be able to value of a meeting, as opposed to a letter or choose what they wore. "I think there needs to be phone call, is so that you can - almost literally - a debate," she said. "He should have the right to see what the other person means, and not just raise this question and people should have a hear what they say. So many of the judgments right to disagree. I think the Muslim community we all make about other people come from needs to address this, not just throw its hands seeing their faces. up.” I thought it may be hard going when I made my request for face-to-face interviews in these In his own words circumstances. However, I can't recall a single occasion when the lady concerned refused to lift her veil; and most I ask seem relieved I have ‘I felt uneasy talking to done so. Last Friday was a case in point. The veil came off almost as soon as I opened my mouth. someone I couldn't see’ I dealt with the problems the lady had brought to This is Jack Straw's column in the me. We then had a really interesting debate Blackburn-based Lancashire about veil wearing. This itself contained some Telegraph, which prompted the debate surprises. It became absolutely clear to me that the husband had played no part in her decision. "It's really nice to meet you face-to-face, Mr She explained she had read some books and

138 thought about the issue. She felt more reflect on what the lady had said to me. Would comfortable wearing the veil when out. People she, however, think hard about what I said — in bothered her less. particular about my concern that wearing the full OK, I said, but did she think that veil veil was bound to make better, positive relations wearing was required by the Qur'an? I was no between the two communities more difficult. It expert, but many Muslim scholars said the full veil was such a visible statement of separation and was not obligatory at all. And women as well as of difference. men went head uncovered the whole time when I thought a lot before raising this matter a in their hajj — pilgrimage — in Mecca. The year ago, and still more before writing this. But if husband chipped in to say that this matter was not me, who? My concerns could be misplaced. "more cultural than religious". I said I would But I think there is an issue here.

alive. One glance took away Jack Straw thinks that the veil makes people feel separate, but that depends on who my freedom you are. Certainly, when among Muslim women, The Times, 7th October 2006 it made me feel as if I belonged. But should it not always be up to a woman what she wears? Some ANN TRENEMAN women are told to wear the burka, others choose to. There is a world of difference. There was one BEHIND THE VEIL moment, in Basra, that summed it up for me. It was absolutely boiling and I had spent all EVERY time that I have worn a veil it has been morning in a courtroom. The electricity wasn't for a man. The first man working and so there was my editor, and so was no air-conditioning. obviously had to be The judges, who had on obeyed. It was five years suits, were swimming in ago and, after seeing all sweat. I was almost those women in those comatose. I took a break billowing tents with eye- and went outside. There grills in Afghanistan, he I saw a woman who asked me to wear one looked an apparition: around Tunbridge Wells. I she was a black shade did feel a bit of a fraud but, from top to toe (burka, other than that, I wasn't disgusted by it all: veil, gloves, socks). There was no sign of indeed, in many ways my new identity made me humanity there except that, in one gloved hand, feel safer. she held a palm fan which she frantically waved The next time was when I went to Basra a at herself. few months after the war in 2003. I had been I peered at her in disbelief. I said to a friend inside the country for about ten seconds when that, given the heat, her outfit seemed insane. the driver asked me if I would mind covering up. "It's probably not her choice," he said. "Her Since, at the time, he was driving with great skill husband will require her to do this." on a very dodgy road that was prone to I slumped against the wall. I, too, was all in kidnappings, I immediately began to cover up. He black except for my hands and my feet, which apologised but said that it made him feel more were in sandals. After a while, a man came over comfortable. In Basra, most women wore the full and pointed at my feet. I looked down and saw crow's outfit when out in public. that my burkha had risen up a bit and that my feet It was August and incredibly hot (60C) and and one ankle was showing. He said I had to dislike of foreigners was festering by the day. cover them up. I did (there were riots that day in Soon, the only safe way to work was swathed in another part of town) but I hated doing it. For, with black. Guy de Maupassant wrote that Saudi that command, he had taken away my freedom women in their 360-degree black cloaks look "like to choose. death out for a walk" but, in Basra, it kept me

139 I would prefer women not to wear the veil at all, says Straw The Times, 7th October 2006 By Anthony Browne Chief Political Correspondent

JACK STRAW increased tensions with sections of Britain's Muslim community over use of the Islamic veil yesterday by declaring his opposition to women wearing them at all. The Leader of the Commons faced anger from Muslim groups, but won backing from, among others, the Prime Minister, a bishop and a Muslim peer. Mr Straw, the MP for Blackburn, where one in five of his constituents is Muslim toured broadcasting studios setting out his concerns that the growing use of veils that cover the face was damaging community relations. He had disclosed in a Lancashire newspaper that he had been also send signals to Muslim women to keep away asking constituents if they would mind removing from his surgery, leading to refusal to participate the niqab covering their faces during meetings, in the democratic process." so that he might see their facial expressions. He On Thursday Massoud Shadjareh, of the defended the right of Muslim women to wear a Islamic Human Rights Commission, accused, Mr headscarf. Straw of discrimination. Yesterday, asked by BBC radio if he would But some Muslim representatives were in general prefer women not to wear veils, he more sympathetic, and there was support from said: “Yes. I'm not talking about being prescriptive other sources. Daud, Abdullah, of the Muslim but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather." Council of Britain, said: "This [veil] does cause He insisted that he was opposed to the veil some discomfort to non-Muslims. One can being banned by law, but said that it was a visible understand this." The Labour peer Baroness sign of difference that was "bound to make better, Uddin told GMTV yesterday that there was a positive relations between the two communities need for debate, declaring: "It is about human more difficult.” rights on both sides — Jack’s right to say and the "Communities are bound together partly by women’s right to wear what they please." The informal, chance relations between strangers, Right Rev Richard Chartres, the Bishop of people being able to acknowledge each other in London, said: "I can understand why he has said the street or being able to pass the time of day," it." he said. That is made more difficult if "people are Hazel Blears, the Labour Party wearing a veil. That is just a fact of life." chairwoman, said all sections of the community The Prime Minister's official spokesman needed to discuss the Muslim veil and should not said yesterday that opposition to the veil was not shirk the subject because of its sensitivity. government policy, but that Tony Blair "believes it One minister told The Times: "Jack is is right that people should be able to have a pursuing a really important issue. He is not discussion and express their personal views on isolated. We need an honest debate: how much issues such as this". is it reasonable for Muslims to allow the State to Ahmed Versi, the editor of Muslim News, adapt to their religion. We can't just say 'yes' to said that it had become "open season to everything." demonise Islam", adding: "Straw's action will A telephone poll by the BBC also showed exacerbate fragile community relations. It will overwhelming public sympathy, with 93 per cent 140 supporting his views. especially middle-aged white politicians, were Mr Straw, who has held Blackburn for going to tell them how to dress? It was a nice Labour since 1979, did not wade into the debate idea but, disappointingly, it proved not to be the accidentally. He started thinking about the issue case. In this area a great many abide by the about a year ago after a meeting with a Hanafi philosophy, which advocates the wearing constituent wearing a veil, at which he was of veils. disconcerted by his inability to see her facial Many said that they always dressed this expressions. way and that Mr Straw was irrelevant. When He said: "I had observed that, although it is asked about the rumpus he has caused by still a tiny minority, more women were wearing asking Muslim women who come to his the veil and picked up quite considerable constituency surgery to remove their veils, some concerns about this being a rather visible just shook their heads and gestured as if swatting demonstration of separateness." away a pesky fly. He has since been discussing the issue not There was little doubt, though, that Mr just with Muslim women, but also with MPs and Straw's remarks, made through his column in a ministers, and raised it at a conference organised local newspaper, had left a lot of Muslims, male by the Muslim Council of Britain in June. "He is and female, feeling angry. Many would not talk not out on a limb," a colleague said. "People and those that would were reluctant to give their understand it is an issue, and have been names. One woman called her husband on her generally supportive." mobile telephone to ask whether she should But he was bound to provoke anger for speak to the press. He told her: "No." wading into an issue that has become At one point, as I stood in the streets of increasingly sensitive among Muslim groups. Brookhouse, near Mr Straw's constituency home, Islamic countries, namely Turkey and Tunisia, interviewing a 23-year-old woman in a burka, a pioneered legal bans on the veil. France bans car driven by a Muslim man pulled up. He wound religious symbols, such as the Islamic veil, from down the window and shouted at my interviewee: state schools. "Don't talk to her. Ignore her. She's just being A Muslim woman has been left "extremely nosey." Happily, because she was articulate on shocked and upset" after a man shouted racial the subject, she took no notice. "I think [Jack abuse at her and snatched her veil as she waited Straw] has got a point, but to expect women to at a bus stop, Merseyside Police said. The take their veil off, I don't think it's fair," she said. incident, in Liverpool, is being treated as a "hate "You can't tell people how to dress within their crime". The woman, 49, from the Toxteth area, own culture. I have worn [a burka] since I left high was waiting for a bus yesterday morning when school because it is what I am most comfortable the attack by the man, described as white and in with." his sixties, occurred. One woman phoned her local radio station to say that Mr Straw had once asked her to remove her veil at a meeting and she had Anger and refused. Rukhsana Aslam, 20, was outraged by Mr headscarves on Straw. "He cannot start asking women to remove their veils and scarves," she said. "I feel sinful for streets of Blackburn not wearing my veil all of the time in public." By Carol Midgley Not all women were affronted by Mr Straw. In a newsagent's shop, Shazhad, 28, and IT MIGHT just have seemed this way but every Pravina, 53, (not their real names) both said that Muslim woman in Blackburn appeared to be they chose not to wear burkas. Pravina said wearing a veil yesterday. In greengrocers' shops, many women did it to please their husbands. "I post offices, launderettes, everywhere you don't think that's much of a life," she added. looked black headscarves seemed, quite Shazhad said she thought it was "bad manners" conspicuously, to be the order of the day. to wear a burka in a one-to-one situation. Could the Muslim women of Blackburn be One thing that many seemed agreed on making a mass two-fingered gesture to Jack was that Mr Straw had used the issue to get Straw, a message of defiance that nobody, himself on the front pages. 141 Why Muslim women should thank Straw The veil is not a religious obligation - it is a symbol of the subjugation by men of their wives and daughters

The Times, 9th October 2006 Saira Khan of the Koran for women to wear the veil. MY PARENTS moved here from Kashmir in the The growing number of women veiling their 1960s. They brought with them their faith and faces in Britain is a sign of radicalisation. I was their traditions. But they also arrived with an disturbed when, after my first year at university understanding that they were starting a new life in in 1988, I discovered to my surprise that some of a country where Islam was not the main religion. my fellow students had turned very religious and My mother has always worn traditional had taken to wearing the jilbab (a long, flowing Kashmiri clothes — the salwaar kameez, a long gown covering all the body except hands and tunic worn over trousers, and the chador, which face), which they had never worn before and is like a worn round the neck or over which was not the dress code of their mothers. the hair. But no one in my immediate family— They had joined the college's Islamic Society, here or in Kashmir—covers their face with a which preached that women were not considered nikab (veil). As a child I wore the salwaar kameez proper Muslims unless they adopted such strict at home — and at school a typical English school dress codes. After that, I never really had uniform. My parents never felt that the uniform anything in common with them. compromised my faith; the important thing was It is an extreme practice. It is never right for that I would fit in so that I could take advantage a woman to hide behind a veil and shut herself of all the opportunities school offered. I was the off from people in the community. But it is hockey team captain and took part in county particularly wrong in Britain, where it is alien to athletics: how could I have done all of this the mainstream culture for someone to walk wearing salwaar kameez, let alone a veil? around wearing a mask. The veil restricts My mother has worked all her life and women, it stops them achieving their full potential adapted her ways and dress at work. For ten in all areas of their life and it stops them years she operated heavy machinery and could communicating. It sends out a clear message: "I not wear her chador because of the risk of it do not want to be part of your society." Some becoming caught in the machinery. Without Muslim women say that it is their choice to wear making any fuss she removed her scarf at work it; I don't agree. Why would any woman living in and put it back on when she clocked out. My a tolerant country freely choose to wear such a mother is still very much a traditional Muslim restrictive garment? What these women are woman, but having lived in this country for 40 really saying is that they adopt the veil because years she has learnt to embrace British culture they believe that they should have less freedom — for example, she jogs in a tracksuit and swims than men, and that if they did not wear the veil in a normal swimming costume to help to men would not be accountable for their alleviate her arthritis. uncontrollable urges — so women must cover-up Some Muslims would criticise the way my so as not to tempt men. What kind of a message mother and I dress. They believe that there is does that send to women? only one way to practise Islam and express your But a lot of women are not free to choose. beliefs, forgetting that the Muslim faith is Girls as young as three or four are wearing the interpreted in different ways in different places hijab to school — that is not a freely made choice. and that there are distinct cultures and styles of Girls under 16 should certainly not have to wear dress in Muslim countries stretching from it to school. And behind the closed doors of some Morocco to Indonesia. But it is not a requirement Muslim houses, women are told to wear the hijab 142 and the veil. These are the girls that are hidden Muslim problems but, unlike other communities, away, they are not allowed to go to universities, they are never openly debated. It is children and they have little choice in who they marry, in many women who suffer as a result. cases they are kept down by the threat of Many moderate Muslim women in Britain violence. will welcome Mr Straw's comments. This is an So for women such as them it was opportunity for them to say: "I don't wear the veil absolutely right for Jack Straw to raise this issue. but I am a Muslim." If I had been forced to wear Nobody should feel threatened by his comments; a veil I would certainly not be writing this article — after all, the debate about veils has been raging I would not have the friends I have, I would not in the Islamic community for many years. To have been able to run a marathon or become an argue that non-Muslims have no right to discuss aerobics teacher or set up a business. it merely reinforces the idea that Muslims are not This is my message to British Muslim part of a wider society. It also suggests, wrongly, women - if you want your daughters to take that wearing the veil affects only Muslims. Non- advantage of all the opportunities that Britain has Muslims have to deal with women wearing a veil, to offer, do not encourage them to wear the veil. so why shouldn't their feelings be taken into We must unite against the radical Muslim men consideration? I would find it impossible to deal who would love women to be hidden, unseen and with any veiled woman because it goes so deeply unheard. against my own values and basic human I was able to take advantage of what Britain instincts. How can you develop any kind of a has got to offer and I hope Mr Straw's comments social relationship with someone who has shut will help more Muslim women to do the same. themselves away from the rest of the world? But my argument with those Muslims who would And if we can't have a debate about the veil only be happy in a Talebanised society, who turn without a vocal minority of Muslims crying their face against integration, is this: "If you don't "Islamophobia", how will we face other issues, like living here and don't want to integrate, then such as domestic violence, forced marriages, what the hell are you doing here? Why don't you sexual abuse and child abuse that are rife in the just go and live in an Islamic country?" Muslim community? These are not uniquely

143 We don’t yet live in an Islamic republic so I will say it - I find the veil offensive

The Independent, 9th October 2006 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Jack Straw's politics usually make me either furious or bilious. That fake sincerity, that oily handshake he extends to "ethnic minorities", his understand nothing about the sacred Islamic immoral support for the war in Iraq, and the texts, the struggles for gender equality, the unholy fiefdom he runs in Blackburn - the list is history or the unpleasantly sexual symbolism of long. Suddenly the expedient appeaser has what they claim is just one more lifestyle choice. come out against the veil and I find myself "Oh, I won't have that green coat, think it is the agreeing with his every word. It is time to speak black shroud for me. Suits me better, don't you out against this objectionable garment and face think?" down the Islamicists. Britons who support them are clueless Straw has been denounced as about the silent march of Wahabism. I have been Islamophobic by these ideologues who have uncomfortable for years about the rapid spread reverted to what they do best, group blackmail. of the hijab, too, because for Islamicist puritans it Just as reactionary have been the views of is the first staging post on a road map that leads feminist white women who attack Straw for being to the burqa, where even the eyes are gauzed aggressively prescriptive. As a man, they say, he over. Some young hijab wearers say they feel has no business telling women what to wear. As wanton and must go "higher" to the niqab. So an MP, I say, he has an obligation to express his when does this country decide that it does not concerns to his constituents. We don't yet live in want citizens using their freedoms to build a an Islamic republic where men and women are satellite Saudi Arabia here? forced to live on separate planets. We can't answer that question, because Millions of Muslims in Europe abhor these Islamicists say we are not allowed such national obscurantists for the way in which they have conversations. Straw isn't allowed because he is brain-washed young women to seek subjugation. a white man; Parliament can't because there is It breaks our hearts. After all, caged creatures no Muslim woman MP in it; I'm not allowed often prefer to stay in their cages even after they because I am a bad Muslim. Well, stuff that, I say. have been freed. I don't call that a choice. This, garment offends me, and here are my A liberal nation has no obligation to extend reasons why. its liberalism to condone the most illiberal The sacred texts have no specific practices, as long as it ensures genuine equal injunctions about covering the hair or face. The standards for all. Much of Europe still treats veil predates Islam and was common among the Muslims as undeserving inferiors, as underdogs. Assyrian royalty, Byzantine upper-class Muslims are victimised, feared, hated and Christians, and Bedouins - men and women - excluded. Our own government has not tackled when sandstorms blasted their faces. Women the racism or the disadvantages. Instead it from the Prophet's family covered themselves, it blames us for failing to stop terrorism. The media is said, to prevent harassment from petitioners. lurches drunkenly between pandering to Muslim The son of Umar, a companion to Prophet separatists and maligning us all as the aliens Mohamed, asked his wife to veil her face. She within. It is hard to be a Muslim today. And it replied: "Since the almighty has put upon me the becomes harder still when some choose stamp of beauty, it is my wish that the public deliberately to act and dress as aliens. should view this beauty and recognise this Grace The young women in niqab who claim they unto them." Nice one, lady, and my views exactly. have made the decision without coercion In the 10th century, veils were imposed 144 across the Middle East to diminish the status of The sexual signals of the hijab and niqab women. Female chastity and "honour" became are even more suspect. These coverings are jealously guarded. The customs never spread far. physical manifestations of the pernicious idea of You don't find the niqab in Bangladesh, Pakistan, women as carriers of Original Sin, whose faces Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand. A witness or hair turn Muslim men into predators. In account in Turkey in the 14th century noted that Denmark, a mufti said unveiled women asked for women's faces there were always visible. In rape. As if to order, rape by Muslim men of white 1899, a Muslim writer, Quasim Amin, wrote a women is rising alarmingly. In truth, half-naked treatise, "The Emancipation of Woman", in which women and veiled women are both solely defined he proved that the veil was not an inviolable part by sexuality. One group proffers it, the other of revealed Islam. His ideas incensed conformist withholds it. A young girl in a boob tube and a Muslim women, who attacked his gender, not his young girl in a hijab are both symbols of arguments, just as now. He inspired secularists unhealthy sexual objectification. Western culture like Ataturk in Turkey and the Shah of Iran who, is wildly sexualised and lacking in restraint, but too dictatorially, forbade the veil. there are ways to avoid falling into that pit, and The Iranian revolution turned that into a the veil is not one of them. cause, and the modern re-covering of women, The niqab expunges the female Muslim voluntary and imposed, took off. In Iran, educated presence from the landscape and hands the women who fail stringent veil tests are world over to men. It rejects human imprisoned by their theocratic oppressors. They commonalities and even the membership of are branded whores and beaten. It is happening society itself. The women can observe their in Iraq, Palestine and Algeria too. In Afghanistan, fellow citizens but remain unseen, like CCTV the Taliban are back pushing girls and women cameras. They dehumanise themselves and us. back into the home and full burqa. Instead of There are practical issues too. I have seen expressing solidarity with these females, appallingly beaten Muslim women forced into the sanctimonious British niqabis are siding with their niqab to keep their wounds hidden. Veiled foes. women cannot swim in the sea, smile at their Exiles from these regimes who fled to the babies in parks, feel the sun on their skin. West now find the evil has followed them. As Women can wear what they want in their Saba, a lawyer from Saudi Arabia, said to me: homes and streets, but there are societal dress "The Koran does not ask us to bury ourselves. codes. Public and private institutions should have We must be modest. These fools who are taking the right to ask citizens to show their faces to get niqab will one day suffocate like I did, but they will goods and services. Hoodies and crash-helmet not be allowed to leave the coffin. They are wearers already have to. Why should niqab choosing something they don't even understand.'' wearers be exempt?

“supporters” Niqab nonsense proclaiming this The Daily Telegraph, 20th October as some sort of 2006 - Leader column victory in an undeclared Holy War. The cult of victimhood has a new heroine. It is nothing Aishah Azmi, the classroom assistant who of the sort. The insisted on wearing her niqab when in the wearing of a veil presence of men (though not, apparently, when is a political and she was interviewed by a man for the job) has cultural been awarded £1,100 for “injury to her feelings”. statement, not a Kirklees council had had the temerity to tell religious one, her to remove the veil when teaching because and the sooner pupils said they found it hard to understand her. this is more Mercifully, her claims of religious discrimination widely and harassement were thrown out. Yet that is recognised, the less likely it will be that we have unlikely to prevent Miss Azmi and her a repeat of this nonsense. 145 of separation. And what worries me is that it's a BAN IT ! way of subjugating women." Daily Express, 21st October 2006 Labour MP Ann Cryer, whose constituency in Keighley, West Yorkshire, has a large Muslim By Paul Broster population, said she feared the high-profile Azmi case could spark a welter of copycat legal action and Padraic Flanagan by militants. And if that happened, The veil is outlawed she warned, legislation may even by some Arab be needed to enshrine in law countries so why must a ban on veils being worn in we put up with it here? classrooms and other civic buildings - which could mean PRESSURE was mounting on-the-spot fines and the last night for veils to be withdrawal of state benefits. banned in Britain - just as they Mrs Cryer said it was are in some Muslim countries. "totally unacceptable" to wear And rebels plotting fresh a full veil in front of young court protests were given a children and said an outright blunt warning by lawmakers: ban would be needed if "Carry on, and we will bar people kept "pushing the you." boundaries" over the issue. The threat came amid a "We're in very, very public outcry over the costs difficult circumstances. I'm not being racked up by teaching sure this young lady, Aishah assistant Aishah Azmi as her Asmi, understands the lawyers, funded by taxpayers, problems she's creating," said continued their fight for her Mrs Cryer. right to wear a veil in class. Mrs Cryer went on: "If Daily Express readers the people wearing the veils responded in massive do this with thought and numbers to a poll on the crisis, consideration for others with 99 per cent calling for the veil to be banned including the children, we shouldn't need a ban. in schools, increasing pressure on the "But if they're going to push the boundaries Government to act. ever further, it may be that a ban has to be A ban would see Britain following many of introduced. I hope we don’t get to that point. It all its European neighbours, along with depends on the people concerned. It's in their predominantly Muslim countries like Turkey and hands. Tunisia in outlawing traditional Islamic Mrs Azmi, 24, emerged from her first-floor headscarves in public schools and buildings. Mrs flat in Dewsbury, and walked arm-in-arm in front Azmi, who is studying to be a full-time teacher, of photographers with two elderly white did not wear a veil when she was interviewed for neighbours along her street. her classroom assistant job by a panel which Earlier she had walked with her husband included a male governor. Ahmed Khan, an Indian-born medical graduate Tory MP David Davies urged the who wears western clothes including jeans. Government to examine what other countries He later returned home with newspapers so had done to discourage or outlaw the wearing of the couple could read reports of Thursday's the full veil in public . Leeds tribunal ruling that she was not "We should give it serious consideration discriminated against by Kirklees education too. It's been banned in many countries, including chiefs who suspended her for refusing to show Muslim ones. The time may have come for us to her face while teaching. consider the same thing," said the MP for Mrs Azmi cannot apply for legal aid but is Monmouth. eligible for "special funding" from a taxpayers pot "Tony Blair was right to say that it is a mark of cash available from the Lord Chancellor's 146 office for people who contest tribunal decisions. Even if she fails, her legal team at Kirklees Other nations ban Law Centre have promised to carry on representing her. them, so why can’t we The centre is funded by taxpayers' money from the Legal Services Commission and do the same? Kirklees Council, the local education authority, TURKEY For the past 80 years Turks have lived which suspended her following her refusal to take in a secular state where headscarves were off the veil. rejected as backward-looking - despite the It means the council have been forced to Muslim majority. Sixty per cent of women cover use council taxpayers' money to fight their case their heads, but scarves are banned in schools against her - and is also funding her case against and universities. The European Court of Human them. Rights has backed the ban. If Mrs Azmi succeeds in pressing her case TUNISIA In 1981 the father of modern Tunisia, as far as the European Court of Justice, the bill to Habib Bourguiba, banned the hijab in public the taxpayer could reach £250,000. offices and schools in this Muslim country. His Shahid Malik, Labour MP for Dewsbury, successor, Zine al-Abidine ben Ali, went even said it was clearly inappropriate to wear a full veil further in 1994 by reforming the country's when teaching children. education system to purge it of all Islamist He added that Muslim parents had influence. contacted him to say they would not send their children to a school where teachers wore them, HOLLAND A year ago parliament voted to ban for that reason. the burka outright. The proposal would make this If a local education authority or school set one of the first European countries to ban it in rules banning the full veil, he said, "that would be public. In Utrecht unemployment benefits are cut eminently sensible". for burka-wearers, on the grounds that the veil He added: "Why is there only one case in prevents employers from hiring them. the country? It's because there probably is only one person teaching in a school wearing the veil. BELGUIM The town of Maaseik criminalised the We have one isolated case." wearing of the burka and the niqab in public Urging Mrs Azmi to back down, he added: places two years ago, levying an £85 fine for "She has to realise she's not campaigning for offenders. Last year Antwerp and Ghent were Muslims. They're not interested. They don’t see it among places banning the burka in public and as a fight." they have now started issuing £100 spot fines. Tory leader David Cameron waded into the FRANCE A ban on Muslim headscarves and row, warning that the debate sparked by other conspicuous religious symbols at state Commons Leader Jack Straw's disclosure that schools was introduced in 2004 in a country he asked women to remove full veils in meetings, where the separation of state and religion is could be harmful. He said: "There Is a danger of enshrined in law. However, scarves can be worn politicians piling in to have their ten-pence-worth in Muslim schools and at university level. and really they have to ask themselves whether this is having an overall good effect or not." ITALY In September 2004 politicians in the north He was also concerned that British Muslims resurrected old laws introduced by Mussolini were feeling "slightly targeted." against the wearing of masks to ban the burka. In Reefat Drabu, chairman of social and family July 2005 parliament approved anti-terrorist laws affairs at the Muslim Council of Britain, said the which make hiding one's features from the public veil was not obligatory for women. an offence. She warned that Mrs Azmi's approach was GERMANY In Germany in 2003 a court ruled in "exacerbating the misunderstanding" of Islam favour of a teacher who wanted to wear an and making things harder for Muslims in Britain. Islamic scarf to school. However, it said states could change their laws locally. Now the hijab is banned in seven out of 16 states. Bavaria insists on the ban, saying the scarf had become a symbol of extremism. 147 In the book Sarajevo - A Biography by Robert proclamation of women’s equality,” he J. Donia (2006), on the section dealing with proclaimed. “But unfortunately women cannot the social transformations in Bosnia after the achieve the full expression of that equality, as second World War, the following extract from they are inhibited by wearing the veil and gown.” this work (pages 217 to 220) explains the On November 1, 1947, the Sarajevo-based vigorous efforts made by the Muslim Supreme Islamic Council of Yugoslavia (Vrhovno establishment to effect the abandonment of islamsko starješinstvo FNRJ) endorsed the the veil, which, with the assistance of Reis’s position and assured Muslims that “the government legislation eventually proved veiling of women is not required by religious successful: code. Muslim women, as regards religion, are More than any other group, the Muslim free to walk about unveiled and tend to their women of Sarajevo suffered from traditional affairs.” The council urged Islamic leaders to barriers to social advancement. Most spent the “spread this message to the broadest levels of majority of their time sequestered in their homes, our peoples, to approach the topic without spite and while in public most wore a veil or a head-to- in a favorable manner without the use of force ... foot robe (feredža) that included a veil. Their since harmony and brotherhood are most traditional attire was an impediment to necessary to us.” These religious leaders hoped employment in many shops and factories. Muslim that Muslim women would voluntarily give up women had a low literacy rate and endemic wearing their veils and robes, thereby, avoiding health problems, and until 1945 they had not government-imposed measures: “If possible, this been allowed to vote. The Antifascist Women’s problem [should] be solved by only Muslims as a Front took aim at each of these problems in the purely Islamic matter.” late 1940s.... Despite the best efforts of progovernment The Antifascist Women’s Front of Bosnia- Islamic leaders, the campaign encountered Herzegovina launched a campaign at its second staunch resistance, especially among women congress in 1947 to encourage women to outside of Sarajevo and among Muslim men. abandon the veil. Removing the veil, in the words Statistics compiled by the women’s front showed of the congress’s resolution, began a “life without that 95 percent of Sarajevo’s Muslim women had inequality and without enslavement of one abandoned the veil by late 1950, but fewer than person by another, a life in which there shall be 50 percent had done so in other towns of Bosnia- no darkness and backwardness.” As soon as the Herzegovina. Faced with widespread resistance resolution was adopted, Šemsa Kadić, a to the unveiling campaign, the Bosnian Assembly delegate from Travnik, demonstratively removed resorted to compulsion to end the practice her veil to the applause of the assembled completely. Legislation banning the veil was delegates, and on her urging other Muslim introduced by Džemal Bijedić, who was later to women followed suit. The next three years the become Yugoslavia’s prime minister and organization sponsored rallies and held meetings emissary to nonaligned nations. Passed on to encourage other Muslim women to shed their September 28, 1950, the law declared a ban on veils. The crusading women approached the wearing the veil, “with the goal of ending the effort with infectious revolutionary enthusiasm. centuries old symbol of inferiority and cultural Prominent male political leaders were enlisted to backwardness of Muslim women.” Violators were endorse the effort. Veils were ceremonially subject to fines and to prison sentences of up to removed at rallies held in neighborhoods and three months. Veils soon disappeared in enterprises, particularly in the tobacco and Sarajevo, and resistance to unveiling elsewhere factories that employed large numbers of women. in the republic was gradually overcome as well. The newly-designated Reis-ul-ulema, The second key to improving the status of Ibrahim Fehić, led a group of progressive, women, particularly Muslim women, lay in progovernment Islamic leaders in endorsing the education.... anti-veiling campaign. In his inaugural address Because the traditional barriers to women’s on September 12, 1947, Fehić praised the advancement were stubbornly held, educational achievements of the people’s liberation war and parity probably could not have been achieved in denied rumors that the new Yugoslav constitution the absence of the government’s compulsory was at odds with Islamic law. “One valuable measures to end the veiling practice. legacy of the liberation war of our peoples is the Reproduced with the kind permission of publishers Hurst & Company, London 148 Chapter 8

Two articles now follow on the subject of the origins of the veiling of Christian women. It will be seen that the reasons for the old Christian practice have nothing to do with the reasons argued by the Muslim supporters of the headscarf in its various guises. In Christianity the veiling of the woman indicated God’s decreed order of things: that the woman was under the authority of the man, although this was not meant to imply that woman was inferior to man.

they are inspired by God and are to be kept. Paul The Christian Veiling wrote in II Thessalonians 2:15: "Hold the By Leland M. Haines traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." By "traditions" Paul no I. THE SCRIPTURAL BASIS doubt meant the whole body of teachings -- "Now, I praise you, brethren, that ye remember doctrinal and practical -- he had transmitted to me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I them either verbally, during his missionary visit, delivered them to you" (I Cor. 11:2) or by letter. In the same letter Paul wrote, "Withdraw yourselves from every brother that Paul introduces his discussion on the walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition Christian woman's veiling by praising the which ye received of us" (3:6). This shows Paul Corinthian Christians for their faithfulness in believed his teachings held high importance. In observing and practicing the "all things." These the Corinthian passage before us, he again past instructions properly occurred when Paul stress this importance: "keep the ordinances." was in Corinth "a year and six months, teaching What other reasons do we need to keep the the word of God among them" (Acts 18:1). In the ordinances "delivered" to us from Christ through discussion that follows, he will confirm what he the apostles (I Cor. 11:23)? had previously taught them; he is not introducing new doctrine. The term traditions is used also in Matthew 15:2, 3, 66; Mark 7:3, 5, 8, 9, 13; Galatians 1:14; Apparently Paul wrote to answer questions Colossians 2:8; and I Peter 1:18. There about the basis of the veiling. Undoubtedly most "traditions" are man-made practices and of the Corinthian church's sisters followed the teachings that nullify the Word of God and make correct practice of the veiling because of the it of no effect. They are "not after Christ" (Col. opening remarks that they "remembered me in 2:8) and for this reason are condemned. This is all things." This conclusion is also supported by not the type of tradition Paul is writing to the this conciliatory opening that differs sharply from Corinthians about. the next section's opening, where Paul wrote, "Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you Concerning the word translated "tradition," not, that ye come together not for the better, but H. S. Bender writes: for the worse" (11:17). The sense of this English word is hardly fair Beginning with this conciliatory remark was to the Greek for we include a derogatory an effective and proper method to introduce this implication in the concept. A tradition to us is subject because the Corinthians' faithfulness something scarcely reliable, a partly vague deserved praise. This set Paul's readers in a mythological affair. But this is not the Greek at all. mood to learn more about the basis of the veiling. Paradosis is simply something "given out" or "given over" by one to another for keeping. From The Greek word paradosis, translated the hands of the teacher or preacher it might be ordinance in the King James Version and either simple facts, narrative or descriptive, or tradition in many new translations, is used in I doctrines or usages. Here it is doubtless meant to Corinthians 11:2 and in II Thessalonians 2:15 and include the sum total of Paul's instruction. [1] 3:6. In each case Paul was referring to oral and In summary, the main point we learn from written traditions that represent Christian doctrine Paul in 11:2 is that the veiling was among the as well as practical areas of Christian living. traditions or ordinances he praised the These traditions are expressions of God's will; Corinthians for keeping. 149 "But I would have you know, that the head In the divine order there is a unity in of every man is Christ; and the head of woman is relationship in its gradual subordination: God - the man; and the head of Christ is God" (v. 3). Christ - man - woman. The dependence and submission of the lower to the higher is one of In v. 3 Paul gives the basis of the veiling lovingly yielding to the divinely appointed ordinance. By the opening words, "I would have headship. This relation and trust, which is built you know," he indicates he wants us to upon love, will be carefully exercised in wisdom. understand the principle of the divine order and It will also be directed toward the good of the next to know God's plan for relationships within His lower one. Thus the lower person should have no family. The meaning behind this ordinance will be fear that he or she will be treated unfairly. explained to the believers, as were all ordinances. Peter also spoke of the proper relationship between man and woman. He wrote, "Likewise, Before he declares the relationship of ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands" woman to man, Paul points to the relation man and "likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them has to his Head, Christ. Man is not free to do as according to knowledge, giving honor unto the he pleases; he has a Head. Just as the human wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being body is controlled by its head, man too is heirs together of the grace of life; that your controlled by his Head, Christ. prayers be not hindered" (I Pet. 3:1, 7). Thus we see this relationship was not just a Pauline Because Paul first stated that man is teaching. subject to a Head, women should not be surprised or feel inferior that "the head of woman "Every man praying or prophesying, having is the man." Headship implies a leadership his head covered dishonoureth his head. But function and does not mean one person is inferior every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with to another. Paul emphasized this twice in other her head uncovered dishonoureth her head" (vv. epistles (Eph. 5:21-33; Col. 3:18-25). 4-5a).

The next statement, "the head of Christ is After explaining the divine order, Paul God," helps us understand the meaning of this clearly states what is physically upon a man's or relationship. The "headship" of man to woman is woman's head is important because it reflects the to reflect the headship of Christ to God. The order divine order. Men should pray or prophesy between God and Christ makes Christ no less (speaking "to exhortation, edification, and God but shows that headship exists even on the comfort," 14:3) with their heads uncovered, and divine level. Between God and Christ, God the women should have their heads covered (KJV) Father takes the leadership and initiative roles. or veiled (ASV, RSV). To do otherwise shows disregard of the divine order and thus brings We find an expression of this leadership dishonor to one's head. role in Christ's experience in going to the cross. In Gethsemane Christ "went a little further, and The Greek word translated "covered" is fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, katakalupto. It is a compound word of kata if it is possible let this cup pass from me: meaning "down" and kalupto meaning "to cover nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Mt. up." This covering that hangs down is perhaps 26:39). Christ the Son was submissive to the best described by the English word "veil." Father. The relation between man and woman is to be characterized by the woman voluntarily When man wears a special covering such accepting man's leadership, so long as it does as the Jewish Tallith (prayer cap), he is telling not violate the will of Christ. Woman should others that has abdicated his place in the divine lovingly accept her place in the divine order and order to accept a lesser position. This brings be as complete and joyous with man's headship dishonor to his Head, Christ, because it shows as Christ is to God's headship. Just as Christ was man's disregard for Christ's lordship by not highly exalted, the Christian woman will too be accepting the place and purpose that has been exated by her acceptance of the divine order. given to man in creation. Since Paul is writing about praying or prophesying, which are spiritual

150 exercises, man should not wear any special type obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will of head covering carrying a spiritual significance. learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the God has established the veiling as an church" (I Cor. 14:34-35). In another letter Paul emblem of servitude. Thus it would be contrary wrote similarly, "Let the women learn in silence to the divine principle of headship for man to with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to wear one. This meaning of the veiling originates teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to with God and not with society. In many cultures be silent" (I Tim. 2:11-12). These two statements the veiling still has this meaning, even among show that women are not to prophesy in church non-Christians. As Wenger points out, these meetings. This should help us understand where cultural practices only confirm the divine will and woman is to wear the veil. It is to be worn are not the source of the veiling's meaning. [2] wherever these activities occur, not just in church Just because God's will and a cultural practice meetings. Of course, the Christian woman would agree, it should not lessen our acceptance that naturally be veiled in church meetings, even the practice originates in the will of God. though she would not prophesy there, since she could silently pray there. The woman's veiling symbolizes her voluntary acceptance of her place in the divine In summary, both men and women are to order. When she "prayeth or prophesieth" with live within the divine order God has established. her head unveiled, she brings dishonor to her This is not degrading to either but uplifting, since head, man. This occurs because she is indicating it is the will of God. Both will experience joy by that she has stepped out from under his authority living within God's plan, and many problems will or leadership and is challenging his position in be prevented in the home and society. And man the divine order. Not to wear the veiling implies and woman will bear witness to their desire to live freedom from submission to man. For a woman within the divine order and under the lordship of to be bareheaded is to tell the world that she Christ as they faithfully observe this ordinance. stands on equal ground with man in leadership responsibilities. "For that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her When a woman is unveiled during prayer or also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to prophesying, she not only dishonors her own be shorn or shaven, let her be covered" (vv. 5b- head, man, but also Christ. Christ is dishonored 6). by her disobedience to God's headship plan. All who adopt their own plans in preference to the Paul had just written, "But every woman revelation given in the inspired Word bring that prayeth or prophesieth with her head dishonor to Christ by rejecting His Word and uncovered dishonoureth her head." Next he said lordship. that if she rejects God's established veiling standard, she might just as well go the whole way Paul uses the same terms “praying and and lose all her dignity through shaving her head, prophesying” to describe both man's and which would bring shame upon herself. woman's area of activities. Paul does not modify them, for instance, by writing of "praying and A woman has dignity when she accepts her prophesying in the church." Wherever these place in God's established order. To pray or activities occur, man is to be unveiled and woman prophesy bareheaded causes her to lose this veiled. dignity and brings shame upon her. Bender stated: "Put to shame really means to disgrace - From v. 5 it might seem at first that Paul deprive of proper dignity and honor." [3] The allows women to pray or prophesy wherever they shame she would bring upon herself is the same wish so long as they are properly veiled. But this as if her head were "shaven." In other words, to is not the case; other instructions govern where be unveiled is as shameful an act as if she would women may prophesy. Paul wrote in the same cut off her hair and cleanly shave her head. What letter, "Let your women keep silence in the woman would not be ashamed of herself if she churches: for it is not permitted unto them to cut off her hair and shaved her head? Since no speak; but they are commanded to be under woman would want to appear with a shaven

151 head, Paul says that she should be covered with next gives several statements that support what a veiling. he has just written. He could have let the matter stand on his apostolic authority alone, but Lenski writes: through the guidance of the Holy Spirit he went on to further explain its basis. Paul presents two alternatives regarding women to the Corinthians: either shorn or The first of these statements points back to covered. Or, to carry it to its climax in both Creation. A man indeed ought not to cover his directions: either both covering and hair head since he heads the human race and has completely removed or a covering over the hair. been created in the image and the glory of God. The key to these alternatives is the conditional The Creation account tells us, "God said, Let us clause: "now if it is a shame for a women to have make man in our own image, after our likeness: herself shorn or shaven." This condition of reality, and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth" which implies that it would certainly be a shame, (Gen. 1:26). Man was created first, and woman expresses a universal feeling and conviction was created as a helpmate for him (2:18-23). regarding women (with a corresponding Man's being in the "image of God," among other conviction regarding men, v. 14). We may things, means he is to master and subdue the express it in this way: It is the intent of nature that earth. He is the controlling one, but he is not left women should wear long hair. Back of nature is alone in his task; he has a helpmate, woman. the Creator. A beautiful head of hair is the natural crown which God has given to a woman. Made Thus man might be considered God's vice for man, she is to be attractive to him, and one of regent in this world, the one who is to govern her great attractions is her beautiful hair. Hence God's kingdom in His absence. In this he exhibits to discard it is shameful for her. . . . This matter of the image and glory of the Creator. As part of this, being merely uncovered is in reality only an man was given certain spiritual responsibilities, inconsistency. She stops halfway. She only spoken of here as praying and prophesying. compromises. Halfway positions and When these are exercised, man should clearly compromises are untenable. Hence, let her carry show his headship over the creation. Therefore out the idea of its legitimate and logical he should exercise these responsibilities without conclusion: "let her also have herself shorn" . . . any sign of subjection such as a prayer cap or it cannot be denied that leaving the head veiling. uncovered is a grave step in the wrong direction, the outrageous nature of which appears fully The woman, however, was fashioned to be when it is carried to its consistent limit by man's helper. She is the glory of man inasmuch discarding also the hair, having it shorn, or by as she makes his exalted position in creation going to the absolute limit in the wrong direction, manifest. When she accepts his leadership, she having all of it shaved off with a razor - then let acknowledges his rightful place in the divine the women do the complete and consistent thing order. When Paul wrote of "the glory of man," he in the right direction: "let her have herself was speaking principally of man's headship covered." Then there will be no question in position. Paul was not speaking about a spiritual regard to shame or honor in regard to her relation; therefore, he did not use the term image. position as a woman having a man as her head "Image" would have been unsuitable because it according to the Creator's design. [4] could give the impression that the divine image is "For a man indeed ought not to cover his not present in woman. head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. For "For this cause ought the woman to have the man is not of the woman: but the woman of power on her head because of the angels" (v. the man. Neither was the man created for the 10). woman; but the woman for the man" (vv. 7-9). This is one of the difficult verses in the New Having established the principle of divine Testament, and there has been much comment order, and having stated the importance of the about it. The first part of the verse is clear. "For veiling in both man's and woman's lives, Paul this cause" refers back to the preceding facts

152 surrounding the creation of man and woman. violated the order by appearing bareheaded. Let Because of the creation events, the woman the women remember this when they should have "power" on her head. It is generally contemplate such bold steps." [5] agreed that the word "power" when interpreted in the context of these verses can only mean the As Shetler points out, the full significance of veiling of the head. The term translated "power" this phrase may not be understood by us, but it in the King James Version would perhaps be must be important for the Christian woman to better rendered "authority." The veiling becomes wear the veiling because the angels are involved. a symbol of this authority, i.e., "a symbol of [6] authority" (NASB), "sign of authority" (NIV). This translation avoids any connection with the idea "Nevertheless neither is the man without that the veiling conveys some magical power on the woman, neither the woman without the man, the user. in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of The difficult part of this verse is the ending God" (vv. 11-12). phrase, which gives another reason for the veil "because of the angels." There have been many The preceding verses emphasize that the suggestions as to what Paul meant here. To divine order calls for man to exercise a position of understand its meaning let us first look at these leadership and woman is to follow his leadership. created beings, the angels. From the psalmist we Paul next cautions man that he should not learn that angels are special servants of God: interpret these principles in such a way that "Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in would mean the depreciation of woman. He strength, that do his pleasure" (Ps. 103:20-21). opposes this on the grounds that both are They are special ministers of the Lord and carry dependent on each other in their spiritual lives as out His will. They were created in a slightly higher they are in their physical lives. position than man: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? . . . Thou madest him a little lower The relationship of man to woman is one of than the angels" (Heb. 2:6-7; cf. v. 9). mutual dependence; they complement each other in their headship relationship. This means The psalmist explains one of the angel's they exist together and neither one can stand ministries: "For he shall give his angels charge alone. "In the Lord" can be understood more over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall clearly if one looks at what Paul wrote about it bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy elsewhere: "There is neither male or female: for foot against a stone" (Ps. 91:11-12). This function ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). There is emphasized by the author of Hebrews; when is no distinction when it comes to salvation and speaking of angels he writes, "Are they not all living the Christian life. Both have high value and ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them are "one in Christ Jesus." The headship Paul who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Heb. 1:14). Part discusses is about a difference in function of the of this ministry involves being "guardians" over two and not one of value. There is no superiority man (Mt. 18:10; Ac. 12:15), which makes them or inferiority of those in Christ. Although man and well aware of man's activities (I Cor. 4:9; I Tim. woman have distinctive and different 5:21). responsibilities in the area of leadership, this must not become a competitive relationship. Understanding angels' ministries and their Rather, their relationship should be a relation to believers, "because of angels" must complementary one. imply that they are aware of a woman's attitude and whether she is in the proper order when Neither man nor woman can argue from praying and prophesying. Apparently she should nature her or his independence or try to lower the not offend them by getting out of God's ordained value of the other. The mere headship role of order. Bender wrote, "From the context we are man or physical motherhood of woman should forced to the conclusion that Paul conceived of not become grounds for strife between the two. the angels as concerned in keeping the divine The origin of the woman and the fact that man is order of society intact and hence would be born of woman show that neither is independent directly affected and concerned when a woman of the other. When either begins to think too

153 much of his importance, he should consider that long hair (John 12:3). This gives us a glimpse of "all things [are] of God." Both originate from God the hair length of one of Jesus' disciples. It was and whatever they are is not of themselves but long enough to wipe Jesus' feet. because of their Creator's will and design. Miller wrote: If one keeps in mind Paul's meaning of headship, that it involves a functional difference When God says long hair is a glory to a and not a difference of value, there should be no woman and shorn hair is a shame for her, why danger that this teaching on divine order will be should any heart that loves Him seek to get as abused. far away as possible from that which He calls a glory and try to get as close as possible to that "Judge in yourselves; is it comely that a which He calls a shame? When God calls a thing woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even a shame, then we had better continue to do so nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long also, even though our current sub-Christian hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have society may drift far from His standard of what is long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given shameful or glorious. [7] her for a covering" (vv. 13-15). The Christian woman should arrange her long hair in such a way that is consistent with her Paul next appeals to his readers' own veiling and not display her feminine glory before common sense to show that it is proper that a men to attract them. Paul uses the word glory, not woman pray veiled. Does not God teach through to infer that the Christian woman's hair should be His creation that a woman's head should be shown off, but in the sense that it is a special part covered? of her feminine endowment. The Christian woman also should not forget other scriptural Nature teaches us that it is proper for teachings that her adornment should be an inner woman to have long hair and man to have short beauty, not one of outward show "with broided hair. Man's hair rarely grows with such beauty as hair" or "outward adorning of plaiting the hair" (I woman's, indicating there is a difference between Tim. 2:8-9; I Pet. 3:3-5). These Scriptures show the two concerning the covering of their heads. If that fancy hair arrangements have no place in the woman by nature has such long hair, it would be Christian's life. "womanish" for a man to have long hair, and thus shameful for him to have it. Long hair is womanly Paul writes about the woman's long hair since it is a natural constitution of her sex. that "her hair is given for a covering." It is a natural covering indicating that she should be Woman conforms to her nature when she veiled. Some persons have suggested that the keeps her hair long. Long hair is a natural symbol hair is given her to be "the covering," the only one of her position in the divine order and one of the required. It is true that her long hair is a natural most beautiful assets she has: "It is a glory to covering, but she is to add a second covering, the her." When women cut their hair to be veil. Paul is using her long hair as an illustration fashionable, they lose this natural, beautiful to support the idea that a veiling is needed. This symbol. They act contrary to feminine nature as can be seen when one examines the Greek given by God. words translated "covering." Paul uses two different words. The word translated "covering" in Many have tried to lessen the force of this v. 15 is peribolaion, which is different than teaching by asking, "What is meant by long hair?" katakalupto used in vv. 4, 5, 6, and 7. This The answer to this question should be simple for suggests there is a difference in the hair covering the Christian woman. If she has a question about and the veiling. Peribolaion indicates "something how long is long, she should let the Father thrown around one, i.e., a mantle, veil, covering, determine the length of her hair. When He vesture." [8] This suggests how the hair, the determines the length we can surely say she has natural covering, should be worn. long hair. Common sense reasoning indicates that John, in his gospel, writes about Mary the hair is not the veiling Paul wrote about earlier. anointing Jesus' feet and wiping them with her Verse 6 reads, "If a woman be not covered, let

154 her also be shorn." If her hair is the covering, and remembered me in all things, and keep the she be not covered, she would have her hair ordinances, as I delivered them to you" (11:2). removed and it would make no sense to talk Paul's desire for unity was not just for the local about letting her be shorn. To be shorn would church: he wanted unity throughout the Church. involve cutting the hair off a second time! This unity existed in the Church on the veiling teaching. We know this from his comments at the That the hair is not the covering (veiling) end of his discussion. He disposed of those who can be seen in v. 4, where Paul wrote about man wanted to be contentious about the veiling by having his head covered. Having it covered while appealing to the Church's united position on this praying or prophesying would involve putting on teaching (I Cor. 11:6). hair during those times and removing it at other times. This hardly makes sense if the hair is the Today the situation is different. Even though covering. Who would advocate that man is to the Protestant Church until the late 1800s and take his hair off during prayer or while the Roman Catholic Church in general held to prophesying? Paul is not teaching that men some aspects of this teaching until the 1970s, should be bald. only a few churches remain faithful to this teaching today. Why has this change taken "But if any man seems to be contentious, place? What reasons are given for rejecting a we have no such custom, neither the churches of teaching so long held by the Church? God" (v. 16). The reasons generally given against Paul closes his discussion on the divine practicing the headship veiling teaching are that order and the veiling by rebuking anyone who (1) it was a local and temporary practice, (2) it is wishes to become contentious over the necessity a trivial matter, and (3) the hair is the covering. of man's head being uncovered and woman's head being veiled. Those who remain deaf to the The first reason is the one most frequently reasons given will have to be silenced by Paul's given. Erdman writes, "All will agree that most of authority and general church practice: "We have the instruction which Paul gives concerns a no such custom, neither the church of God." All custom of dress which was merely local and followed the practices Paul wrote of in this temporary." [9] This assertion is unacceptable for chapter. It was not just a local church practice at the following reasons: Corinth. It was a universal practice in the Church. 1. Paul specifically stated in v. 16 that he Men still universally pray and prophesy with and "the churches of God" observed these uncovered heads in the churches. The teaching practices. This was not just a local dress custom, that woman should be veiled was also universally as Erdman states. It was taught throughout the practiced until the twentieth century. This practice Church. This conclusion is not based only on v. has a biblical basis and should be followed today 16, but on other statements made in the letter. It by all Christian women. is shown in Paul's statement to the Corinthians about why he sent Timothy to them. He sent him II. A TEACHING FOR TODAY to "bring you into remembrance of my ways At the beginning of I Corinthians, Paul which be in Christ, as I teach every where in appealed to the Corinthian Church in these every church" (4:17). It is shown in his writing on words: "By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, marriage when he wrote, "So ordain I in all that ye all speak the same thing, and that there churches" (7:17). What Paul taught the be no divisions among you; but that ye be Corinthian believers was taught in all the perfectly joined together in the same mind and in churches. the same judgment" (1:10). He wanted the Corinthians to agree and have no dissension; Church history also shows that this teaching they all were to understand the truth and stand was widely practiced. Clement (153-217) of united behind it. It was reported to him that there Alexandria and Tertullian (145-220) of northern was quarreling among them, but apparently this Africa spoke of the veiling. Clement included did not involve the teaching on the headship teaching on the subject in his book Instruction. veiling, for he commended them "that ye This guide taught on the meaning of the Christian

155 life. Tertullian mentioned the veiling in several of possible and did their utmost to beautify their hair. his writings and wrote a thesis entitled "On the We cannot, therefore, accept the idea that is Veiling of Virgins," which dealt with the question advanced by not a few of the best commentators of the veil applying to unmarried sisters. This that in our passage Paul refers to the practice of issue arose because Paul used the Greek term the prostitutes and intends to tell the Corinthian gynee for the term women. Some questioned if women that, if they pray or prophesy with gynee included the unmarried, but they did not uncovered heads, they act the part of a lewd question the veiling in general. Today we accept woman. [11] gynee as meaning "any adult female [virgins are As Shetler has pointed out, one would have included]." [10] We have, therefore, very early expected Paul to make the following type of evidence that Paul's teaching was followed not statement if the Corinthian culture was only in Corinth. The headship veiling was not just influencing this teaching: "For the present time I a local, temporary practice; it was universally would have you women to be veiled and you men practiced in the early Church. The writings of remain unveiled, so that your new-found freedom these early Church fathers also indicate their in Christ be not misunderstood. I do not want you practice was different from that of the non- brethren at Corinth to disregard your Corinthian Christian society. husband-wife mores, so that through this the outside public will stumble at what they consider 2. The bases for Paul's teachings are as impropriety." [12] binding today as they were two-thousand years ago. The relation within the divine order has not 5. Christ permanently established several changed: it is still a disgrace for a woman to be ordinances in His Church. They are baptism, shaven, the history of creation remains the same, communion, feet washing, the woman's veiling, the function of angels remains the same, and the holy kiss, anointing with oil, and marriage. nature still shows that woman's long hair is a Although these ordinances may have some glorious aspect of her femininity. Since the bases things in common with Jewish or other cultural of Paul's teaching all remain in effect today, why practices, Christ made them symbols of specific shouldn't Paul's conclusion that woman is to be Christian truths. They are intended to symbolize veiled still be binding? these truths and keep them alive among God's people. They are new instructions and represent 3. If the Corinthian women's hair and veiling God's will for the Church. was only a local and temporary issue, Paul used a completely different style of writing in this 6. The teaching on communion found in 1 passage than he used elsewhere. When he Corinthians 11:17-34 is almost universally taught that one's actions should be modified observed in the Church. On what grounds is this because of cultural considerations, he always teaching accepted and the teaching on the explained these considerations. Examine, for veiling, found in the first part of the same chapter, instance, his teachings about meat and idols rejected? Who gives one authority to reject any found in Romans 14 and in I Corinthians 8 and part of God's Word? True Christians will accept 10:14ff. He clearly taught what the Christian point the whole Bible as the revelation of God. of view was, and when and why cultural considerations should cause one to do otherwise. 7. We can see the importance Paul placed on this teaching when we examine his view on 4. Paul made no mention of the view of the preaching of the gospel. When he explained Corinthian society regarding prostitutes and the why he baptized only a few at Corinth, he said veiling in this passage. There is no evidence that that he did so because some might think he their views influenced his writing. Lenski confirms baptized in his own name (I Cor. 1:15). He did not this: want this to happen because, as he wrote, "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" As far as prostitutes are concerned, all the (v. 17). He would not have brought the veiling evidence that has been discovered proves that teaching to this church if it was not an important only a few of the very lowest types had shorn or part of the gospel. His concern that the gospel be shaven heads. As a class these women preached with clarity was too great to risk endeavored to make themselves as attractive as confusing the gospel with the veiling teaching if it

156 was not an important part of it. 4. The reason the headship veiling teaching In summary, we have strong evidence that is found only in I Corinthians is that the Holy Spirit the veiling was not just a local and temporary guided only Paul to give an answer for a clearer practice but a permanent one, to be followed in understanding of this practice. We know, as all churches throughout time. mentioned above, it was taught and practiced in all the churches (I Cor. 4:17; 7:17; 11:16). The second argument against the practice of this teaching is that veiling is a trivial matter 5. The veiling speaks to a very important since only Paul wrote about it in one letter. This issue: the relation of men and women. Many must be rejected because of the following problems in the family and society are caused by reasons: the divine headship order being ignored. God established the veiling to keep alive the proper 1. Paul's teaching in I Corinthians 11 is a order between man and woman. If this teaching part of God's Word. The Holy Spirit guided the was followed, God's order for men and women in New Testament writers: "All scripture is given by the Church would not be ignored. This is not a inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, trivial teaching but an important, serious one. for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (II Tim. 3:16). From this we can The third reason given by some for the conclude that this portion of Scripture is profitable Christian woman not to be veiled is that her hair for all believers today. is given as the covering, and no additional veiling is required. This objection has already been Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He answered in Part II of this study, but it will be was called by Christ to teach His will. Christ said, reemphasized here. "[Paul] is a chosen vessel unto me; to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the 1. Paul uses two different terms for the word children of Israel" (Ac. 9:15). Paul had authority to translated "covering" in the King James Version. write for Christ, which is acknowledged in I In v. 15 where it is connected with the hair, he Corinthians: "The things I write unto you are the uses peribolaion. In vv. 4, 5, 6, and 7 it is commandments of the Lord" (14:37). katakalupto. This shows there is a difference between the hair covering and the veiling. 2. It should not be necessary for God to tell His children more than once what His will is. A 2. Plain reasoning tells us the hair is not the born-again person will listen the first time; he covering Paul wrote of vv. 4, 5, 6, and 7. Verse 6 does not need to be told again and again. He will reads, "If a woman be not covered, let her also be act in simple obedience because he has shorn." If her hair is the covering and she be not repented and has been born again to become a covered, she would already have her hair disciple of Christ. The disciple will not try to get removed. It would make no sense to write about around God's Word by proposing confusing letting her be shorn. This would involve removing interpretations or by asking questions that need the hair twice! answering before a passage can be accepted. How many times must a Christian be told before 3. In v. 4 Paul writes about man having his he will act? Once should be enough. head covered. If the hair was the covering, this would involve taking off the hair during prayer or Why can't this teaching be accepted when prophesying and putting it back on at other times. taught only once in the Scripture? Most This is an absurdity! Christians are willing to accept the commandment to baptize in the name of the Common sense shows that the hair is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when told only once. the covering or veiling Paul is writing about to the Why can't we accept this one? Corinthians; he is writing about the veiling.

3. God's commands are never trivial. They The veiling is an important Bible teaching each represent a challenge to one's faith. When that should be accepted in the Church today as one disobeys, this shows lack of obedient faith. an ordinance. We have seen that Scripture

157 clearly teaches its practice. And it has the activity must be done specifically to show the earmarks of an ordinance. The generally ordinance's spiritual truths. Thus the "covering" accepted earmarks of an ordinance are (1) there must be something that is worn only for the are definite words of institution, (2) it was given purpose of being a symbol of woman's by divine authority by an apostle chosen by subordination to man. It must be designated for Jesus Christ, and (3) it requires a literal act to be the purpose of showing the divine order. A practiced that has a spiritual significance. The protective covering or a stylish hat do not meet teaching on the Christian woman's veiling this requirement. possesses all of these. It is appropriate that the form of the veiling Paul's concern for unity in the Church be defined by the church. As with the other involved the veiling teaching. Christians today Christian ordinances and teachings, the exact should heed his appeal to "speak the same thing, form of the veiling is not given in the Bible. But and that there be no divisions among you" (I the Church can find some general guidelines on Corinthians 1:10). Let us pray that all Christians the form of the veiling in Paul's teaching on it. In will come to a greater knowledge of God's plan vv. 4 and 5 Paul uses the Greek term to keep the divine headship principle alive in the katakalupto. This word, as stated earlier in this Church through a faithful observance of this study, is a compound one, composed of kata, ordinance. meaning "down," and of kalalupto, meaning "to cover up." This "hanging down" covering is III. ITS PRACTICE perhaps best described in English by the word We have seen that God has established "veiling." From this one would expect the veiling that men are to pray and prophesy with their to adequately cover the head. heads uncovered and women are to be veiled when praying and prophesying. In Part II of this The term veiling has been used throughout study it was shown that this teaching is for the this study. It is a better term than the term Church today. The questions now to be covering. Its use helps to avoid the confusion in discussed are "How is this teaching to be some minds that the hair or a hat will serve the applied?" and "When and where is it to be purpose in this passage. It also has more of a practiced?" symbolic religious connotation.

The Scriptural Form We can also get indications on the form of the veiling from Paul's statement that the "hair is First, in applying this Scripture, one must given as a covering" (I Cor. 11:15). The natural realize that the veiling is a symbol of a biblical, hair covering is used to show the need for a spiritual truth. Therefore, one should expect its veiling. These two forms of the "covering," the physical makeup to convey a spiritual meaning. one natural and the other artificial, should cover Many have suggested that an ordinary hat is an the same area. The Greek term peribolaion, adequate "covering." But this cannot be accepted translated covering in v. 15, indicates that the hair since ordinary hats are not intended to be is "something thrown around one, i. e., a mantle, symbols of Christian truths and thus do not veil, covering." This suggests the hair should be convey the spiritual principles of divine order put on the head. If the veiling is to cover the same taught in this passage. area, the Church should specify a veiling form that adequately covers the woman's hair and When other New Testament ordinances are head. considered, one can see that a special form of the covering is required, one that is worn only to The form of the veiling has been defined fulfill the requirements of this passage. Just as differently by different churches in different parts baptism is not simply getting wet with water or of the world. Historically there have been two communion is not just eating bread or drinking, general forms of the veiling, a long veil that hangs so the covering is not just a physical covering. down over the shoulders [13] and a close fitting When one does a physical activity that is the "cap" type. same as that done in observing an ordinance, he is not necessarily observing the ordinance. The The Amish, Brethren in Christ, Church of

158 the Brethren, and Mennonites have historically church," or different ones, for the man "in the had a thin white veiling that fitted closely to the church" and for the woman "at home." But head. I believe this is adequate. As Wenger omitting reference to a place, Paul says this: wrote, "The American Mennonite Church sees no "Wherever and whenever it is proper and right for other satisfactory alternative than to retain the a man or for a woman to pray or to prophesy, the chaste and simple European veil as the most difference of sex should be marked as I indicate." suitable application of the New Testament [15] command for women to be veiled." [14] This The woman, as the man, is to be always in veiling form has value because it has been the a prayerful spirit. Jesus taught that "man ought recognized veiling. But the change it has always to pray, and not faint" (Luke 18:1). This is undergone in the last one hundred years needs emphasized in the epistles: "Pray without to be reversed if it is to come closer to the biblical ceasing" (I Thess. 5:17) and "continuing instant in and early Church style. This change would prayer" (Rom. 12:12). Prayer is to be a frequent require it to become larger, having very wide activity and not one limited to church services. covering "strings" that hang down over the The veiling is not a "church veiling" but should be shoulders - in short, becoming a veiling. worn whenever the woman prays. The fact that this is to be a frequent activity suggests a I would think Christian women in these continuous wearing of the veiling; otherwise, she churches should want to accept this historical would be constantly putting it on and taking it off. veiling. They should not make changes to forms that may be closer to their own liking, which in Furthermore, doesn't the Christian woman the end make their veiling symbols of disorder in prophesy more in her home and in other areas of the Church and of individuality instead of divine everyday life than in public worship? According order. They should accept the Church's historical to the Scriptures, "the women [should] keep standard and not become contentious or silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto rebellious over the details of the veiling form. We them to speak" (I Cor. 14:34), and "let the woman live in an age where everything is questioned, learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not and each one does his own thing. But this is not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the the way Christians should act. They should "do man, but to be silent" (I Tim. 2:11-12). The all things without murmurings and disputing: that Christian woman should not prophesy in a public ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of worship service. God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as We must not think, however, of prophesying lights in the world" (Phil. 2:14). as an event that occurs only in public worship services. In defining the term, Paul wrote, "He The Scripture Times that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation and comfort" (I Cor. The second area we would like to address 14:3). There is nothing in this definition that would concerns when and where the veiling is to be limit it to public worship services. worn. Paul wrote that the woman should be veiled when she prays or prophesies (I Cor. 11:4, Lenski's writings help clarify when and 5, 13). From this some conclude that the veiling where this prophesying is to occur. should be worn only in the church worship services. But the wearing of the veiling should not An issue has been made of the point that be limited to church worship services. Paul speaks of a woman as prophesying as though it were a matter of course that she should As Lenski wrote, prophesy just as she also prays, and just as the man, too, prays just as she also prays and It is quite essential to note no modifier is prophesies. Paul is said to contradict himself attached to the participles to denote a place when he forbids woman to prophesy in 14:34-36. where these activities were exercised. So we on The matter becomes clear when we observe that our part should not introduce one, either the from 11:17 onward until the end of chapter 14 same one for both the man and the woman, for Paul deals with the gatherings of the instance, "worshiping and prophesying in congregation for public assemblies. The

159 transition is clearly marked: "when ye come wearing a veiling and at the same time by having together," i.e., for public worship, v. 20. In these short hair, which witnesses against it. public assemblies Paul forbids the woman, not only to prophesy, but to speak at all (14:14-36) Another area of concern is the wearing of and assigns the reason for this prohibition just as hats. It would be inconsistent for a woman to he does in I Timothy 2:11, etc. wear a veiling patterned according to God's will It is evident, then, that women, too, were and a fashionable hat that is patterned by a sinful granted the gift of prophecy even as some still society along non-Christian standards. Christian have this gift, namely, the ability to present and to women should wear headgear that follows properly apply the Word of God by teaching Christian principles and that can be consistently others. And they are to exercise this valuable gift worn with the veiling. in the ample opportunities that offer themselves. So Paul writes, "praying and prophesying with A Christian woman who wears a veiling reference to the women just as he does with should also be consistent in the area of dress. reference to the men. The public assemblies of The veiling should be worn along with simple and the congregation are, however, not among these modest dress as taught in the Bible (I Tim. 2:9ff.; opportunities - note . . .in the assemblies," 14:34. I Pet. 3:1ff.). Notice that these Scriptures speak At other places and at other times women are both about dress and woman's submissiveness, free to exercise their gift of prophecy . . . The that is, her place in God's order. The I Timothy teaching ability of Christian women today has a passage speaks to the reasons woman is to be wide range of opportunity without in least the submissive, and in doing so it points to the same introducing itself into public congregational creation account Paul used in the I Corinthians assemblies. [16] 11 passage. The I Peter passage also speaks to an area Paul raised in I Corinthians 11, that of The veiling is a symbol that constantly hairstyle. Woman is not to outwardly adorn reminds the woman of the importance of God's herself with fancy "braiding of the hair." order. Although Paul speaks only of wearing the veiling during times of praying and prophesying, In practicing the wearing of the veiling, it it cannot be concluded that these are the only should go without saying that there must be times to wear it. It is not to be quickly put on when concerns about attitudes related to the divine these activities occur and then quickly removed order. This ordinance, as all ordinances, is only a when they are over. The Christian woman should symbol of a Christian truth. Its practice has no be willing to give her witness that she is aware of intrinsic merit. For the veiling to be a blessing, the her place in God's order, not only during the Christian woman who follows its practice must public worship services, but at all times. That also live within the divine order. It is always a witness is clearly needed in our society today. must to keep the significance of divine order and veiling together. The veiling symbol is to keep The principles of this passage are not alive the proper relationship between man and drawn out of a public worship context but rather woman. There can be no special blessing out of a creation context. Woman's naturally long accommodating obedience to the veiling practice hair was given in creation as a witness too. Since unless the submissive attitude to which the they complement each other, it will appear they veiling speaks is alive and visibly present with the should be worn at the same time. Since the person. The blessing will come to the Christian natural hair covering is worn continuously, the woman who possesses the inner attitude that veiling should also be. corresponds to the spiritual meaning of the veiling. The woman who wears the veiling and A Consistent Witness inwardly rebels and is "bossy" will find it of little value unless she allows it to bring about a The headship veiling and long hair are change in attitude in her life. inseparable. For Christian women to wear a veiling on top of cut hair is inconsistent. Both In closing, we all know that too often speak to the same principle of divine order and twentieth-century mans disregards God's order. cannot be separated. One can hardly bear a If ever in the history of mankind witness to God's positive witness to the principle of divine order by divine order was needed, it is today. The

160 Christian woman can be an effective witness to praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all society by wearing the headship veiling as a things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered symbolic sign that she has accepted her rightful them to you" (I Cor. 11:2). They will surely receive place in God's order and wishes to continue to a blessing for remaining faithful. do so. She should not fail to take advantage of this opportunity. ENDNOTES During the last one hundred years, there 1 H. S. Bender, "An Exegesis of I Cor. 11:1- has been a dynamic shift in the relation of man 16," an unpublished manuscript in the Mennonite and woman in society, and there is almost a Historical Library, Goshen College, Goshen, Ind., complete disregard of the veiling practice in p. 5. professed Christendom. No new biblical 2 J. C. Wenger, The Prayer Veiling in discoveries have brought about this change; it Scripture and History, Scottdale, Penna.: Herald seems to be just a part of the general falling away Press, 1964, p. 9. that has occurred. The language of I Corinthians 3 Bender, p. 7. 11:2-16 is not hard to understand. Most 4 R. C. H. Lenski, Interpretations of I and II Christians generally agree with what it teaches. Corinthians, Columbus, Ohio: Wartburg Press, Too many professing Christians just do not follow 1946, pp.339, 440. biblical teachings in everyday life. They 5 Bender, p. 14. consistently find easy ways to explain them away. 6 Sanford G. Shetler, Paul's Letter to the This reflects the state of the Church today and its Corinthians, 55. A.D., Harrisonburg, Va.: attitude toward the Word of God and the Christian Light, p. 93. importance of "obedience of faith." 7 Paul M. Miller, The Prayer Veiling, Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference, 1953, I believe many Christian women would be p. 11. willing to wear the veiling as the symbol of their 8 James Strong, The Exhaustive place in God's order, if there was a change in Concordance of the Bible: . . . Greek Dictionary, attitude toward the Word and the importance of New York: Abingdon, p. 57. discipleship and obedience was taught. Christian 9 Charles Erdman, The First Epistle of Paul women need to hear a clear voice of certainty to the Corinthians, Philadelphia: Westminster about Bible teachings in these days of Press, p. 97. uncertainty and skepticism. It is time for church 10 William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, leaders to change their wrong attitudes toward A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, the Bible. This will result in a change in attitude Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979, p. toward the divine order and the veiling. These 168. leaders are largely responsible for the failure of 11 Lenski, p. 439. modern woman to accept her place in God's 12 Shetler, p. 80. order and the general breakdown of the 13 See Andre Grabar, Early Christian Art, "Christian" home in America. Present-day New York: Odyssey Press, 1968. pp. 58, 68, 100, Christianity has become a religion of 119, 120, 210, 211. convenience and American culture because the 15 Lenski, pp. 436, 437. Church has taken a similar attitude toward other 16 Lenski, pp. 436, 437. Bible teachings as it has toward I Corinthians ______11:2-16.

Those Christians who follow the veiling teaching should be encouraged to remain faithful from The Christian Veiling, © copyright 1996 by in their "obedience of faith" to Jesus Christ. Their Leland M. Haines, Northville, MI. witness to and acceptance of the divine order is needed in these last days. These should receive praise just as Paul praised the Corinthians: "I

161 nor is man independent of woman. 12 For as the The Biblical Practice woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things of Headcovering originate from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: is it Dr. Brian Allison proper for a woman to pray to God with head uncovered? 14 Does not even nature itself teach What does the Bible teach about you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to headcovering? Should women wear a him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory headcovering today in the Church, or was this to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering. practice peculiar to the early Church? Was the 16 But if one is inclined to be contentious, we wearing of a headcovering simply an stopgap have no other practice, nor have the churches of measure to address the cultural concern of God. prostitution? Should we not view a woman's hair as her headcovering? The questions can be Let us work progressively through this multiplied. Have you asked questions similar to challenging passage. these? There is much confusion over this issue of headcovering, and discussion on it is often The introductory statement to the argument controversial. In this booklet, I want to present a Biblical exposition on this much misunderstood It is critically important to understand that practice. Are you open to be instructed from the the introductory statement to this argument on Scriptures or have you already made up your headcovering sets the context and stage for mind? If the Bible teaches the propriety of a properly understanding the teaching that the Christian woman wearing a headcovering, will apostle Paul gives--"Now I praise you because you obey and conform to that Scriptural practice? you remember me in everything, and hold firmly Do you believe that God's Word is authoritative to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you" and relevant for today? (11:2). We need to take note of the distinct language that the apostle uses. Often, when we The passage that teaches on headcovering is deal with this question of headcovering, we fail to 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. It reads: view it within its proper setting, and thus fail to acknowledge its true ethical character and 2 Now I praise you because you remember import. me in everything, and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you Paul first commends these Corinthian to understand that Christ is the head of every believers for obeying and carrying out what he man, and the man is the head of a woman, and had taught them, especially the traditions. They God is the head of Christ. 4 Every man who has had generally accepted and acknowledged every something on his head while praying or authoritative apostolic teaching and instruction, prophesying, disgraces his head. 5 But every and had both tenaciously adhered to, and woman who has her head uncovered while complied with, all of them. Paul initially praying or prophesying, disgraces her head; for commends their obedience because, first, he she is one and the same with her whose head is would require the same response to the teaching shaved. 6 For if a woman does not cover the which he was about to give (or rehearse?); and head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is second, he would encourage them to evidence disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or the same obedient attitude concerning her head shaved, let her cover her head. 7 For a headcovering. His praising them prepares for and man ought not to have his head covered, since anticipates a subsequent appeal to them. Again, he is the image and glory of God; but the woman this introductory statement is critically defining for is the glory of man. 8 For man does not originate understanding the importance and necessity of from woman, but woman from man; 9 for indeed headcovering; for the logical conclusion, from man was not created for the woman's sake, but appreciating the apostle's point here, is that woman for the man's sake. 10 Therefore the headcovering constitutes part of the traditions; for woman ought to have a symbol of authority on having made reference to their obedience to the her head, because of the angels. 11 However, in traditions, the apostle immediately addresses this the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, matter. 162 The term which is translated 'traditions' (Gk. to the traditions," just as he had taught them, he - paradosis) is used thirteen times in the New has in mind teaching that involves a practical and Testament; and it means teaching which has observable demonstration of truth, entailing been passed on or handed down from one group religious and historical value. The practice of to another, and which typically entails the idea of headcovering, as mentioned, is identified as part customary practice. It is teaching which has of the 'traditions', and thus must be viewed as an recognized and established historical and ethical and religious practice, with recognized religious significance, relating to outward or historical roots, to which obedience and visible conduct; and thus assumes the form of conformity are required. conventional propriety. Thus, the apostle affirms, with respect to headcovering, "But if anyone is The foundational principle of the argument inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice [Gk. - sunetheia; i.e., custom], nor have One foundational principle governs and the churches of God" (11:16). This term undergirds the apostle Paul's argument on 'traditions' is found in other Scripture passages. headcovering--"But I want you to understand that For instance, the Pharisees and scribes Christ is the head of every man [Gk. - aner; challenged Christ, "Why do your disciples 'male'], and the man is the head of a woman, and transgress the tradition [paradosis] of the elders? God is the head of Christ" (11:3). This For they do not wash their hands when they eat foundational principle underlies and provides the bread [a long-standing practice or custom]" (Matt impetus and support for the subsequent 15:2; cf. Mk. 7:3-13). Needless to say, the teaching. Before actually addressing this 'traditions' were to be highly esteemed, and practical matter (and the confusion of these implied moral and religious obligation. Corinthian believers) concerning headcovering, Paul first presents the truth which would guide This term paradosis is used three times with and navigate his thinking. The practice of respect to Christian teaching. Apart from its use headcovering is not rooted in personal in 1 Corinthians 11:2, the term is used in 2 preference or culturally-occasioned exigencies, Thessalonians 2:15, "So then, brethren, stand but rather in the Biblical teaching on the divinely- firm and hold to the traditions which you were ordered authority structure. The wider context in taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter which we are to understand this particular from us;" and again in this same epistle, 3:6, practice is the lines of authority which God "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of ordained and instituted with the original creation, our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep aloof from and reaffirmed (in light of the Christ-event) in the every brother who leads an unruly life and not new creation of the Church. according to the tradition which you received from us." The apostle proceeds to specifically God is the head or authority of Jesus Christ, identify the tradition in view: "For you yourselves the God-man, Who willingly subjected Himself to know how you ought to follow our example [lit. the will of the Father as the incarnate second imitate us], because we did not act in an person of the Trinity. Christ is the head or undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat authority of the man (i.e., the male) who was the anyone's bread without paying for it, but with first of the sexes to be created. The man is the labor and hardship we kept working night and head or the authority of the woman who was day so that we might not be a burden to any of created from man in order to be his helper. God you" (vv. 7,8). Notice that in referring to the has duly ordained an authority structure in order 'tradition' here, the apostle identifies it in terms of to ensure harmony and order. Authority requires visible practice or observable behaviour. It refers submission. to ethically acceptable behaviour. It touches on appropriate moral and religious conduct. It is Now, Paul is not primarily addressing the teaching that is to be demonstrated in how one issue of the authority structure in the home, lives. The proper and only response therefore to though the principle he is presenting applies to a Christian 'tradition' is obedience. the home. Though the teaching definitely and specifically refers to the husband and wife Accordingly, when Paul says in 1 relationship, the original Greek terms should not Corinthians 11:2 that these believers held "firmly be understood as 'husband' and 'wife', but rather

163 as 'male' and 'female', though the actual customary headcovering."1 Hence, having laid application of the subsequent teaching has in the foundational Biblical principle which would view primarily, not exclusively, husbands and guide his logic and application, the apostle Paul wives. Again, the apostle is articulating the now proceeds to identify and address the issue creational lines of authority (i.e., what is the God- or problem concerning the propriety and ordained functional relationship between the legitimacy of headcovering. Who is to cover the sexes). Further, in viewing this male-female head?--"Every man who has something on his relationship creationally, it does not mean that we head [lit. down the head; e.g., a veil or tallith] should view it pervasively; that is, every female is while praying or prophesying, disgraces his head. not practically subordinate to every male, and in But every woman who has her head uncovered every conceivable situation (i.e., a woman may [i.e., nothing on the head; e.g., a veil] while be an employer, under whom are male praying or prophesying, disgraces her head; for employees). she is one and the same with her whose head is shaved" (11:4,5). The apostle does not present So, Paul argues according to God's original the full rationale for who is or who is not to cover design of creation. The creational order is clearly the head until after (see 11:7) he first states who in his mind, and not simply individual is and who is not to cover the head, adding what relationships. This is obvious as we read further it means if such a required practice is not carried on in the passage when Paul refers to the actual out, depending upon the sex. creation of the male and female, which supports and further develops Paul's main thesis or If a male has 'something' on his head while foundational principle (see 11:8,9). Again, though praying or prophesying, he then disgraces his this particular truth has specific relevance and head, that is, his ruling head or authority, namely, application to a husband-wife relationship Christ (see v. 3); and if a female has her head (particularly as the practice of headcovering is uncovered (i.e., no veil, kerchief, etc.) while carried out in public worship), the specific context praying or prophesying, she disgraces her head, in which Paul applies the teaching is in the that is, her ruling head or authority, namely, the Church, not in the home, nor even in society at husband [or father, if unmarried]. Calvin writes, large. Paul's concern in writing this epistle is "Someone asks if Paul is speaking of married primarily the conduct and protocol required in the women only. It is true that some restrict what Paul Church. It is clear that this practice of teaches here to married women, because headcovering is a Church matter, rather than a subjection to the authority of a husband does not universal or domestic one. First, the general apply in the case of virgins [or the unmarried]. But context demands this understanding--chapters these people are only showing their ignorance; 10 to 14 of this Corinthian epistle specifically for Paul looks higher, viz. to the eternal law of deals with Church practice and order. Second, God, which has made the female sex subject to Paul indicates in 11:16 that headcovering is a the authority of [the male sex]."2 practice in "the churches." Third, Paul specifically states that the teaching concerning headcovering But ask yourself the question: Why would relates to the gathered Church. He states, "But the man's natural head be disgraced if he were to in giving this instruction [about headcovering], I pray or prophesy with his head covered? do not praise you, because you come together Admittedly, this teaching on headcovering initially not for the better but for the worse" (11:17). seems arbitrary, but the teaching was received by Paul in the form of a command, a command The issue or problem identified and which found its justification and significance in addressed the creational order. Paul's teaching originated from direct revelation, he spoke morally- Apparently, these Corinthian believers obligatory truth. For instance, Paul writes to this misunderstood the purpose and practice of same Church, "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or headcovering. A. R. Fausset writes, "The spiritual, let him recognize that the things I write Corinthian women, on the ground of the abolition to you are the Lord's commandment [which, of of distinction of sex in Christ, claimed equality course, included the 'traditions']. But if anyone with men, and, overstepping propriety, came does not recognize this, he is not recognized" forward to pray and prophesy without the (14:37,38).

164 The apostle further elaborates on this the only two official verbal ministries in which matter of the woman disgracing her spiritual head women could participate in public worship were or authority, if her head is uncovered--"For she is praying and prophesying. So, Paul makes one and the same with her whose head is reference simply to these two activities. If women shaved" (11:5b). An uncovered Christian woman were permitted to preach or teach in the public is as scandalous and reproachful as a bald- worship, then Paul, no doubt, would have applied headed woman (haircutting was an act of grief - this regulation of headcovering to these activities Deut 21:12; or an act of infamy - Isa 7:20)-- as well. According to the early Church practice, remember that a woman's hair is a God-given women were to keep silent in the context of endowment which reveals and highlights her preaching and teaching. They were not (and are beauty (see 11:15). Of course, in making this bold not) permitted to engage in these verbal-didactic statement, the apostle is assuming and accepting ministries in the gathered assembly. Thus, the the correctness and necessity of headcovering apostle exhorts in this same epistle, "Let the for the woman. He is simply stating that which an women keep silent in the churches [when it uncovered Christian woman may be identified comes to preaching and teaching in a mixed with. group]; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also Paul proceeds to argue in such a way that says. And if they desire to learn anything the Christian woman has no option but to have a [concerning what is preached or taught], let them covering or veil on her head. He argues, "For if a ask their own husbands at home; for it is woman does not cover her head, let her also improper for a woman to speak [didactically in a have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for her mixed group] in church" (1 Cor. 14:34,35). to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let Elsewhere we read, "Let a woman quietly receive her cover her head" (11:6). Notice the tight, instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do irresistible logic. Do you recognize the syllogism not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority (i.e., an argument consisting of two premises and over a man, but to remain quiet [with respect to a conclusion)? officially teaching in the gathered church]" (1 Tim 2:11,12). Now, if someone wants to argue that Premise 1: Head not covered, then cut hair off this injunction of silence upon the woman is universal (i.e., she cannot open her mouth at all), Premise 2: Cut hair or shaved head is a then it must be concluded that women should not disgrace even sing (melodious talk) in public worship; but we read, "Speaking to one another in psalms and Conclusion: Therefore you must have head hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making covered melody with your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:19). (for an uncovered head is a disgrace) This prohibition to women relates to the teaching- learning context of the gathered Church which Therefore Christian women must have their consists of a mixed group, for women are not to heads covered with some material in the Church have authority over men in this context. (i.e., in the public worship of the gathered assembly). So, in the early Church, the two verbal ministries in which a woman could engage (within The practice of headcovering relates to public the gathered church consisting of men and worship women) were praying and prophesying. Someone may criticize and argue that Why do you think the apostle Paul only prophesying was teaching; but we need to refers to the Church activities of praying and understand the peculiar nature of prophesying. prophesying? Why doesn't it say, for instance, in As I write elsewhere, "the Scripture distinguishes verse 4, "Every man who has something on his between the office of an elder [or pastor] and the head while praying and prophesying [or teaching, office of a prophet(ess) (Eph. 4:11). The gift of preaching, etc.]..."? The apostle is specifically teaching (typically associated with elders) and addressing the legitimacy and propriety of the gift of prophecy (associated with prophets or women wearing a headcovering in the public prophetesses) are essentially different (cf. Rom worship; and according to early Church practice, 12:6,7). Prophesying was the direct

165 communication of divine revelation from God simply indicating his preference for, and providing (see 1 Cor. 14:30,31). Therefore, the actual encouragement to, men to take the lead in this content of communication was (pre-)determined. holy practice, in keeping with their functional role The prophet or prophetess never spoke as heads. The practice of the early Church independently, but was directly "moved by the certainly suggests the propriety and acceptability Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:21). Personal freedom in of women praying in the public worship. For actual communication of the truth was precluded. instance, we read concerning the imprisonment The analytical and reflective powers of the mind of Peter, "So Peter was kept in the prison, but became virtually obsolete. So, for instance, the prayer for him was being made fervently by the injunction for the early church was: "And let two church to God.... And when he realized this, he or three prophets speak, and let the others pass went to the house of Mary, the mother of John judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who was also called Mark, where many were who is seated, let the first keep silent" (1 Cor. gathered together and were praying" (Acts 14:29,30). The elder or pastor [who exercises the 12:5,12). gift of teaching], on the other hand, has a degree of personal freedom in actual communication, Now, the question is raised: Assuming that though the essential content must remain the practice of headcovering is Biblical and unalterable. He must harness and direct his requisite, doesn't the passage teach that a analytical and reflective powers of the mind. woman need only wear a covering on her head if Thus, the possibility of error or heresy continually she is actually praying or prophesying? Not at all. looms. Though the apostle focuses singularly on the verbal ministries of public worship, this regulation "Furthermore, in accordance with the of headcovering has universal application within progressive revelation of God, this gift of the context of the Church in which both men and prophecy was initially an extraordinary and women gather for the purpose of worship. temporary spiritual gift associated with the Remember, Paul's main concern is conforming inauguration of the dispensation of the Spirit and to, and respecting, the authority structure the universal thrust of the Gospel. Both men and ordained at creation. The wearing of a women were to participate in the initiation of the headcovering, as we will see with verse 10 of this new era in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy passage, symbolizes the fact that the woman is (Joel 2:28-32; cf. Acts 2:17-21). [On the day of under the authority of the man. Pentecost, both men and women prophesied within the gathered church (Acts 2:1-4)]. With the The intimate correlation between the symbol coming of the age of the Spirit and grace, there is and the truth spiritual egalitarianism. In Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free There is an intrinsic relationship between man, there is neither male nor female" (Gal. the symbolism associated with a Christian 3:28). There is equality in spiritual status and practice or custom and the spiritual truth which is position before Christ, but diversity in functions communicated or conveyed through that practice and roles (Rm. 12:4ff; 1 Cor. 12:4ff.). So the or custom. Accordingly, the notion of an authority- appearance of the extraordinary spiritual gifts submission relationship clearly means that one was a unique phenomenon which marked the is 'over' or 'above' (functionally speaking) and commencement of the new spiritual age. Such one is 'under' or 'below'. There is a leader or gifts are not now a part of normative church head, and there is a follower or helper. The practice and ministry" (Why Women Should Not symbolism of wearing a headcovering merely Be Pastors, 9f.). and aptly communicates that the woman is 'under' the authority of the man, for the covering Further, some would criticize and argue that (which is a symbol of authority - 11:10) is 'over' only men are to pray in the public worship, her head. God wants the woman to show that referring to 1 Timothy 2:8, "Therefore I want the she is 'under' the man's rule and protection. Man men [Gk. - aner; i.e., male] in every place to pray, is not to have 'something' on his head, for as the lifting up holy hands, without wrath and natural head he is not creationally 'under' woman dissension." Yet, Paul is not excluding the women or the rest of the creation. Certainly, you see the from praying at all, with this injunction, but is appropriateness of the symbolism associated

166 with this practice, and how it adequately captures God in that he is created to be God's chief the spiritual truth in view. representative; and as the glory of God, man is to assume headship or leadership over creation, Similarly, baptism is the symbolic act of even as God has headship over the whole regeneration; but, again, there is an intimate, universe. Now, woman is the glory of man in that correlative connection between the symbolism of she came from his 'strength' and now reflects the act and the spiritual truth conveyed through him. So, Paul continues to teach, giving the that act. In the act of baptism, one is immersed in reason why the woman is the glory of man, "For water and is 'washed', signifying a spiritual man does not originate from woman, but woman washing from sins, and the assumption of a new from man; for indeed man was not created for the spiritual nature. Similarly, the Lord's Table woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake" communicates our communion and our (11:8,9). As God's representative or head, God participation in Christ, and with Christ and His was pleased to create for him, and give to him, a people. We have spiritually partaken of His body helper--someone who would perfectly and and His blood, that is, we have an invested completely meet his needs and provide him with saving interest in His body and His blood; and we the necessary companionship and aid to subdue demonstrate that fact by ceremonially eating the the whole creation. Woman was made for the bread (which symbolizes 'eating' His body) and benefit, not abuse, of man. Now, this fact does ceremonially drinking from the cup (which not mean that the woman is inferior to the man; symbolizes 'drinking' His blood). Again, the she is not. Men and women are equal in worth religious symbolism directly correlates with the and value, but different in roles and functions, spiritual truth to which the Christian practice or according to the original design of God. act points. The customs to which Christians must adhere are spiritual in nature. Accordingly, the The necessity for the woman to wear a practice of headcovering should be viewed as a headcovering spiritual practice which communicates divine truth, rather than as a male-imposed or The apostle Paul, having provided some chauvinistically-driven rite. rationale underlying the practice of headcovering, definitively concludes and emphatically states the The rationale for the regulations concerning necessity of the practice. He affirms, "Therefore, headcovering the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels" (11:10). Having identified the problem of the practice Because the woman is the helper and the of headcovering (11:4-6), the apostle Paul then follower of the man, being under his authority, provides the rationale for why a man should not she must clearly demonstrate that truth through have his head covered and why a woman should. the wearing of a covering on her head, which He argues, "For a man ought not to have his symbolically conveys the fact that she is indeed head covered since he is the image and glory of under authority; as God intended from the God; but the woman is the glory of man" (11:7). beginning. Notice the note of moral obligation-- Both the man and the woman are made in the "ought to have..." (i.e., it is necessary from God's image of God (see Gen 1:26); but the matter of point of view). distinction and importance here concerns the notion of 'glory'. Paul apparently refers to the fact Accordingly, we ought not to understand that man is the image of God to indicate that the this practice as merely cultural or relative to the orbit and ground for this teaching on authority (as Corinthian Church. Some critics contend that already argued) is the original creation. Being Paul was addressing a problem peculiar to the created first, the man has the creational priority, Corinthian Church, or contend that the rationale he is the head; and creational priority entails for women wearing a headcovering was to functional authority. distinguish them from prostitutes who did not. So, the critics argue that the practice was either Man is the glory of God in that he reflects relativistic or cultural, and thus it does not have and manifests the wonder, strength, and power universal significance and application. No. of God, being the first, highest and greatest Remember that this practice is part of the expression of God's creation. Man is the glory of 'traditions', and thus has permanent, and not

167 merely relative value. Further, Paul proceeds to committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for teach that this practice has a universal judgment" (2 Pet 2:4). The fall of the angels application--it was observed in all the churches should serve as a helpful reminder and lesson for (11:16). believers. Paul's concern is that the lines of authority be acknowledged and adhered to. Moreover, the cultural argument carries no Living within the constituted lines of authority validity or weight, for Paul, as stressed, grounds results in safety and blessings. There is a need his reasoning in the teaching of the original for submission to authority in order to guarantee creation. It is not a cultural issue, but rather a order and decency. creational one. You cannot argue honestly from the passage itself that this practice of Furthermore, the apostle seems to be headcovering is cultural. Another point against working with a distinct parallelism here. The the cultural interpretation is that Paul argues for relationship that the angels sustain with God in the necessity of headcovering "because of the the larger universe, women should sustain with angels." This direct reason for the necessity and man (the image and glory of God) in the physical propriety of headcovering immediately removes world. Angels are the ministering spirits of God. the rationale from the cultural realm and gives it Woman is the 'suitable' helper for man. As the universal value. angels should be in submission to God, as the universal head, particularly of the heavenly realm What does this phrase mean--"because of (of course, everyone should be in submission to the angels." Some fact pertaining to the God), so the woman should be in submission to existence, activity, or behaviour of angels the man, the natural head of the physical realm. provides the reason for the observance of this The angels rebelled against God, resulting in practice. One reason believers should observe confusion and chaos; the women are to be under this practice 'because of the angels' is because the authority of men in order to guarantee order the angels are being taught the wisdom of God and decency. The angels veil their face and feet through the Church; and this would be a very (showing submission and reverence) in the instructive and practical lesson for them as they presence of God (Isa 6:2); and similarly women witness the reversing of the effects of sin and the are to veil their heads in the presence of men. creation returning to its original state. So, Fausset interestingly notes, "St. Paul [probably] Ephesians 3:10 reads, "In order that the manifest had before his mind the root-connection between wisdom of God might now be made known the Hebrew terms for 'veil' (Radid) and subjection through the church to the rulers and the (Radad)."3 authorities [i.e., angels] in the heavenly places;" again, "It is revealed to them that they were not Now, though man was created first and thus serving themselves, but you, in these things has the priority; and because the woman was which now have been announced to you through made for the benefit of the man; the man should those who preached the gospel to you by the not be considered as superior in any way. A Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which necessary interdependence exists between the angels long to look (1 Pet 1:12; see also 1 Cor man and the woman. The apostle states 4:9). God is pleased to teach angels through the (possibly in anticipation of male gloating and Church, even this matter of creational authority. abuse!), "However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of A second reason believers should observe woman. For as the woman originates from the this practice 'because of the angels' is so that man, so also the man has his birth through the they do not commit the same fatal and tragic act woman; and all things originate from God" of the fallen angels who rejected being under (11:11,12). Man may have the creational priority, authority. Rejection of authority results in disaster but he is not intrinsically better than the woman, and judgement. Jude 6 reads, "And angels who nor can he exist or survive without her. A mutual did not keep their own domain, but abandoned dependence exists between the male and their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds female. Each one needs the other. The mutual under darkness for the judgment of the great dependence is clearly seen in the fact that day;" again, "For if God did not spare angels neither can come into existence apart from the when they sinned, but cast them into hell and presence and mediation of the other. Yet, the

168 man and woman should remember that they both physical heads, by God's original design, sustain are dependent upon God, and find their a difference, and thus it should not seem strange existence and life in Him. that there be a difference in how the physical heads are understood and treated within the An appeal for acceptance of the practice Church context. Again, the practice of headcovering finds its roots in the original Having clearly stated the need for the creation. The practice of headcovering echoes an practice, the apostle Paul now appeals to these essential aspect of the clear distinction between believers to accept the teaching, and thus carry the natures of the man and the woman. out the practice. These subsequent remarks are secondary considerations, and are not germane Now, someone may contest that a woman's to his main argument. (This should be covering is her hair. Obviously, that interpretation remembered when we come to v. 15 which deals runs counter to, and is clearly contradicted by, all with the fact that a woman's long hair is her that has been argued to this point. Such an covering). He exhorts, "Judge for yourselves: is it interpretation denies the clear logic and simple proper for a woman to pray to God with head meaning of this passage. Some resort to this uncovered?" (11:13). Though addressing the position, not because they are honestly whole congregation, the apostle particularly constrained by the teaching of the passage, but refers to the role of the prophets who have the because of self-justification or pride. It really is a gift and ability to discern whether Paul's teaching question of obedience to God's Word. When it and command (which is by way of revelation) is states that "her hair is given to her for a true or not. This activity of 'judging' is used covering," the apostle uses a different word than technically, and refers to prophetic activity. in verse 4. The word he uses here is peribolaion, Hence, we read in 1 Corinthians 14:29,30, "Let and means coat, shawl, or mantle. You, no doubt, two or three prophets speak, and the others pass can see the obvious point. The 'long hair' serves judgment. But if a revelation is made to another as a coat or shawl for the woman. It adorns her who is seated, let the first keep silent." If Paul is as an ornament. Its appearance contributes to simply referring to a kind of general judgement, her beauty and 'strength'; and, in this sense, a on what do we base such a judgement? Against woman's long hair "is a glory to her" (11:15b). It what or according to what should the average accentuates her loveliness and attraction. believer judge the validity and propriety of this practice? We could only know this truth through Notice, for instance, how ludicrous it would revelation, which Paul has communicated and read, if we were to substitute 'hair' for 'covering'- the prophets were able to confirm. Thus, Paul -"For if a woman does not cover her head [that writes, "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or is, have her hair], let her also have her hair cut off spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I [but the hair would supposedly be already off!]; write to you are the Lord's commandment" (1 Cor but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair 14:37). cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head [that is, have her hair; the logic is tautological]" The apostle further appeals, "Does not (11:6). even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonour to him, but if a woman has The concluding remark long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering" (11:14,15). Paul suggests Having addressed the issue of that instinctively we recognize that there is a headcovering, providing the meaning, purpose, difference in how man and woman should appear and rationale for such a practice, the apostle Paul with respect to the physical head. We instinctively concludes, "But if one is inclined to be realize (generally speaking) that long hair on a contentious, we have no other practice, nor have man (remember long hair is considered well the churches of God" (11:16). Apparently, there below the shoulders) is inappropriate; that it were upset believers over this issue. They were should, at least, be above the shoulders. God argumentative; but Paul was inflexible. For him, it has put this natural sensibility within us, with a was a matter of truth, regardless what was view toward acknowledging differences between required. Many at Corinth were "arrogant" (see 1 the sexes. Paul is simply observing that the Cor. 5:6, 19; 5:2), and they needed to be humble

169 and obedient. Calvin writes, "A contentious man is one who takes a delight in stirring up quarrels, and gives no consideration at all to the place of truth. Included in this category are all those who destroy good and useful customs where there is no need to do so; who raise controversies about matters which are as clear as day; who will not listen to reason; who cannot endure anyone getting the better of them."4 Paul clearly declares that this particular practice was observed by all churches, without exception, and they too would have to observe it. Marvin Vincent comments, "The testimonies of Tertullian and Chrysostom show that these injunctions of Paul prevailed in the churches. In the sculptures of the catacombs the women have close-fitting head-dress, while the men have the hair short"5

Some critics argue that Paul is setting forth a principle, and not a practice; and so, practically speaking, the principle may be applied in our day in different ways (e.g. the wife wears a ring to indicate union and submission). In response, any honest treatment of the passage demands the acknowledgement that Paul is arguing for the practice, and not just the principle. Again, this practice was observed in all the churches; a practice which comprises part of the 'traditions'.

For many women, this practice initially may seem strange or unnecessary. Many may feel embarrassed to conform to the practice, feeling group pressure to abstain. Some will wrestle with pride. But the question is this: What does God require? It seems clear that the wearing of a headcovering by women is Biblical and required. It is a spiritual act, communicating spiritual truth. It is a command of the Lord, and thus the response should be one of obedience. This practice shows respect for the husband (see Eph. 5:33), and certainly brings honour and glory to God, which should be the goal of all that we do.

© Brian Allison, 2000

170 Christianity As defined in The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, Revised Edition, 2001 by Cyril Glassé

Christianity. In theory, Islam accepts Christianity as a Divinely revealed religion. Christians in a state under Muslim rule cannot be compelled to become Muslims, their churches are not to be taken away from them, and they are entitled to civil protection. In former times non- Muslims were obliged to pay a special tax (see DHIMMI). It is legal for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman (or a woman of any of the Divinely revealed religions). The protection of adherents of other religions has been a legal principle in Islam from the beginning, and in most Muslim countries there have been large minorities of Christians and Jews, and lesser ones of other religions such as Hindus, Buddhists, animists, and others depending on the country. In the Muslim view, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the Divine nature of Jesus, and other points of difference from Islam, are deviations from what they believe Jesus's true teachings to have been. Muslims assume that because the Koran says that Jesus was a Divine Messenger like the Prophet, his message could not have been different from the Prophet's; that is to say, that Jesus's message could not have been anything other than Islam as they know it. Despite this perspective, the historic attitude of Islam towards Christianity has been largely sympathetic. Under the Ottomans many churches received privileges which they later lost under secular Christian governments. The Koran says: "and thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are those who say 'We are Christians'; that, because some of them are priests and monks [those devoted entirely to God], and they wax not proud." (5:85) See BIBLE; JESUS; COPTS; MARONITES; NESTORIANS.

171 Jesus As defined in The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, Revised Edition, 2001 by Cyril Glassé

Jesus, Son of Mary (Ar. 'Isa ibn Maryam). He holds a singularly exalted place in Islam. The Koran says that Jesus was born of a virgin (3:45- 47); that he is a "Spirit from God" (ruhun mina' Llah), and the "Word of God" (kalimatu-Llah) (4:171). He is usually called "Jesus son of Mary" ('Isa ibn Maryam), and his titles include Messiah (masih), Prophet (aabi), Messenger of God (rasul) and "one of those brought nigh [to God]". According to the Koran he performed various symbolic miracles; he raised the dead, brought the revealed book of the Gospel (Injil), and called down as a sign from heaven a table laden with sustenance (5:112-114), which symbolizes the communion host of Christianity. In Islam, on the authority of the Koran, Jesus has a mission as a rasul, a Prophet of the highest degree who brings a restatement of God's religion (3:46-60). It is said, too, that he did not die upon the cross: "They slew him not but it appeared so to them" (4:157). A crucifixion took place, but Jesus is alive in a principial state, death. It is this verse about the state of martyrs outside the world and time: "But God took him up which holds the key to understanding "They slew to Himself. God is ever Mighty, Wise" (4:158). him not": "Say not of those who are slain in God's It is in fact the common belief among way that they are dead; they are living but you Muslims that the crucifixion was an illusion, or perceive not" (2:154). Or: "Think not of those who that someone else was substituted for Jesus. are slain in the way of God that they are dead. Although this bears a resemblance to the Nay! they are living. With their Lord they have Docetist teachings regarding the event, the provision" (3:169). reasons for the idea are quite different. While According to various Hadlth, Jesus will popular belief cannot be held to account, the return before the Day of Judgement, and destroy crucifixion as a pointless charade can hardly be the Anti-Christ (ad-dajjal) who, towards the end to meet God's purpose, and two thousand years of time, presents an inverted version of have not shown what God could have meant by spirituality, misleading mankind in a final and fatal such sleight of hand. Nor does the Koran warrant delusion. Then Jesus, it is said, will bring the such a view. Rather, it is that the crucifixion of cycle of Adamic manifestation to an end, and Jesus does not play a role in the Islamic inaugurate another, in what is, in effect, the perspective any more than does his superhuman Second Coming. origin, for salvation in Islam results from the There are certain Hadith which say that recognition of the Absoluteness of God and not Jesus and Mary did not cry out when they were from a sacrificial mystery. Since Islam believes born; all other children do because, according to that Jesus will return at the end of time, his death the symbolic interpretation, they are touched by was no more than apparent and did not, as in the devil in coming into this world. In the words of Christian belief, involve a resurrection after the the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus and Mary were event. In Islam it is the absolute, or higher, reality the only beings in history to be born in such a that takes precedence in the Koran over the state of sinlessness. appearances of this world, be they of life or of Although the position of Jesus in Islam is 172 extraordinary in a number of ways, even for a extraordinary historical error of interpretation or Prophet, that Islam should concede any idea of understanding. his divinity or admit that he is the Son of God is It would perhaps seem therefore that Jesus entirely precluded. This, or any trinitarian idea of as he is viewed in Islam, and despite the God, or any suggestion that Jesus is somehow extraordinary attributes credited to him by the an hypostasis of God, is rejected by Islam. Koran, would actually have a role and a nature Many Muslims think that the Christian trinity that could be interpreted into the Islamic universe includes Mary, and certain Christian sects in only with great difficulty. Such, however, is not the ancient Arabia actually held such a belief. case, because Christianity, like Judaism, is However, the trinitarian concept, in any form, is specifically mentioned as a revealed religion and necessarily alien to Islam, because the principle Islamic legislation gives it a protected status. It is which saves in Islam is precisely the recognition the nature of Jesus as a Prophet among the other of the Divine Unity, the all-embracing Reality of Prophets of the Old Testament which is decisive the Absolute. for Muslims, and the disturbing elements of Because the Koran says that all God's Christianity as it actually exists are simply set Prophets have brought only the one religion of aside, placed outside of Islam, and in practice Islam, it is impossible for most Muslims to pose no great enigma, being seen as a kind of conceive that the religion brought by Jesus could, archaic survival which God in the Koran has in reality, have been anything other than the chosen to tolerate. If this seems puzzling to Islam of the Muslim believer, the Islam of the Christians, they must remember that their "Five Pillars". That there is an Islam beyond form rejection of the Prophethood of Muhammad is an which is the religion of each Divine messenger equally incredible act for Muslims. Ultimately, it is as he faces God, or that a formless Islam is the perhaps only with the fulfillment of the role that essence of each religion, are necessarily esoteric God has assigned in prophecy to Jesus at the concepts. That Christianity as it exists is based end of time, when the world and history are upon the doctrine that Jesus is a Divine swallowed up by the purely miraculous, that the incarnation, and that his crucifixion and different cadences of the great religions will resurrection have redeemed the sins of mankind resolve themselves into one. See BIBLE; and saved those who believe in him, can only be DAJJAL; MARY. explained in the mind of the Muslim as some

173 174 Chapter 9 Perverse Interpretations

To illustrate just how disasterous the contributions of so called 'established' Islamic theologians can be due to their perverse interpretations, we now look at the issues of abortion and female circumcision.

Dealing with abortion first, we refer to the entry for abortion in The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam, Revised Edition, 2001, by Cyril Glassé.

Abortion. This is acceptable in Islam, according to most theologians, as long as the foetus is not fully formed; a state which is said to occur 120 days after conception, as described by the fourth hadith of Nawawi which summarizes the states of foetal development: Verily the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother's belly for forty days in the form of a seed (nutfah), then he is a clot of blood ('alaqah) for a like period, then a morsel of flesh for a like period (mudhghah), then there is sent to him the angel who blows the breath of life into him. The breath of life is the ensoulment which was the critical issue for medieval theologians. To call the foetus a human being before this point would have been the same as to equate a possibility with an actuality, or to equate non- existence with existence. It is against this that Aristotle's law of non-contradiction, the first law of reality is set. Or as the theologian Sa'd ad-Din at-Taftazani (d. 175/791) insisted: possibility is not a thing. The Hanafis permitted abortion until the fourth month and many Shafi'is and Hanbalis did also. The Malikis make abortion before the fourth month discouraged (makruh) but most did not make it prohibited (haram) until after the would prolong the term still further. In any case, fourth month. no objections are raised to abortions performed The doctrine of ensoulment after 120 days after this moment if their aim is to safeguard the was held by the Catholic Church as well, but in health or safety of the mother. There is an the 19th century was de-emphasized as increase in vociferous anti-abortion polemics in inopportune precisely because it was recognized the Islamic world, just as in the Christian world, it would be used to justify abortion. The idea is because Fundamentalism corresponds to a consistent with the traditional view, expressed as rebirth of Mu'tazilite-like or dualist tendencies that early as Aristotle, that the soul attaches itself to can be seen in all religions at the present time. the foetus out of the unseen at a precise moment See BIRTH CONTROL. around 120 days after conception, and that only with the soul attached has the foetus become a human being. Abortions performed before the term of 120 days are therefore acceptable; others

175 Stacey International, the publishers of The Concise Encyclopaedia of Islam were, in 2003, advised that CYRIL GLASSÉ'S declaration that Abortion “is acceptable in Islam” was completely wrong and they in turn notified Mr Glassé, about this communication. But Cyril Glassé’s declaration was made with some historical precedent as for centuries a minority of Muslim scholars have indeed used or interpreted Nawawi’s hadith to infer that abortion up to 120 days is acceptable. But this interpretation is totally unjustified and very tenuous at best.

Dr. Zaki Badawi has stated that the above hadith of Nawawi must not be used as an argument to justify abortion; indeed some time ago Dr. Badawi wrote to the Pro-Life Alliance Party of Great Britain to state the correct Islamic position on abortion: Abortion is not permitted from the moment sperm unites with egg. Only if the mother's life is in danger can abortion be considered. Dr. Badawi has also stated that this hadith of Nawawi is not meant to literally mean that the soul goes into the foetus only after 120 days and that in any case no justification should be inferred from, nor should any connection be made with, this hadith and the right to have an abortion.

Below is an extract from a newsletter from the Association of Lawyers for the Defence of the Unborn which deals precisely with the true Islamic position.

Patrons of the Association however extremely grateful to each of these The Right Hon. authors for taking the trouble to write to us. Lord RAWLINSON OF EWELL, P.C., Q.C The Most Hon. We begin with the following commentary the Marquess of READING Sir Hugh ROSSI upon the Islamic view of abortion sent to us by The Baroness an Islamic member of ALDU. RYDER OF WARSAW, C.M.G., O.B.E The killing of babies through abortion is The Association of Lawyers for prohibited in Islam. the Defence of the Unborn All human life is sacred in Islam, from 40 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9EN conception through to natural death. Only God (ALLAH), The Creator of all, can create life or Winter 1999/2000 Number 84 ordain that it be taken away. The moment of death has been fixed in advance by God. News and Comment Our bodies belong to The Creator, and neither men nor women have the right to treat them as they wish. This includes all or part of our bodies, and anything else arising from Miscellany conception.

During the past few weeks we have received Suicide, euthanasia (assisted suicide or letters and proposed contributions from several ‘mercy killing’) and abortion are all forbidden in different quarters giving views and ideas about Islam. abortion and related topics as seen from the perspective of various cultures. Believing that our There is nothing in the Holy Qu’ran or in the readers might be interested in these contributions sayings (Sunnah) of the prophet Muhammad we are including them in this Newsletter. All of the (peace be upon him) which allows abortion. On contributions are quite short and do not pretend the contrary, there are verses in the Holy book to be anything other than a brief insight into the Al-Qu’ran which are clearly against the killing of subject. They represent the views of their any baby or child, male or female, by any means: respective authors, and if they contain any errors then they are the errors of those authors. We are,

176 In the name of Allah, The Most Every day in Britain, some 500 innocent Compassionate, The Most Merciful, ‘Do not babies are killed through abortion, Muslims, kill or take human life which God has watch out for abortion under: ‘Reproductive declared to be sacred’, (Chapter 6, verse 151). Health’, ‘Reproductive Rights’ ‘Control of Fertility’ ‘Population Control’ and even ‘Do not kill your children for fear of ‘Human Rights’ (especially in United Nations poverty: it is we who shall provide documents). We respect womanhood and family sustenance for them as well as you. Killing life: beware of pro-abortionists who use the them is currently a great sin’ (Chapter 17, words ‘Women’s Rights’ and ‘Family Planning’ verse 31). to promote abortion!

‘Whoever kills a human being (a soul), Muslims should work closely with pro-life unless it be for murder or corruption on earth, organisations, Christians and others, to stop the it is as though he had killed all mankind, and killing of the innocent babies at any place or at whoever saves a life it is as though he had any time (A MUSLIM DUTY). saved the life of all of mankind’ (Chapter 5 verse 31). This is the development of the baby (fetus) in the last Holy Book Al-Qu’ran (Islamic Muslim women are decribed in Al-Qu’ran as Embryology):- (amongst other things) those who ‘do not kill their children’, (Chapter 60, verse 12). ‘Man We did create from a quintessence (of clay), then We placed him/her as a drop In Islam we are asked to marry, conceive (nutfah) in a place of rest firmly fixed, then and maintain conception full term to produce We made the drop into a leech-like clot children. Thus in an Islamic society every (alaqah) which clings; then We made the clot conception is legitimate and every pregnancy is into a lump of flesh (mudgah); then We made desired: nothing is called an ‘unwanted out of the lump bones and clothed the bones pregnancy’. Every child is regarded as a gift from with flesh (muscles): then We developed out Allah. of it another creatureH.so blessed be Allah the best to create.’ (Al-Qu’ran Chapter 23, Many verses in Al-Qu’ran describe verses 12-14). beautifully and scientifically all the different stages of development and growth of a baby, producing great admiration for The Creator, the best of designers.

Ibn Taymiyah, one of Islam’s great scholars, said ‘it is the consensus of all fuqaha [renowned Muslim scholars] that abortion is prohibited’.

Not only that, Islamic law prescribed clear punishment for anyone performing or assisting in abortion:

‘Al-Gurrah (blood money) is payable if the baby is aborted dead. (At current rates this would be about 5000 Saudi Riyals).

Full diyyah (about 100,000 Riyals) is payable if the baby is aborted alive.

177 The Association of Lawyers for the Defence of the Unborn

Winter 1999/2000 Newsletter

Copy of original article describing the the true Islamic position on the matter of abortion.

178 With regard to female circumcision this is just another obsession with curtailing femininity in some parts of the Muslim world.

Again, quoting from Jan Goodwin’s Price of Honour on pages 334 and 335 of Chapter 13, entitled Egypt : the Mother of the World:

A major campaign of Saadawi's organization undergo the ritual. before the government closed it was to halt More than 90 percent of Sudanese women female circumcision. "The majority of rural undergo the most severe form of circumcision, Egyptian women are still circumcised. Here they known as "pharaonic," or infibulation, at the age remove only the clitoris; they do not do the much of seven or eight, which removes all of the more extensive procedure, but even so, there are clitoris, the labia minora, and the labia majora. many problems. Infection, bleeding, damage to The sides are then sutured together, often with the urinary tract, sepsis, even death. Later, it may thorns, and only a small matchstick-diameter cause pain during coitus, and psychological opening is left for urine and menstrual flow. The damage. In the villages it is performed on girls girl's legs are tied together and liquids are heavily just before puberty, by untrained village midwives rationed until the incision is healed. During this using any kind of knife or razor, without primitive yet major surgery, it is not uncommon painkillers, and in unsanitary conditions. In the for girls, who are held down by female relatives, middle and upper classes, it may be carried out to die from shock or hemorrhaging. The vagina, by a doctor. The reasons given for urethra, bladder, and rectal area may also be clitoridectomies in Egypt are 'cleanliness,' and 'so damaged, and massive keloid scarring can that girls will not run after men.'" In many obstruct walking for life. societies, it is also believed that if the baby's After marriage, women who have been head touches the clitoris during delivery, the infibulated must be forcibly penetrated. "This may infant will die. take up to forty days, and when men are Female circumcision is frequently described impatient, a knife is used," recounted Sudanese as an "age-old Muslim ritual," when in fact it women at a conference that I attended several predates Islam and is even believed to be pre- years ago in Cairo on the "Development of Judaic. There is no mention of it in the Koran, and Women in the Islamic World." They also told of only a brief mention in the authentic hadiths, special honeymoon centers built outside which states: “A woman used to perform communities so that the "screams of the brides circumcision in Medina. The Prophet said to her: will not be heard." At this time also, the risks of 'Do not cut severely, as that is better for a woman infection and hemorrhaging are high. and more desirable for a husband.” But because During childbirth, the scar tissue must be of this still debated hadith, some scholars of the cut and the opening enlarged, otherwise mother Shafi school of Islam, found mostly in East Africa, and child may die. In the mid-eighties, American consider female circumcision obligatory. The Nursing magazine began advising medical Hanafi and most other schools maintain it is practitioners in the United States how to treat merely recommended, not essential. In the such patients, since the influx of women from nineteenth century, women in the United States countries where circumcision is standard meant and Europe were sometimes circumcised that U.S. health-care providers were now seeing because it was believed to relieve epilepsy, them in hospitals here. And if such cases are not hysteria, and insanity. handled correctly, major complications can Today, an estimated one hundred million ensue. The tradition of female circumcision in women have undergone the sexual mutilation. It many countries is so strong that circumcised is performed in many African countries, including women even in the United States usually request Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Chad. It is reinfibulation after each delivery. also a tradition among Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia, and in a number of countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, the UAE, and parts of rural Saudi Arabia. Coptic Christians in Egypt and animist tribes in Africa as well as Muslims,

179 Jan Goodwin quotes a particular hadith which is in fact from Abu Da’ud (born 817 and died 888 A.D.) a noted collector of hadith, who himself said that this particular hadith on female circumcision was poor in authenticity. But to be clear, this hadith, according to the majority of Muslim scholars today is definitely not authentic and the practice of female circumcision has been roundly condemned by them as barbaric. But this vile operation is now so established in some areas, in reliance on the ingrained fraudulent rulings of past scholars (including some at Al-Azhar) - and eased by centuries of cultural practice - that it continues to flourish. Imposed on defenceless, often submissive, girls.

180 I come now to one more widespread and perverse attitude problem: that of inbreeding springing from the inability even to trust or mix with ‘outsider’ Muslims. The British press exposed the practice amongst British Asians but it also occurs to a significant extent in the Middle East. And it has strong links to the isolationist mechanism of the headscarf. Three articles follow :

have been said with sensitivity and with proper Minister warns over regard to his Muslim constituents and Muslims right across the United Kingdom." in-breeding in Asians Arranged marriages are common among The Daily Telegraph, February 11th several British Asian groups, but intermarriage of 2008 relatives is a particular characteristic of people of Pakistani origin. By James Kirkup It is estimated that more than 55 Political Correspondent per cent of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins, resulting in ARRANGED marriages between an increasing rate of genetic defects British Asians raise the risk of in- and high rates of infant mortality. breeding and birth defects, a Figures show that British Pakistani Government minister has said. children account for as many as one Phil Woolas, a junior third of birth defects despite making environment minister, came under fire up only three per cent of all UK births. from Muslim groups already The likelihood of unrelated concerned about the public reaction to couples having the same variant the Archbishop of Canterbury's genes that cause recessive disorders remarks about sharia law. are estimated to be 100-1. Between Mr Woolas, the Labour MP for first cousins, the odds increase to as Oldham East and Saddleworth, said much as one in eight. that marriages between first cousins In Bradford, more than three are a factor in birth defects and quarters of all Pakistani marriages inherited conditions. are believed to be between first He said: "Part of the risk, I am cousins. In 2005, the city's Royal told by the health service, is first- Infirmary Hospital said it had cousin marriages. If you are identified more than 140 different supportive of the Asian community recessive disorders among local then you have a duty to raise this issue." children, compared with the usual 20-30. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, a A study by two Indian doctors published in campaign group, suggested the minister was Neurology Asia, a medical journal, last year demonising British Muslims. found a "significantly higher rate" of epilepsy An MPAC spokesman last night accused Mr among the children of parents who were blood Woolas of "flirting with Islamaphobia" and said: relatives. "Gordon Brown should either back him or sack The issue of birth-defects and cousin him. We should be told what the Government marriage was first raised in parliament two years thinks about this." ago by Ann Cryer, the Labour MP for Keighley in Downing Street and the Department for the West Yorkshire. Environment last night refused to comment on Mr Yesterday, she said marriage between Woolas' remarks, but the minister received public cousins was "to do with a medieval culture where support from Geoff Hoon, the Labour chief whip. you keep wealth within the family". Mr Hoon said that it was right to discuss the She said: "If you go into a paediatric ward in issue of congenital defects and intermarriage. Bradford or Keighley you will find more than half "It is important that we look at that in terms of the kids there are from the Asian community. of scientific expertise and the extent to which it is Since Asians only represent 20-30 per cent of the actually causing problems," he said. population, you can see that they are over- "I am confident that what he has said will represented."

181 Storm over Muslim cousin marriages Daily Mail, February 11th 2008

By Jane Merrick Political Correspondent Minister under fire after he warns of surge in disabilities everybody knows it's caused by first-cousin DEMANDS were growing yesterday for the marriage.’ sacking of a government minister after he warned 'That's a cultural thing rather than a about the problems of marriage between religious thing. It is not illegal in this country. The Pakistani first cousins. problem is that many of the parents themselves Phil Woolas claimed that this had caused a and many of the public spokespeople are surge in birth defects in the UK. themselves products of first-cousin marriages. The Environment Minister also suggested It's very difficult for people to say, “You can't do the issue was being ignored by Muslim leaders, that" because it's a very sensitive, human thing.' declaring it was the 'elephant in the room' which Warning that the issue was not being talked urgently needed to be addressed. It set off about, the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth another heated debate about Muslims in Britain, added: 'Most health workers and primary care following the outcry over the Archbishop of trusts in areas like mine are very aware of it. But Canterbury's remarks on sharia law. it's a very sensitive issue. That's why it's not even MPs said Mr Woolas's comments were a debate and people outside of these areas don't insensitive and wrong, while the Muslim Public really know it exists.' Affairs Council said they were 'racist' and It is not the first time Mr Woolas, whose 'Islamaphobic'. But the MP's supporters insisted constituency has an above-average Muslim he was merely calling for a debate about the population of 8.5 per cent, has upset the prevalance of marriage of blood relations within community. In 2006 he warned that Muslim families originating from rural Pakistan - and not women who wear the veil cause 'fear and the entire Muslim world. resentment'. Medical evidence also shows that marriage First-cousin marriage is legal in the UK, but among blood relations carries a higher risk of is regarded by many as taboo. A BBC2 children with birth defects. Newsnight investigation in 2005 found that Mr Woolas, a former race relations minister, among Pakistanis in Britain, 55 percent marry a told the Sunday Times: 'If you have a child with first cousin, and are 13 times more likely than the your cousin the likelihood is there'll be a genetic general population to produce children with problem. The issue we need to debate is first- genetic disorders. It found that one in ten children cousin marriages, whereby a lot of arranged of cousin marriages either dies in infancy or marriages are with first cousins, and that develops a serious disability. While British produces lots of genetic problems in terms of Pakistanis are responsible for just 3 per cent of disability [in children].' all births in the UK, they account for one in three He insisted the practice did not extend to all children born with genetic illnesses. Muslim communities, but was prevalent among Asghar Bukhari of the Muslim Public Affairs families from rural Pakistan. Research has Committee said Mr Woolas's comments 'verged suggested that up to half of all marriages within on Islamophobia'. these communities involve first cousins. He said it was 'bizarre' that Mr Woolas had The minister added: 'If you talk to any spoken about a sensitive health issue which has primary care worker they will tell you that levels of no relation to his environment brief, and accused disability among the Pakistani population are him of ignoring links between pollution and birth higher than the general population. And defects. 182 A spokesman for MPAC added: 'These had a child, who is now a teenager. The MP for comments are racist and typical of the Birmingham Perry Barr told the Mail last night Islamaphobia that we have witnessed in large that he knew they were first cousins before the parts of the media recently. Gordon Brown should wedding. sack him.' But Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim But he suggested that those who believed Council of Britain would say only: 'Islam they could be related should have DNA blood encourages people to marry outside of their tests before marriage. Mr Mahmood declined to immediate families to avoid having "weak discuss the details of his first marriage, saying offspring".' Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne said: only: 'I have personal experience of this.' 'Phil Woolas has gone in with two big feet when He added: 'Phil Is trying to be helpful, but I tiptoeing would have been more appropriate.’ don't think it came across in the way it should 'If there is now clear evidence that marrying have done.' He insisted that young people were your first cousin leads to unacceptably high risks 'very much aware' of the problems. They want to of birth defects, then we should look again at the move away from that, they don't want to marry law as it applies to all of us, and not seek to their cousins at all.' single out one community.' Mr Mahmood left his first wife to marry bank But Mr Woolas was backed by Ann Cryer, clerk Naseem Akhtar, with whom he has a 13- Labour MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire, who year-old daughter, Zara. In 2004 he left her for a said the NHS needed to do more to warn parents failed Conservative parliamentary candidate, of the dangers. She added: 'This is to do with a Elaina Cohen, who is Jewish. They are no longer medieval culture where you keep wealth within together. the family.’ 'If you go into a paediatric ward in Bradford or Keighley you will find more than half of the kids Wards with more than there are from the Asian community. Since Asians only represent 20 to 30 per cent of the their share of tragedy population, you can see that they are over- By Chris Brooke and David Derbyshire represented.' 'I have encountered cases of blindness and ON THE children's wards in Bradford Royal deafness. There was one poor girl who had to Infirmary the evidence is clear. Day after day, have an oxygen tank on her back and breathe paediatricians deal with many more genetic from a hole in the front of her neck.’ illnesses than almost any other inner-city general 'The parents were warned they should not hospital in the country. have any more children. But when the husband The infirmary has become a centre of returned from Pakistan, within months they had excellence for such tragic health problems, not another child with exactly the same condition.' because of any specialist research or funding, Downing Street refused to comment. but simply down to the huge caseload. Many medical experts believe the high number of first-cousin marriages in Bradford's Asian population is a significant factor in You’re wrong, says explaining the city's worrying child health problems. MP who wed his first Inbreeding is a problem because it whittles away the genetic diversity which helps keep cousin people healthy. A LABOUR MP who married his cousin criticised Most worrying, it increases the risks of a Mr Woolas for singling out the Muslim community recessive genetic disorder. Children inherit two over the practice. copies of every gene - one from each parent. To Khalid Mahmood, one of four Muslim MPs, develop a recessive genetic disorder, a child called for better education about marriages must inherit two faulty genes. Normally the between blood relatives. Mr Mahmood, now 46, chances of both parents having the same faulty married his first wife, believed to be named Rifat, gene variant is small and the diseases are rare. when he was in his twenties. But if the parents are closely related, it is The marriage ended in 1992, but the couple much more likely that they will both have the 183 same mutated gene. And that puts their children Three years ago the Birmingham Primary at far greater risk of inheriting the disorder. Care Trust estimated that one in ten of all There are hundreds of different recessive children born to first cousins died in childhood or genetic disorders - some which cause life- suffered from a serious genetic disorder. threatening illness. They include sickle cell anaemia, haemophilia and growth hormone deficiency. Dr Peter Corry, a paediatrician at Who you can marry, Bradford Royal Infirmary, said 'informal data collection' amongst his colleagues revealed they and who you can't had dealt with 140 different autosomal recessive WHILE many might feel uneasy at the idea, mar- disorders (where both parents carry a mutated riage between cousins is legal in Britain - and gene) in recent years. Dr Corry said a typical was common until well into the 20th century. health authority would see about 20 to 30 such Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were first disorders. cousins, as were Charles Darwin and his wife There has also been a marked increase in Emma. the number of neurode-generative conditions The practice made economic sense in (brain and spinal cord deterioration causing earlier times - when it allowed the wealthy to dysfunction and disability) in children in Bradford. keep their riches in the family, it was also In 1986 there were eight cases and in 2005 practical at a time when many lived in small rural there were 45. A 'large majority' of the affected communities where the opportunities for meeting children were of Pakistani origin. The 'Born in future partners was small. Bradford' project, which began last year, hopes It is estimated that around half of British to track the lives of 10,000 babies to explain a Pakistanis are married to first cousins. clutch of worrying health statistics in a deprived Under English law, marriage between close city with the UK's highest proportion of Pakistanis relatives is banned. A man may not marry his in the population. mother, sister, daughter, grandmother, The city's infant mortality rate is twice the granddaughter, neice or aunt, while a woman national average, while there are also high levels cannot marry her father, brother, son, of diabetes and heart disease. And the grandfather, grandson, nephew or uncle. prevalence of infant childhood disability, such as Some marriages between non-blood hearing and sight problems, and cerebral palsy relatives are also illegal. in children of Pakistani origin has been found to Until a recent ruling by the European Court be up to ten times higher than in other ethnic of Human Rights, a man could not marry his groups. former mother-in-law. One report on the launch of the Bradford Despite all these restrictions on non-blood health study said it was 'suspected' but not relatives, marriage between cousins is permitted proven that first-cousin marriage played a by the State and Church in Britain - and most 'significant role' in the grim health statistics. In other countries. Bradford more than three quarters of all Pakistani In fact, the only Western country where marriages are believed to be between first cousin marriage remains taboo is the U.S., where cousins and many health studies appear to it is illegal in most states. support a trend of serious health problems in this ethnic group. A study by Bradford social services showed about five in 1,000 children of Pakistani origin suffered hearing problems compared with one in 1,000 from other racial groups. But a spokesman for the Association of Bradford Deaf Asians said he believed cousin-to-cousin marriages were being used as a 'blame tool' to avoid doing proper scientific research. Bradford is not the only city where doctors are concerned about the medical problems caused by inbreeding.

184 It is one of the great taboos of multi-cultural Britain - and one of the most heart-breaking: children born with cruel genetic defects because their parents are cousins the most controversial — and taboo — subjects in multi-cultural Britain: inter-marriage between cousins which has left hundreds of children Daily Mail, February 16th 2008 damaged or dead. 'My parents would think I had Special Report by Sue Reid betrayed them,' she says. 'They were born in Pakistan and are stuck in the past. They are good A YOUNG mother opens her kitchen fridge, people, but they can't accept that my son's taking out a mango yoghurt for her 11-year-old deafness has been caused by my husband and son. She calls him to the table three times. When myself being so closely related.’ the boy fails to appear, she runs up the narrow 'My father would like my oldest daughter, stairs of their terrace house in a former Yorkshire who is 18 and at college, to marry her cousin. He mill town to get him. Minutes later, the boy finally already has a male relative in mind. But I will do enters the living room. Imran is a handsome lad everything to avoid it happening.' and seems perfectly normal. He has just spent This week Government Minister Phil the day at his school in Bradford, where he is Woolas provoked a furore by warning of the often top of the class. health risks of cousin marriages among British Look a little closer, though, and you can see Pakistanis. He claimed the practice was sending hearing aids tucked behind each of his ears. the number of birth defects among children in Imran is profoundly deaf because a vital nerve these communities soaring. which carries sounds to his brain has failed to The MP for Oldham — where one in seven develop. are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage — Medically, there is nothing that can be done described the issue as the 'elephant in the room': to cure his disability. It is the same affliction that a contentious matter that was never talked about. has struck his teenage cousin, a girl called Myra. His words were echoed by Ann Cryer, the Labour Two of the children's uncles also suffer severe MP for Keighley in Yorkshire, who says cousin deafness. Is this a tragic coincidence and are the marriages are medieval and designed to keep family just unlucky? According to Imran's mother, wealth within families. the answer is an emphatic 'No'. 'The problems provoked are not fair to the 'I married my first cousin, which is why children or to the NHS. If you go into a paediatric Imran is deaf,' she says. 'Myra's parents are also ward in Bradford or Keighley, you will find more first cousins, which is why she is also deaf.’ than half of the kids are from the Asian 'When I started my family I was just a young community,' continued Mrs Cryer. girl. I had no idea that marrying a close relative 'Since Asians form only 20 to 30 per cent of would be medically dangerous for any children I the population, you can see that they are over- had. My parents did not know either. Now our son represented.’ is paying the price for our ignorance.' The mother 'There was one poor girl who had to have (whom we will call Zuhra) agreed to talk to the an oxygen tank on her back and breathe from a Mail only on condition of anonymity. She is hole in the front of her neck.’ terrified of being identified and condemned by her 'Her parents were warned they should not extended family of 100 members, spread across have any more children. But when the husband Northern England, for speaking out about one of returned again from Pakistan, within months they 185 had another child with exactly the same cousin and the couple's own grandparents are condition.' cousins, too. It is not the first time that Mrs Cryer has 'I have heard of first-cousin marriages going raised the dangers of cousin marriages. She back generation after generation in some caused uproar by commenting: 'It is families. The chances of disability among heartbreaking when grandparents are so keen children then increase enormously.' cousins should marry that the family health Of course, unrelated couples can also have problems continue throughout generations.’ babies that are born damaged, maybe as a result 'A doctor told me that one Pakistani family of the mother binge-drinking or taking drugs believed it was the will of Allah, because doctors during pregnancy. were doing the wrong thing or the mother was a The incidence of mothers choosing to have bad woman... this is not acceptable.' children late in life is also having an impact on So what is the reality? birth defects. British Pakistanis, half of whom marry a first But Dr Peter Corry, a consultant cousin, are 13 times more likely to produce paediatrician at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford — children with genetic disorders than the general where nearly one in five of the population is of population, according to Government-sponsored Pakistani heritage — has revealed that 140 research. genetic disorders have been diagnosed in the city One in ten children of cousin marriages during the past few years. Some are very rare either dies in infancy or develops a serious life- and, until recently, unknown in Britain. In a typical threatening disability. health authority area, the number of such Although British Pakistanis account for disorders would normally be between 25 and 30 three per cent of the births in this country, they a year. are responsible for 33 per cent of the 15 to Medical research has shown that many of 20,000 children born each year with genetic these genetic disorders include neuro- defects. degenerative conditions, where the proper The vast majority of the problems are functioning of the brain and spinal cord gradually caused by recessive gene disorders, according decline after a child is born. to London's Genetic Interest Group which According to Bradford's District Infant advises families affected. Mortality Commission (which was set up to Everyone carries some abnormal recessive examine the problem), at least five more children genes, but most people don't have a defect a year die in the city than in areas with a similar because the normal gene overrules the abnormal economic profile but where there are no first- one. cousin marriages. But if a husband and wife both have an This week, I spoke about the medical abnormal recessive gene, the couple have a one- consequences with paediatric nurses, community in-four chance of producing a child with defects health workers and midwives in the North, — including blindness, deafness, heart or kidney Birmingham (where genetic disorders among the failure, lung or liver problems, and a myriad of Pakistani community are twice as high as among neurological ailments. the general population) and London. Even their healthy children have a one-in- One staff sister who has worked in a four chance of being a carrier of the defect with Midlands children's ward for 13 years said: 'It is drastic implications for the next generation. terrible to watch. Very few people in the NHS are The result is that children of first-cousin prepared to talk about this openly. Every day, we couples, whatever their ethnic background, have see the sad results of blood relatives marrying.’ the same six per cent chance of having a baby 'The other day, a very young mother came with defects as a woman of 41 conceiving a child. in to give birth to her third child. Her eldest boy This is twice the national average. And few has already died of a neurological degenerative realise that the problem includes other ethnic condition while her daughter, who suffers the communities from southern Asia, the Middle East same brain disorder, is getting more disabled and Africa. Yet it is only part of the picture. every day.’ A community nurse and genetics counsellor 'When the baby girl arrived, she had in Yorkshire told me this week that the 'trouble problems breathing. She was not reacting like a really starts' when a first cousin marries a first normal newborn. The mother, who is married to

186 her first cousin, was crying because she children with genetic disorders from inter-family suspected what the future holds.’ marriages. The only young patient who could 'The eldest son's head started to be really be made well again had been admitted for unsteady after his first birthday. By the age of more conventional treatment — he was knocked two, doctors confirmed he was mentally retarded. down by a lorry.' He became paralysed at three and just faded So how has this medical tragedy been away.' allowed to happen? While many doctors and nurses refuse to Marriages between cousins are popular in comment publicly, the debate over cousin many ethnic communities because they are marriages is being discussed freely on websites. thought to create stable relationships. Money and An Asian health worker recently posted this property is also kept in the family. According to sad message: 'I went to two special schools on society elders, it is better to pick a nephew or Monday. One for children with physical niece whose character you know as a spouse for disabilities; one with kids who had learning your child rather than a stranger. difficulties.’ Such marriages are traditional in many 'The children at the second school were countries. Throughout South Asia cousin unions aged 13 to 19. None of them was capable of comprise 23 per cent of all marriages — in Iraq it functioning beyond the behaviour expected of an is 50 per cent and in parts of Saudi Arabia it is infant. They all wore nappies. They didn't speak, nearly 60 per cent. These figures are believed to a few grunts aside. All needed inordinate be reflected among the same ethnic groups in amounts of special care, from doctors, speech Britain. therapists, nurses, tutors and so on. The parents The Human Genetics Commission in are drained, both financially and emotionally.’ London says that counselling — and screening ‘There were six 16-year-olds at the second — should be offered to all blood-relative couples, school, five Pakistani and a Tamil. All had preferably before they conceive, in order to consanguineous [blood-related] ancestry. I can establish the risk of a genetic abnormality in their rest my case: cousin marriages should not be future children. allowed.' It would then be up to the couple to decide A 42-year-old physiotherapist, working whether to have a family, or seek help through regularly in three of London's most famous medical technology to have healthy offspring. teaching hospitals, says that even the most But there are some — even at the heart of dedicated health workers are growing the Asian community in Bradford — who believe disheartened by the burden of looking after so that cousin marriages are outdated and have no many damaged babies from cousin marriages. place in modern society, especially if a child faces She said: 'The paediatric intensive care death or a chronic illness. beds are being blocked by these tragic children. One of those is Zuhra, the mother of deaf They have medical problems that will last a Imran. She said: 'When I married, I had no idea lifetime. Most can never be cured by drugs, by an there was a problem about my husband being my operation or therapy.’ cousin. It never crossed my mind that I would 'In one NHS hospital that I visited this week, have a poorly baby.’ children in half the 20 beds of the high- 'My parents were culturally backward. They dependency unit were from blood-relative unions. came from a rural village and moved here so my One was a British-born Iraqi boy of 16 — his father could work in a mill and send money parents are cousins, his grandparents on both back home. They are not cousins themselves — sides are cousins. No doubt his ancestors are because they had no cousins who were suitable cousins, too.’ — but they believed in cousin marriages.’ 'He is mentally incapable. He lies in huge 'I only realised there was something wrong nappies. He cannot speak, he is fed by a tube. with my son at two when he didn't start talking. He should not have been on the ward, but it was My husband's brother — who is also my cousin deemed the best place because he had the mind — has a girl, Myra, with a hearing problem. The and bodily functions of a baby.' penny dropped that it might be something within She added: 'In another hospital, in East the family.' London, four out of five of the £l,850-a-week Genetic tests eventually conducted on her paediatric intensive care beds are taken up by and Imran confirmed her suspicions.

187 She continued: 'My sister is married to father-in-law. They knew no better. To get another of my husband's brothers and we were support, I joined a small group of other Asian talking about it. I said we must not allow our women with disabled children. Nearly half were children to marry each other.’ born of cousin marriages.' 'I explained my children and her children She adds: 'There is a British Pakistani have the same sets of grandparents. They are family nearby who have intermarried and genetically almost as close as brothers and intermarried. Two sons died, another is hearing- sisters, not cousins. She agreed.' impaired, a third has a brain problem. Their Zuhra's own wedding, which took place 20 mothers say it is just bad luck.' years ago in Yorkshire, was organised by her Zuhra does not agree. She tidies up the tea father-in-law. Three of her six siblings are also in table and lets Imran go back upstairs, before a cousin marriage. whispering to me: 'If I had had an inkling that a 'It was cultural thing, not religious. There is marriage to my cousin would make my youngest no insistence on these kind of unions in our holy son deaf, I would have made sure I never book, the Koran, which actually warns against conceived him.' blood relatives marrying if there are weaknesses What a heartbreaking admission for any in the family.’ mother to have to make. 'I am not angry with my parents, or even my

188 Finally, some Muslims - without any definitive support from the Quran - regard music, per se, as immoral.

At Herbert Morrison Primary in Lambeth, 29 Muslim pupils kept out per cent of children come from mainly Somalian Muslim families. Headmistress Eileen Ross said of music lessons some parents 'don't want children to play musical By Laura Clark instruments and they don't have music in their Education Correspondent homes'. Daily Mail, 2nd July 2010 One girl remains permanently withdrawn from the school's music curriculum, which MUSLIM pupils are being withdrawn from consists of a government-backed project to learn music lessons because some families believe instruments such as the violin. 'There's been learning an instrument is anti-Islamic. about 18 or 22 children withdrawn from certain The move comes despite the subject being sessions, out of music class, but at the moment a compulsory part of the national curriculum. I just have one child who is withdrawn While parents have legal rights to withdraw continually,' Mrs Ross told the BBC. 'It's not part children from religious and sex education of their belief, they feel it detracts from their faith.' classes, no automatic right exists to pull them out Ofsted and education experts raised of lessons such as music. concerns at the findings. One education expert said up to half of The Open University's Dr Diana Harris, an Muslim pupils were withdrawn from music expert on music education and Muslims, said she lessons during Ramadan. had visited schools where half of the pupils were And the Muslim Council of Britain said withdrawn from music lessons by parents during music lessons were likely to be unacceptable to Ramadan. around ten per cent of the Muslim population in 'Most of them really didn't know why they Britain. were withdrawing their children,' she said. 'The However, in certain branches of Islam - majority of them were doing it because they had such as Sufism, which is dominant in Pakistan just learned it wasn't acceptable.' and India - devotional music and singing is A spokesman for Ofsted said: 'Music is an actually central to the religion. important part of any child or young person's A BBC investigation found that in one education.' London primary school, 20 pupils were removed from rehearsals for a Christmas musical and one five-year-old girl remains permanently withdrawn from mainstream music classes. Under some interpretations of Islam, music is considered 'haram', or forbidden. Certain scholars point to passages of the Koran and other sacred texts that appear to condemn musical instruments, because of the corrupting effect they can have on the mind and body. But the meaning of these passages is often disputed, and other scholars say music is permissible. 189 cover our hair from men and boys. Women subjugation of women’s voices and presence in and girls, who are sometimes called public society. It also includes an article, “The “enforce-hers” and “Muslim mean girls,” take top 10 excuses of Muslim women who don’t it a step further by even making fun of wear hijab and their obvious weaknesses,” with women whom they perceive as wearing the the argument, “Get on the train of repentance, hijab inappropriately, referring to “hijabis” in my sister, before it passes by your station.” skinny jeans as “ho-jabis,” using the The rush to cover women’s hair has indelicate term for “whores.” reached a fever pitch with ultraconservative But in interpretations from the 7th Muslim websites and organizations pushing this century to today, theologians, from the late interpretation, such as VirtualMosque.com and Moroccan scholar Fatima Mernissi to Al-Islam.org, which even published a feature, UCLA’s Khaled Abou El Fadl, and Harvard’s “Hijab Jokes,” mocking Muslim women who Leila Ahmed, Egypt’s Zaki Badawi, Iraq’s don’t cover their hair “Islamically.” Abdullah al Judai and Pakistan’s Javaid Last week, high school girls at Vernon Hills Ghamidi, have clearly established that High School, outside Chicago, wore Muslim women are not required to cover headscarves for an activity, “Walk a Mile in Her their hair. Hijab,” sponsored by the school’s conservative Muslim Students Association. It disturbed us to Challenging the hijab see the image of the girls in scarves. To us, the “hijab” is a symbol of an interpretation of Islam we reject that believes that women are a sexual distraction to men, who are weak, and thus must not be tempted by the sight of our hair. We don’t buy it. This ideology promotes a social attitude that absolves men of sexually harassing women and puts the onus on the victim to protect herself by covering up. The new Muslim Reform Movement, a global network of leaders, advocating for human rights, peace and secular governance, supports the right of Muslim Muslim woman Samantha Elauf (R), who was denied a women to wear — or not wear — the sales job at an Abercrombie Kids store in Tulsa in 2008, headscarf. stands with U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Unfortunately, the idea of “hijab” as a Commission (EEOC) lead attorney Barbara Seely (C) at the U.S. Supreme Court. REUTERS/Jim Bourg mandatory headscarf is promulgated by naïve efforts such as “World Hijab Day,” started in 2013 by Nazma Khan, the Furthermore, Muslim special-interest Bangladeshi American owner of a Brooklyn- groups are feeding articles about “Muslim based headscarf company, and Ahlul Bayt, a women in hijab” under siege. Staff members at Shiite-proselytizing TV station, that the the Council on American-Islamic Relations, University of Calgary, in southwest Canada, which has pressed legal and PR complaints promotes as a resource for its participation against U.S. companies that have barred in “World Hijab Day.” The TV station argues employees from wearing hijabs on the job, has that wearing a “hijab” is necessary for even called their organization “the hijab legal women to avoid “unwanted attention.” World defense fund.” Hijab Day, Ahlul Bayt and the University of Today, in the 21st century, most mosques Calgary didn’t respond to requests for around the world, including in the United States, comment. deny us, as Muslim women, our Islamic right to In its “resources,” Ahluly Bayt includes pray without a headscarf, discriminating against a link to the notion that “the woman is awrah,” us by refusing us entry if we don’t cover our hair. or forbidden, an idea that leads to the Like the Catholic Church after the Vatican II confinement, subordination, silencing and 191

reforms of 1965 removed a requirement that The most cited verse to defend the women enter churches with heads covers, headscarf (33:59) states, “Oh, Prophet tell thy mosques should become headscarf- wives and thy daughters and the believer optional, if they truly want to make their women to draw their jilbab close around them; places of worship “women-friendly.” this will be better so that they be recognized and Fortunately, we have those courageous not harmed and God is the most forgiving, most enough to challenge these edicts. In early merciful.” According to Arabic dictionaries, May 2014, an Iranian journalist, Masih jilbab means “long, overflowing gown” which Alinejad, started a brave new campaign, was the traditional dress at the time. The verse #MyStealthyFreedom, to protest laws does not instruct them to add a new garment requiring women to wear hijabs that Iran’s but rather adjust an existing one. It also does theocracy put in place after it won control in not mean headscarf. 1979. The campaign’s slogan: “The right for Disturbingly, the government of Saudi individual Iranian women to choose whether Arabia twists its translation of the verse to they want hijab.” impose face veils on women, allowing them even to see with just “one eye.” The Important interpretations of the Koran government’s translation reads: “O Prophet! The mandate that women cover their hair Tell your wives and your daughters and the relies on misinterpretations of Koranic women of the believers to draw their cloaks verses. (veils) all over their bodies (i.e. screen In Arabic dictionaries, hijab refers to a themselves completely except the eyes or one “barrier,” not necessarily between men and eye to see the way). That will be better, that they women, but also between two men. Hijab should be known (as free respectable women) appears in a Koranic verse (33:53), during so as not to be annoyed, and God is most the fifth year of the prophet Muhammad’s forgiving, most merciful.” migration, or hijra, to Medina, when some Looked at in context, Islamic historians wedding guests overstayed their welcome at say this verse was revealed in the city of the prophet’s home. It established some Medina, where the prophet Muhammad fled to rules of etiquette for speaking to the wives of escape persecution in Mecca, and was prophet Muhammad: “And when ye ask of revealed to protect women from rampant sexual them anything, ask it of them from behind a aggression they faced on the streets of Medina, hijab. This is purer for your hearts and for where men often sexually harassed women, their hearts.” Thus, hijab meant a partition. particularly slaves. Today, we have criminal The word hijab, or a derivative, appears codes that make such crimes illegal; countries only eight times in the Koran as an “obstacle” that don’t have such laws need to pass them, or “wall of separation” (7:46), a “curtain” rather than punishing women for the violent acts (33:53), “hidden” (38:32), just a “wall of of others. separation” (41:5, 42:52, 17:45), “hiding” Another verse (24:31) is also widely used (19:14) and “prevented” or “denied access to to justify a headscarf, stating, “… and tell the God” (83:15). believing women to lower their gaze and guard In the Koran, the word hijab never their chastity, and do not reveal their adornment connotes any act of piety. Rather, it carries except what is already shown; and draw their the negative connotation of being an actual khemar over their neck. . . .” or metaphorical obstacle separating the In old Arabic poetry, the khemar was a “non-believers” in a dark place, noting “our fancy silk scarf worn by affluent women. It was hearts are under hijab (41:5),” for example, a fixed on the middle of the head and thrown over wall of separation between those in heaven their back, as a means of seducing men and and those in hell (7:46) or “Surely, they will flaunting their wealth. This verse was revealed be mahjaboon from seeing their Lord that at a time, too, when women faced harassment day (83:15).” Mahjaboon is a derivate verb when they used open-air toilets. The verse also from hijab. The Saudi Koran translates it as instructs how to wear an existing traditional “veiled.” Actually, in this usage, it means, garment. It doesn’t impose a new one. “denied access.” 192

Reclaiming our religion trying to reclaim our religion from the prongs of In 1919, Egyptian women marched on the a strict interpretation. Like in our youth, we are streets demanding the right to vote; they took witnessing attempts to make this strict ideology off their veils, imported as a cultural tradition the one and only accepted face of Islam. We from the Ottoman Empire, not a religious have seen what the resurgence of political edict. The veil then became a relic of the Islam has done to our regions of origin and to past. our adoptive country. As Americans, we believe in freedom of religion. But we need to clarify to those in universities, the media and discussion forums that in exploring the “hijab,” they are not exploring Islam, but rather the ideology of political Islam as practiced by the mullahs, or clerics, of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State. In the name of “interfaith,” these well- intentioned Americans are getting duped by the agenda of Muslims who argue that a woman’s honor lies in her “chastity” and unwittingly

Asra Nomani talks to audience members in 2009 after pushing a platform to put a hijab on every Doha Debate in which she argued for the right of woman. Muslim women to marry anyone they choose. (Photo Please do this instead: Do not wear a courtesy of the Doha Debates) headscarf in “solidarity” with the ideology that Later, Egyptian President Gamal most silences us, equating our bodies with Abdel-Nasser said in a speech in the early “honor.” Stand with us instead with moral 1960s that, when he sought reconciliation courage against the ideology of Islamism that with members of the Muslim Brotherhood demands we cover our hair. group for attempting to assassinate him in Asra Q. Nomani is a former Wall Street 1954, the Supreme Leader of the Journal reporter and the author of “Standing Brotherhood gave him a list of demands, Alone: An American Woman’s Struggle for the including, “imposing hijab on Egyptian Soul of Islam.” She is a co-founder of the Muslim women.” The audience members didn’t Reform Movement, a new initiative of Muslims and understand what the word hijab meant. their allies, advocating peace, human rights and When Nasser explained that the secular governance. She can be reached at Brotherhood wanted Egyptian women to [email protected]. Hala Arafa is a retired wear a headscarf, the audience members journalist who worked for 25 years at the burst out laughing. International Bureau of Broadcasting as a As women who grew up in modern program review analyst. She was a news editor at Muslim families with theologians, we are the Arabic branch of the Voice of America.

The So-Called 'Islamic' Headscarf Helps

Destroy Muslim Hopes '17 June 2019

It is eight years now since the failure of ethic of 'love thy neighbour' - one the Arab Spring in Egypt. Hosni Mubarak compatible with the basic virtues and was ousted of course, but the main principles of Islam. The rapidly deposed objective was not achieved: the elected president, Mohammed Morsi, of the emergence for the first time of a healthy Muslim Brotherhood died today in court in democracy based on decency and the Cairo. Poor man. He didn't deserve that. 193

Held in captivity for years by a vengeful looking at those sleek, sexy hands. Many of President Sisi of the Egyptian Army. No them flatter themselves: they would not be mercy there. Trumped up charges. God, looked at twice in the street even if they showed obviously, did not protect Mr Morsi. Now their hair. These fanatics cannot get it into their Morsi will see the reality of what happens heads that dressing in garments up to the neck after death. and down below the knee, as happened in The failure of the Arab Spring meant Victorian times, is enough to conform with the that once again it all went wrong for the Islamic ideal of modesty. They cannot Egyptians. God did not help them and God understand that to many people going round all continues to ignore them. They pray, they one 's life never being able to show one's hair fast in Ramadan, they do the pilgrimage to (or face) in public is seen as completely Mecca, they have faith, they strive. And they abnormal. A sign of instability. The men in leave Egypt if they can - to a better life authority have persuaded these pitiful women elsewhere in 'infidel' lands. God is not that God will punish them severely if they do not helping them at all. We wonder why. cover up. The religious teachers at Al Azhar, the In the 1950's and 60's the Muslim highest Islamic teaching institution in the Brotherhood had a very popular leader Muslim world, who subscribe to this view of called Sayyid Qutb who President Nasser head covering once also firmly believed (as do executed in 1966 for subversion. One of the many of them still) that it was God 's will to first things that Qutb asked of Gamal Abdel circumcise women: remove the clitoris and labia Nasser, when he returned to Egypt from his to reduce sexual pleasure. Female genital life-changing stay in America, was that he mutilation (FGM) is still widely practiced in impose the headscarf on Muslim women in Egypt today. So this utterly perverse Egypt. Nasser, rightly, refused. All that interpretation of the need to 'remove sin' from a seemed to matter to Qutb was that Muslim woman is one of the beliefs of those same men women did not look like floozies. No hair who think the headscarf is a mandatory must be shown: only loose women show requirement in Islam. In 1970's Egypt few wore their hair. Qutb was convicted of plotting to the headscarf. Over the centuries it went in and kill Nasser and paid the ultimate price. out of fashion. The Wahhabi fanatics of Saudi One essential element of the Muslim Arabia enforce the wearing of the headscarf on Brotherhood's ideology was the mistaken Saudi women. These same people think that belief that God instructs Muslim women to music in all its' forms is a sin. That democracy cover their hair because showing it will is against God's law. That celebrating birthdays inflame the passions of men and create is a sin. That for women to shake the hand of a possible immediate disorder. Of course, the man is a sin because it can lead to fornication. fact that every day Western women, who Interpretations of Islam like these put non- never cover their hair, are left alone to go Muslims off Islam altogether. They put off about their business seems to be lost on moderate Muslims in Egypt as well. That is why these Muslims. The Brotherhood believe that the Arab Spring failed: those millions of the hair of a woman is a 'charm' like her Egyptians whose protests helped overthrow breasts: a sexual appendage in other words. Hosni Mubarak did not trust the Freedom and It does not say anywhere in the Holy Quran Justice Party of President Morsi and his Muslim that a woman must cover her hair. It says Brotherhood to properly interpret the rules of hide 'your charms'. The Brotherhood Islam to fit in with the sort of democracy that consider the hair of a woman - her crowning they so dearly craved. Tensions and mistrust glory - a charm that must be hidden. The ensued. Those opposed to the Brotherhood and Brotherhood's close spiritual associates, the its affiliate, the Freedom and Justice Party, Salafis, go further: they believe that the face came onto the streets in their hundreds of of every woman is a charm too. So the face thousands and begged the Army to rid the of every Salafi woman is covered in a niqab. country of President Morsi. The Egyptian They go round all day looking like letter military took their chance to re-establish their boxes or bank robbers or as if they are authoritarian stranglehold on society and, in the shrouded in funeral wear ready for burial. name of law and order, stage a coup. The The Salafi women wear gloves to stop men hapless President Morsi was deposed in 2013 194

and spent the rest of his life in solitary decline. Too late! The moderates in Egypt did confinement. Some reward eh for a lifetime's not believe them. They did not trust them. They service to Allah. revolted against Morsi and took to the streets The cult of the headscarf has helped until the army intervened. ruin a country's path to democracy. These so called Muslims of the hijab and niqab These same 'Islamist' idiots now infect the deliberately misinterpret the Holy Quran to United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. 'Islam suit their misplaced impressions of God's is the Solution' they say. Yes, but not your brand will. The headscarf revolution in the 1980's thank you. If you hijabis don't want men to brought Egypt nothing but misery. approach you in the street then wear a badge Younger members of the Muslim saying 'F*** off!' or 'I'm a devout Muslim' or Brotherhood protested that the Brotherhood 'Leave me alone'. Don't besmirch the religion of was now in favor of democracy. That indeed Islam by perpetuating the myth that God the headscarf may not be mandated by Allah instructs Muslim women to cover their hair and after all. That FGM was in fact a perversion. faces. No wonder God has, it seems, That the old guard was in abandoned the Muslims!'

explain her starting point - that it all began with Islamic State and the wearing of the headscarf - then the burqa. This attire is regarded as an absolute necessity The Headscarf by I.S. God will punish you in hellfire if you do not cover up. Shamima Begum of Your hair is a sexual appendage. For your entire life you can never show your hair in Islamic State originates public. We will force you to cover up and if you from East London don't we will beat you and even kill you. For you have disobeyed God in a fundamental way. In many parts of the Muslim world honor killings Home Secretary Sajid Javid does not occur if girls do not cover up. Or at the least want her back in the U.K. Shamima threats and beatings and abuse. Not just Begum is certainly a brainwashed physical abuse but psychological abuse. simpleton - ignorant of the founding Ostracism and bullying. values of Islam. And she used her life to All this is a recent phenomenon: in the aid the most perverted ideology the 1970's few in the Middle East wore the Muslim world has ever known in what headscarf. After the Iranian revolution and the was initially a fight against the Saudi drive for Wahabbi Islam it all changed: it murderous tyrant, Bashar Al-Assad of was a grave sin Syria. Assad ironically, was, in his to show one's younger days, a trainee eye surgeon in hair. You were a London - it's plain to see that U.K quasi-whore if democracy had absolutely no effect on you did. All this his administrative arrangements back is part of the I.S home in Damascus. ideology. They The Alawite dictator is no Muslim: his kill to perpetuate secretive faith believes in transmigration of this myth. And the soul - a form of reincarnation, which is where is the repugnant to the three Abrahamic faiths. So Islamic world at I.S have had a fatal, ruinous contribution to the moment? Shamima Begum Sorry, the so- the cause of justice in the Islamic world. Ms Begum has lost three of her children. She called Islamic world. Nowhere. Ruled by has suffered and should be allowed back to unelected dictatorships, unaccountable to the the U.K to face justice and give further people. Failing in every way. The Prophet explanation as to the background to her Muhammad would be appalled if he were alive association with Islamic State. She can today.'

195

The Fanatics Have Even Infected Wales

Hijabi zealots poison our schools with their perverted version of

Islam. Schoolgirl Shutha (pictured) from Cathays High School in Cardiff. Note the black headscarf, in line with Islamic State Sir Zaki Badawi, former senior imam at (I.S) instruction. The thin end of the wedge: have the the Central London Mosque in Regent's British learnt nothing? Park and later of the Muslim College has said that the hijab and niqab have no ______place in Islam. Badawi was educated at Islam's highest seat of learning, Al Azhar in Cairo. This misinformed hijabi clone, robber, pillar box (and if our Prime Minister Shutha of Cathays High School in Boris Johnson can say this then we, as Cardiff, must not be allowed to enlightened Muslims, can say it too) must be perpetuate the Saudi inspired myth that sent back to where she (spiritually) the headscarf is a part of God's belongs...and we don't mean Rochdale; we instruction. They rely on a weak/forged mean Afghanistan. Hadith. Nowhere in the Quran does it say From page 78 of report from the Nixon the hair must be covered. Pupils like Center: 'Bearers of Global Jihad? Immigration Shutha must be disabused of their and National Security after 9/11' by Robert ignorance. The BBC facilitates this hijabi Leiken (2004). perversion by giving oxygen to these Page 78: "Statutes designed to promote Asian fools. Parroting their parents religious toleration ironically appear to have sociophobic rants. Shutha must be sanctioned the current level of hate speech engaged directly in debate as to her often found in British mosques today. disgraceful misrepresentation of Islam. According to Zaki Badawi, the dean of the Muslim College in London, the majority of imams in the U.K are imported from tribal regions of South Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh). They do not know English or England and their training, usually consisting of mastery of the Quran in a religious school or madrassa is funded by Saudi Arabia. British immigration guidelines allow a community which cannot find "a minister of religion" in the country to import one from abroad. Their cultural background makes them particularly susceptible to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. In England Islamist Pervert Sahar Al-Faifi of the Muslim Council sects openly recruited for the Taliban, of Wales. A Muslim attention seeker who reportedly enjoying most success in villages perverts the founding values of Islam. Given and small towns. The infection is not contained oxygen by the BBC. She must be shown up within British shores. Once admitted to a to be the nutter she in fact is. She is an European country, individuals may freely enter apologist for Islamic State. A Salafi fanatic. other EU countries. German officials complain Shun her. Ridicule her. Do not let her corrupt that radical imams from Britain minister in other impressionable, gullible Muslim youth. German mosques. They suspect them of The niqab has no part in Islam. This bank carrying messages for Al Quaeda". 196

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! Children Forced to Wear Headscarf in Iran

I was forced to wear a hijab. It wasn’t liberating.

GETTY IMAGES

Why World Hijab Day is an insult to girls like me

Soutiam Goodarzi, The Spectator, 16 February 2019

It was World Hijab Day earlier this I was six when I was first made to wear month. You probably missed it, but you the hijab to school. When I was eight, I was can imagine the idea: ‘global citizens’ of forced to wear the hijab while walking all faiths and backgrounds were asked around Arak, my hometown in north– to cover their heads for a day ‘in western Iran. I did so in fear of the ‘modesty’ solidarity with Muslim women police, who patrolled the streets looking for worldwide’. It is done in ‘recognition of anyone who dared to remove their hijab. millions of Muslim women who choose For one year we had a nice teacher to wear the hijab and live a life of who on rare occasions allowed us to take modesty’. our hijabs off in class, provided the door Wearing a hijab is not such an abstract was closed, the windows shut and the cause for me: I used to wear one a few blinds completely pulled. Why? There was years ago when I was at school in Iran. And a male janitor who used to sweep the in the spirit of solidarity, I’d like to tell you a playground, and Allah forbade that he bit more about the world I left behind when should lay his eyes on an underage girl’s I moved to Britain in 2011 when I was nine hair. She could go to hell for that. years old. My teachers deemed it appropriate to 198

shove their hands into my hijab and push empowering rejection of being judged by my hair back to prevent a single strand of your appearance. It is a form of submission: hair being on show. The intrusion didn’t stop the chaining up of women to the mullahs there. Each week, we had physical checks who promulgate this nonsense. For women of our hair and nails — and also, in case we who have been forced to wear a hijab, were tempted to try jewellery, our ears, World Hijab Day is an insult. It’s an open chests and wrists. Wearing large hairclips attempt to portray oppressors as victims, wasn’t allowed, despite the fact that they and to overlook the feelings of women who were hidden by our hijabs. To this day I have been taught to believe throughout haven’t figured out why a flower-shaped clip their lives that they are second-class is provocative. Underneath the hijab, our beings. hair had to be either short or in a firm I have found my life in Britain to be a ponytail, so that the style of hair didn’t liberation, but it staggers me to see so much accentuate certain areas of the fabric. nonsense spoken about the hijab and the Schoolteachers weren’t the only ones regime I escaped. There are brave women keeping a close eye on us. Iran’s modesty imprisoned in Iran for various infractions of police were a constant and stressful the modesty code; there are women who presence in our lives. I’d learned, out of have been treated appallingly for wearing a habit, to avoid them as much as possible, hijab that is too loose or transparent. More though that certainly became difficult when recently, there have been women punished they didn’t want to avoid you. They used to for not wearing a hijab. And yet the hijab is park tactically in the road where the hair and now celebrated in the West. ‘It’s OK to be makeup salons were ready to arrest anyone modest,’ say the hijab’s apologists. Well of who they deemed ‘immodest’. They even course, but there is nothing modest about arrested someone I know who was at the brushing over the suffering of the women airport about to board a flight to Australia, and girls of Saudi Arabia and Iran. because her manteau (a loose jacket that is I have tended to keep quiet about the mandatory in Iran for modesty reasons) was fact that I used to wear a hijab. I was so ‘too short’. And no, this wasn’t another era: wounded by the horrors of Islam that I it was just a few years ago. wanted to pretend it never existed. But in I was taught that the hijab was intended Britain I realise I now have a voice, and that to keep a girl pure and away from the eyes I am not a second-class citizen who should of men. This is why the hijab represents a be scared of talking out of turn. I have also form of victim-blaming. The premise is that realised that I don’t deserve to be scolded men are expected to act like predators, and by religious women for ditching the hijab. In that girls should feel they are to blame Britain, it is acceptable to be a free woman. should anything untoward happen. You don’t have to obey the restrictive If the janitor were to think impure demands of your father, husband or thoughts about one of the girls in my class, government. that would have been her fault. If a married man thinks about a woman inappropriately, I have changed a lot since I was six. I’m it is deemed to be her fault. Then again, he now 16, and while I can’t say I have could always take her as his second wife (a better hair, I have something even practice still common in Iran). better: freedom. I now try to see World Some argue that the hijab is liberating Hijab Day as a day to celebrate being for women. Having come from the inside, I free of the hijab. Women like me who can tell you: the hijab, and the kind of rule I have escaped the veil can use this day lived under, isn’t about feminism. It isn’t an to rejoice in our newfound liberty.

199

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'(;&+# "-&# :$'&1# &%5&'/$..,# /)# 2$3*/# /%B3.2&:K! %.! @(.$2(7! &2G(4! ='3&! !+$4/$<# 0$),# ()./)&# >&4%/"&%# (::&+# @%6624738OPXQ!E&!P^,S+!$'3!13;2&26$!d%)(! &K$=5.&%#(:#"-&%$+=&)"%<# d(&2;! ?'((.(=2+! ='%! 36$(4726'3)! $'3! ! %#'! first feminist association that called for Iranian women who chose to dispense uncovering the face and hair, became with the traditional scarf.[21] Ten years the first Egyptian woman to remove her later, on January 7, 1936, the shah face veil or niqab.[16] In the following ordered all female teachers and the decades, the veil gradually disappeared wives of ministers, high military officers, in Egypt, so much so that in 1958, a and government officials "to appear in foreign journalist wrote that "the veil is European clothes and hats, rather than unknown here."[17] chadors"; and by way of "serving as an example for other Persian women," the In Afghanistan, Shah Amanullah shah asked his wife and daughters to Khan (r. 1919-29) "scandalized the appear without face veils in public. Persians by permitting his wife to go Ranking male officials were dismissed unveiled." In 1928, he urged Afghan from their jobs if their wives appeared women to uncover their faces and with face veils in public, and the police advocated the shooting of interfering began breaking into private homes to husbands. He said that he "would arrest women wearing chadors there. A himself supply the weapons" for this and report from the city of Tabriz stated that that "no inquiries would be instituted only unveiled girls could receive against the women." Once, when he diplomas.[22] These and other saw a woman wearing a burqa in a secularizing reforms were sustained by Kabul garden, he tore it off and burned Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who in it.[18] However, Amanullah was exiled, September 1941 succeeded his father and the country plunged back into the on the throne and instituted a ban on past.[19] Turkey banned the Islamic veiled women in public. face veil and turban in 1934, and this prohibition has been maintained ever Lebanon has always been the most since by a long succession of Westernized Arab society, owing to its governments that adhered to Atatürk's substantial Christian population with its secularist and modernist revolution. close affinity to Europe, France in Moreover, from the 1980s onward, particular. A Palestinian-Lebanese- Turkish women have been prohibited Syrian woman visiting the United States from wearing headscarves in parliament said, "In the 1920s, my mother, a and in public buildings, and this law was university professor, was the first even more strictly enforced after a 1997 woman to take off her veil in Beirut. She coup by the secular military. In recent had to remain at home under house years, the Islamist Justice and arrest for one year due to the violence Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma threatened by street mobs. Then, things Partisi, AKP), which has ruled Turkey changed for the better."[23] since 2002, has tried to relax this restriction, only to be dealt a humiliating Since 1981, women in Tunisia have blow on June 15, 2008, when the been prohibited from wearing Islamic country's Constitutional Court annulled dress, including headscarves, in a government reform allowing students schools or government offices. In 2006, to wear Muslim headscarves at since this ban was increasingly ignored, university on the grounds that it the Tunisian government launched a contravened Turkey's secular sustained campaign against the hijab. system.[20] In recent years, women The police stopped women in the wearing both hijabs and burqas have streets and asked them to remove their been seen on the streets of Istanbul. headscarves; the president described the headscarf as a "sectarian form of As early as 1926 in Iran, Reza dress which had come into Tunisia Shah provided police protection for uninvited." Other officials explained that 306 Islamic dress was being promoted by Sunni Islam and grand sheikh of al- extremists who exploited religion for Azhar University, Sunni Islam's highest political aims.[24] institution of religious learning, was reportedly "angered" when he toured a In 2006, in neighboring Morocco, a school in Cairo and saw a teenage girl picture of a mother and daughter wearing niqab. Asking the girl to remove wearing headscarves was removed her face veil, he said, "The niqab is a from a textbook. The education minister tradition; it has no connection with explained, "This issue isn't really about religion." He then instructed the girl religion, it's about politics … the never to wear the niqab again and headscarf for women is a political issued a fatwa (religious edict) against symbol in the same way as the beard is its use in schools.[30] for men."[25] However, the government could only go so far in its ability to In 2010, at a time when Britain's restrict the face veil or headscarf. In department of health relaxed the strict 1975, Moroccan feminist Fatima National Health Service dress code by Mernissi described the lives of allowing Muslim nurses and doctors to Moroccan women as circumscribed by wear long sleeves for religious Ghazali's view of women, including reasons—despite the high risk of women's eyes, as erotically irresistible, spreading deadly superbugs—the and as such, dangerous to men.[26] In Egyptian ministry of health outlawed the 1987, Mernissi analyzed the Islamic veil niqab (which often included glove- in both theological and historical wearing) for hospital nurses, terms.[27] Clearly, as fundamentalism threatening those who failed to comply or political Islam returned to the with dismissal or legal prosecution. The historical stage, "roots" or Islamic Iraqi religious authority, Sheikh Ahmad identity, both in Morocco and al-Qubaisi, supported this Egyptian elsewhere, was increasingly equated decision and issued a fatwa which with seventh century customs that were stated, "People have the right to know specific to women and to the Prophet the identity of the person they are in Muhammad's own life. front of in order not to feel deceived. The obligation of niqab was only for the Public servants in Malaysia are Prophet's wives as they were the prohibited from wearing the niqab. In mothers of all believers."[31] 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that the niqab "has nothing to do with [a Free Choice or Forced Choice? woman's] constitutional rights to profess and practice her Muslim religion" These examples challenge the because it is not required by Islamic increasing number of Muslim women in law.[28] On July 18, 2010, Syria the West, including converts and became the latest Muslim state to ban educated women, who claim to be freely full face veils in some public places, choosing to wear the burqa and the barring female students from wearing niqab. They are doing so in stark the full face cover on Syrian university contrast to the ethos and values of their campuses. The Syrian minister of adopted societies at a time when higher education indicated that the face governments in the part of the world veil ran counter to Syrian academic where this custom originated have been values and traditions.[29] progressively unveiling their women.

In October 2009, Sheikh These supposed defenders of Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, perhaps women's rights appear oblivious to what the foremost, formal spiritual authority in is implied by the phrase "to cover," 307 namely, that women are born shamed— secularist Syrian Baath regime in the they are nothing beyond their genitalia, early 1980s, the Algerian civil war of the which can shame or dishonor an entire 1990s, the ascendance of Hezbollah in family—and it is this shame which they Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and the must cover or for which they must atone. West Bank, and the rise of the Taliban Qur'anic verse (7:26) states, "We have in Afghanistan. All these developments sent down clothing to cover your placed substantial areas under Islamist shame." Certainly, this applies to both control and influence with dire men and women, but patriarchal consequences for women. As one customs have almost exclusively Egyptian man lamented, "My targeted women. Ironically, this verse grandmother would not recognize the also says that "the clothing of streets of Cairo and Port Said. The righteousness is the best"—a point lost women are covered from head to toe; on Islamists and their unwitting the mosques blare hatred all day sympathizers in the West. long."[35] And this in a country where the authorities go to great lengths to The fact is that Muslim women are fight Islamist influences. increasingly not given a free choice about wearing the veil, and those who The Taliban, for example, flogged resist are beaten, threatened with women on the street if their burqas death, arrested, flogged, jailed, or showed too much ankle while Islamist murdered for honor by their own vigilantes poured acid on the faces of families, by vigilante groups, or by the Afghan and Pakistani schoolgirls who state.[32] Being fully covered does not were not sufficiency covered.[36] As an save a Muslim woman from being Afghan woman noted, "For nearly two harassed, stalked, raped, and battered decades, we wore no chadors and in public places, or raped or beaten at dressed in modern ways. As the war home by her husband. Nor does it stop against the Soviet occupation her husband from taking multiple wives intensified, women were again forced to and girlfriends, frequenting brothels, wear chadors. Now, even under an divorcing her against her will, and American occupation, they are again legally seizing custody of their fully covered."[37] children.[33] A fully covered female child, as young as ten, may still be In Algeria, a leading Islamist group forced into an arranged marriage, proclaimed that all unveiled women are perhaps to a man old enough to be her military targets and, in 1994, gunned grandfather, and is not allowed to leave down a 17-year-old unveiled girl.[38] In him, not even if he beats her every 2010 in Chechnya, roving vigilante day.[34] bands of men harassed and threatened women for not wearing headscarves. Moreover, after decades of They punched women and taunted attempted modernization in Muslim them with automatic rifles and countries, the battle to impose the veil paintballs. The vigilante groups have was launched again by resurgent the backing of Chechnyan president Islamists. The establishment of the Ramzan Kadyrov's government, which Islamic Republic of Iran sent shock also encourages polygamy.[39] waves throughout the region and set in motion a string of violent eruptions. In 1983, four years after the Iranian These included the 1979-80 riots in the revolution and the establishment of the Shiite towns of the oil-rich Saudi Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah province of Hasa, the Muslim Khomeini instituted a ban on women Brotherhood's attempt to topple the showing their hair and the shape of their 308 bodies. The chador, which does not not wear a hijab. Of course, I wear a cover the face, is, nevertheless, a hijab. If I want to be practical and severe, dark, heavy, and shapeless interact with this society while garment that has demoralized and [sustaining] minimal damage, I must enraged what was an essentially wear a hijab. A woman who does not Westernized and modern upper and wear a hijab is guilty until proven middle class.[40] Thereafter, the Iranian [innocent]. Why should I waste my time government beat, arrested, and jailed proving that I am a respectable and women if they were improperly garbed educated girl? and has recently warned that suntanned women and girls who looked like Lutfi tells "Suha's" story. She "walking mannequins" will be arrested comes from a prominent Egyptian family as part of a new drive to enforce the and does not wear a hijab. At work, she Islamic dress code.[41] Saudi Arabia is cajoled and harassed by hijab- does not have to resort to such violence. wearing women who bombard her in No Saudi woman dares appear open- person and via e-mail; they give her pro- faced in public. In 2002, when teenage hijab audio cassettes and invite her to Saudi schoolgirls tried to escape from a hear a popular preacher whom hijab- burning school without their wearers follow. Suha loses one headscarves and abayas (black robes), marriage proposal after another when the Mutawa, or religious police, beat she refuses to promise that she will them back. Fifteen girls were burned wear the hijab and stop working after alive.[42] According to Tunisian-French marriage. Finally, Suha's married male feminist Samia Labidi, an increasing boss questions her closely, agrees with number of Islamist husbands force or her anti-hijab position—and then asks pressure their wives—whose own her to secretly become his common law mothers went about with uncovered wife. He views her as a prostitute faces—to cover.[43] Then, they because she is not wearing the hijab. pressure their new sisters-in-law to do likewise. In the West, some families Likewise, Walaa was verbally have honor-killed their daughters for insulted and her brothers were refusing to wear hijab.[44] assaulted by neighborhood boys because she was not wearing a hijab. A man from Istanbul remembered Now, she dons one when she leaves that his grandmother had fully veiled but home, removes it elsewhere, returns not his mother. But, he explained, "It is home wearing it again. Another young mainly peer pressure that makes things girl wears the hijab because her father happen in Turkey. Neighbors tell you to has asked her to do so and because her go to mosque; they watch how young beloved younger brother said that his girls and women look and behave very friends were judging him harshly closely. The pressure to conform is because she did not do so. She says: tremendous."[45] I wear a hijab because we live in a Westerners do not understand how society that allows the preacher Safwat pervasive such pressure can be. On Hijazi to call women who do not wear a July 17, 2010, for example, the hijab "prostitutes," and I do not want to newspaper Roz Al-Yousuf addressed be called a prostitute.[46] the coercive nature of hijab in Egypt. Wael Lutfi, assistant chief editor writes Thus, one can hardly view the in the first person feminine: covering of one's face as a free choice but rather as a forced choice. One must Society persecutes women who do also realize that non-veiled women, 309 including non-Muslims, who do not veil Muslim and ex-Muslim dissidents and are then seen by Islamists as "fair feminists as well as Christians have game" or "uncovered meat that draws exited Muslim lands.[49] Still, it has predators," to use the words of a taken Westerners decades to prominent Australian sheikh.[47] understand that the battle for Muslim women's freedom as well as for To be sure, some religious women Western Enlightenment values also has dress modestly, not "provocatively," to be fought in the West. because they view this as a religious virtue. Yet only Muslims engage in full Thus, in 2004, France became the face covering to satisfy the demand for first European country to legally restrict modesty, and there is a crucial Islamic dress by passing an ethnicity- difference between a free choice and a neutral law that forbade the wearing of forced choice. A forced choice is not religious clothing in public schools. really a choice at all. One either submits Veils, visible Christian crosses, Jewish or is punished, shunned, exiled, jailed, skullcaps, and the hijab were all even killed. A free choice means that forbidden. Also in 2004, eight of one has many options and freely Germany's sixteen states enacted chooses one of two or one of ten such restrictions on wearing hair-covering options. veils, particularly in public schools.[50] Since then, many European Many children who are brought up governments have debated whether or within fundamentalist religions or in not to ban the face veil. cults are trained, by a system of reward and punishment, to obey their parents, In February 2010, the French teachers, and religious leaders. As government refused to grant citizenship adults, if they wish to remain within the to a Moroccan man who forced his wife community (and the opportunity for to wear a burqa;[51] later that year, leaving did not and still does not exist for three women actually engaged in a most Muslim women), they must physical fight after a burqa-clad woman continue to conform to its norms. Most supposedly overheard another woman are already socialized to do so and thus, making snide remarks about her choice some Muslim women will say that they of dress.[52] In Norway, adult neighbors do not feel that anyone is forcing them and their children came to blows over to wear the headscarf; they will, in a the question of whether Muslim women private conversation, denounce the face should wear the headscarf, [53] and in veil, the burqa, the chador, and the March 2010, a ban on the burqa in Saudi abaya. public places was proposed although defeated in the Norwegian In the West, young Muslim women parliament.[54] On April, 29, 2010, the may feel they are responding to lower house of the Belgian parliament perceived racist "Islamophobia" by approved a bill banning the burqa and donning the headscarf or the face veil as imposing a fine or jail time on a revolutionary act,[48] one in solidarity violators;[55] three months later, with Islamists whom they may fear, wish Spanish lawmakers debated banning to please, or marry. the burqa in public although they ultimately decided against it.[56] In Europe Debates the Veil August 2010, Sweden's education minister announced his intention to The Islamist resurgence throughout the make it easier for Swedish schools to Middle East and the Muslim world has ban the burqa.[57] In July 2010, by a triggered a mass migration to the West; majority of 336 to 1, the lower house of 310 the French parliament approved a female politicians have been cowed by government bill that bans face-covering doctrines of political correctness, in public, and the bill was approved by cultural relativism, misguided beliefs the French senate on September 14. about religious tolerance, and by the fear that if they oppose the burqa, they While these bills await ratification, will be condemned as "Islamophobes" local European officials have already or racists. Ignorance about Muslim taken concrete steps against the burqa. jurists' rulings that the full-face covering Since January 2010, the Netherlands is not religiously mandated and about has limited the wearing of burqas in the history of the Islamic veil in Muslim public spaces.[58] In May 2010, a local lands has led to a curious Western and council in north Switzerland voted to feminist abandonment of universal introduce an initiative to ban the burqa human values as they bear on the in public places while, in 2005, the Islamic veil. Belgian town of Maaseik passed a law mandating a fine for anyone wearing a Ironically, powerful Western face veil.[59] In April 2010, a French women, while claiming to represent an woman was fined for wearing a burqa anti-colonialist or post-colonialist point while driving,[60] and in the same of view, are reminiscent of Victorian-era month, a girl wearing hijab was sent and early twentieth century British home from her school in Madrid.[61] colonial administrators who believed that the needs of empire would not be Britain, by contrast, has well served by interfering with local conspicuously refused to consider customs. This British position was very banning the burqa. There has, of different from the position of American, course, been the odd case when a Christian missionary women who tried radical Islamist has been taken to task to help, teach, and sometimes save for unlawful insistence on the Muslim Muslim women from their plight.[65] dress code, such as the Manchester dentist who refused to treat Muslim Thus, both U.S. Speaker of the patients unless they wore traditional House Nancy Pelosi and Secretary of Islamic dress,[62] but efforts at a ban State Hillary Clinton have donned the have gone nowhere in parliament. hijab when visiting Arab and Muslim countries whereas Arab and Muslim In response to the French female dignitaries and spouses do not parliamentary vote of July 2010, remove the hijab or the niqab while Britain's immigration minister, Damian visiting the West. On July 18, 2010, Green, stated that "forbidding women in British Minister Caroline Spelman, the the U.K. from wearing certain clothing environment secretary and second most would be 'rather un-British'" and would powerful woman in the cabinet, run contrary to the conventions of a described the burqa as "empowering." "tolerant and mutually respectful She said, "I don't, living in this country society."[63] The following month, as a woman, want to be told what I can Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the first and can't wear. One of the things we Muslim cabinet minister in the U.K., pride ourselves on … is being free to defended the right of women to choose choose what you wear … so banning whether or not to wear the burqa, the burka is absolutely contrary to what claiming, "Just because a woman wears this country is about."[66] the burqa, it doesn't mean she can't engage in everyday life."[64] On July 2, 2009, as Muslims demonstrated in Antwerp to oppose the Many non-Muslim, Western, banning of headscarves in two 311 schools[67]—then-Swedish head of the terrorist cells and feared that individual European Union, Justice Minister cell members could use the niqab to slip Beatrice Ask, stated that the "twenty- through checkpoints unnoticed.[74] seven-member European Union must Saudi Arabia's antiterrorism forces have not dictate an Islamic dress code … the begun a battle against the niqab after European Union is a union of discovering that many "Islamic terrorists freedom."[68] have used it to hide in order to commit terror attacks."[75] These concerns are The Grounds for a Burqa Ban not difficult to understand given the widespread use of the burqa and niqab There are a multitude of specific for weapons smuggling and terror problems associated with the burqa and attacks, including suicide bombings in niqab. To begin, full-body and face- Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Palestinian covering attire hides the wearer's territories, among other places.[76] gender. In October 1937, Hajj Amin Husseini, mufti of Jerusalem and Adolf Beyond these abiding security Hitler's future ally, fled Palestine considerations are equally compelling donning a niqab as did one of the July humanitarian considerations. André 2005 London bombers.[69] From a Gerin, a French parliamentarian, has security point of view, face and body described the burqa as a "moving covering can facilitate various acts of prison."[77] This is an apt definition: In a violence and lawlessness from petty burqa, the wearer has no peripheral and crime and cheating to terrorism. This only limited forward vision; hearing and danger, which has been highlighted by speech are muffled; facial expressions a number of experts, notably Daniel remain hidden; movement is severely Pipes,[70] has been taken very constrained. Often, no eye contact is seriously by Muslim authorities, who possible; niqab wearers sometimes have banned the burqa on precisely wear dark glasses, so that their eyes these grounds. cannot be seen.

In Bangladesh, the largest state- A burqa wearer may feel that she run hospital banned staff from wearing cannot breathe, that she might slowly be full-face burqas after an increase in suffocating. She may feel buried alive thefts of mobile phones and wallets from and may become anxious or hospital wards.[71] In a number of claustrophobic.[78] Just imagine the Egyptian universities, women were consequences of getting used to this as barred from covering their faces during a way of life. But perhaps one never midterm exams and were prohibited gets used to it. Many Saudi and Afghan from wearing niqabs in female women toss their coverings the moment dormitories after it transpired that men they leave the country or enter their own had snuck in disguised as women.[72] courtyards.[79] For example, an Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, has banned the unnamed Saudi princess describes her niqab in all public offices to fight experience of the Saudi abaya as "unrestricted absenteeism."[73] follows:

There are also numerous cases of When we walked out of the cool bans for security. In Kuwait, for souq area into the blazing hot sun, I example, female drivers are barred from gasped for breath and sucked furiously wearing the niqab for "security through the sheer black fabric. The air reasons." The regulation came into tasted stale and dry as it filtered through effect about ten years ago when the the thin gauzy cloth. I had purchased the authorities were pursuing sleeper sheerest veil available, yet I felt I was 312 seeing life through a thick screen. How damage and may be prone to a host of could women see through veils made of diseases that are also related to vitamin a thicker fabric? The sky was no longer D deficiency from sunlight deprivation, blue, the glow of the sun had dimmed; including osteoporosis, heart disease, my heart plunged to my stomach when hypertension, autoimmune diseases, I realized that from that moment, outside certain cancers, depression, chronic my own home I would not experience fatigue, and chronic pain. It is ironic that life as it really is in all its color. The world women in the Middle East, one of the suddenly seemed a dull place. And world's sunniest regions, have been dangerous, too! I groped and stumbled found in need of high levels of vitamin D along the pitted, cracked sidewalk, supplementation owing to their total fearful of breaking an ankle or leg."[80] covering.[82]

The burqa is harmful not only to the Conclusion wearer but to others as well. The sight of women in burqas can be The same Islamists who subordinate demoralizing and frightening to women also publicly whip, cross- Westerners of all faiths, including amputate, hang, stone, and behead Muslims, not to mention secularists. human beings. Iran continues to Their presence visually signals the execute women and men by stoning for subordination of women. Additionally, adultery.[83] The burqa reminds us of the social isolation intrinsically imposed such practices. Many Westerners, by the burqa may also be further including Muslims, ex-Muslims, and magnified by the awkward responses of Christians, Jews, and Hindus who have Westerners. Several Ivy League college fled Muslim lands, may feel haunted or students mentioned that classmates in followed when they see burqas on burqas and dark, thick gloves make Western streets. Does their presence them feel "very sad," "pushed away," herald the arrival of Islamist "uneasy about talking to them." "When supremacism? one woman is asked to read aloud, she does so but her heavy gloves make Many Muslim governments know turning the pages slow and difficult." something that their Western The students feel sorry for her and do counterparts are just learning. Covered not know how to relate to her.[81] women signify Islamist designs on state power and control of political, military, A burqa wearer, who can be as social, personal, and family life. Were young as ten years old, is being these designs to be extended to the conditioned to endure isolation and West, it will spell out the end of sensory deprivation. Her five senses are modernity, human rights, and the blocked, muted. Sensory deprivation separation of state and church, among and isolation are considered forms of other things; in short, the end of liberal torture and are used to break prisoners. democracy and freedoms as now Such abuse can lead to low self- practiced. esteem, generalized fearfulness, dependence, suggestibility, depression, Apart from being an Islamist act of anxiety, rage, aggression toward other assertion that involves clear security women and female children, or to a dangers and creating mental and complete psychological breakdown. physical health hazards, the burqa is a flagrant violation of women's most basic Wearing the burqa is also human rights. However, were the hazardous to the health in other ways. government to attempt to ban the burqa Lifetime burqa wearers may suffer eye in the United States, a team of 313 constitutional legal scholars would have requirement but rather a political to decide whether to follow the French statement—at best merely an ethnic ethnicity- and religion-neutral approach and misogynistic custom—there is no of no "face coverings," "face masks," reason whatsoever for Western etc., or whether to ban outright the traditions of religious tolerance to public disappearance of women's faces misconstrue the covering of women as and their subordination in the name of a religious duty at a time when the vast Islam as a violation of their civil rights. majority of Muslims do not see it as such. It is impossible for Western governments and international Phyllis Chesler is emerita professor organizations to prevent the acid of psychology and women's studies at attacks or honor killings of women in the Richmond College of the City Muslim countries who refuse to cover University of New York and co-founder their faces, but why tie society's hands of the Association for Women in on Western soil? Why would Western Psychology and the National Women's countries prize the subordination of Health Network. The author wishes to women and protect it as a religious right acknowledge the assistance of Nathan at a time when many Muslim states Bloom in the preparation of this paper. refuse to do so? When it is understood that the burqa is not a religious

[1] "Widespread Support for Banning Full Islamic Veil in Western Europe," Pew Global Attitudes Project, Washington, D.C., July 8, 2010; United Press International, July 17, 2010; The Toronto Sun, July 28, 2010. [2] New Atlanticist (Washington, D.C.), Mar. 1, 2010; Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2010. [3] Martha Nussbaum, "Veiled Threats?" The New York Times, July 11, 2010; Naomi Wolf, "Behind the Veil Lives a Thriving Muslim Sexuality," The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), Aug. 30, 2008; Joan Wallach, "France Has the Burqa All Wrong," Salon, Apr. 12, 2010; Joan Wallach, "Don't Ban Burqas—Or Censor South Park," BigThink.com, May 21, 2010; Yvonne Ridley, "How I Came to Love the Veil," The Washington Post, Oct. 22, 2006. [4] Marnia Lazreg, Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), p. 62. [5] Wolf, "Behind the Veil Lives a Thriving Muslim Sexuality." [6] Nussbaum, "Veiled Threats?"; Leon Wieseltier, "Faces and Faiths," The New Republic, July 27, 2010. [7] Nussbaum, "Veiled Threats?"; Wolf, "Behind the Veil Lives a Thriving Muslim Sexuality." [8] Wieseltier, "Faces and Faiths." [9] Lazreg, Questioning the Veil, pp. 62-3. [10] Bernard-Henri Levy, "Why I Support a Ban on Burqas," The Huffington Post, Feb. 15, 2010; Samia Labidi, "Faces of Janus: The Arab-Muslim Community in France and the Battle for Its Future," in Zeyno Baran, ed., The Other Muslims: Moderate and Secular (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 116-9; Melanie Philips, in "Should France Ban the Burqa?" National Review Online, July 23, 2010; Elham Manea, in Valentina Colombo, "Europe: Behind the Burqa Debate," Hudson Institute, New York, Mar. 12, 2010. [11] Stuart Schneiderman blog, "Burqaphilia," July 17, 2010. [12] Farvardyn Project, "Pahlavi Literature," accessed Aug. 25, 2010. [13] M. Sadeq Nazmi-Afshar, "The People of Iran, The Origins of Aryan_People," Iran Chamber Society, accessed Aug. 25, 2010. [14] Amin Qasim, The Liberation of Women and The New Woman: Two Documents in the History of Egyptian Feminism, trans. Samiha Sidhom Peterson (Cairo: American University of Cairo Press, 2000). 314 [15] Reina Lewis and Nancy Micklenwright, eds., Gender, Modernity and Liberty: Middle Eastern and Western Women's Writings: A Critical Sourcebook (New York: I.B. Tauris and Co., 2006), pp. 36-7; Afaf Lufti al-Sayyid Marsot, "The Revolutionary Gentlewomen in Egypt," in Lois Beck and Nikki Keddie, eds., Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp. 261-76. [16] Colombo, "Europe: Behind the Burqa Debate." [17] Sarasota Herald Tribune, Jan. 26, 1958. [18] Rhea Talley Stewart, Fire in Afghanistan 1914-1929: Faith, Hope, and the British Empire (New York: Doubleday, 1973), pp. 127, 376-8. [19] Rosanne Klass, Afghanistan: The Great Game Revisited (New York: Freedom House, 1987), p. 39; idem, Land of the High Flags (New York: Odyssey Books, 1964), pp. 202-3. [20] The Muslim Observer (Farmington, Mich.), Jan. 31, June 19, 2008. [21] Hamideh Sedghi, Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 85. [22] Ibid., pp. 85-7. [23] Author interview with the wife of an Arab ambassador to the United Nations, New York, 1980. [24] BBC News, Sept. 26, 2006. [25] Ibid., Oct. 6, 2006. [26] Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc., 1975). [27] Ibid. [28] Nurjaanah Abdullah and Chew Li Hua, "Legislating Faith in Malaysia," Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 2007, pp. 264-89. [29] BBC News, July 19, 2010. [30] The Daily Telegraph (London), Oct. 5, 2009. [31] Colombo, "Europe: Behind the Burqa Debate." [32] Phyllis Chesler, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings," Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2010, pp. 3-11. [33] Phyllis Chesler, The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), chap. 6, 7. [34] David Ghanim, Gender and Violence in the Middle East (Wesport: Praeger, 2009), chap. 2, 4. [35] Author interview, New York, 2008. [36] "Women's Lives under the Taliban: A Background Report," National Organization of Women, Washington, D.C., accessed Aug. 25, 2010; The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 12, 2008. [37] Author interview, New York, 2005. [38] "Equality Now Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee: Algeria," United Nations, New York, July 1998. [39] Reuters, Aug. 21, 2010. [40] See, for example, Roya Hakakian, Journey from the Land of No (New York: Crown Publishers, 2004); Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran (New York: Random House, 2003). [41] Associated Press, Apr. 23, 2007; The Daily Telegraph, Apr. 27, 2010. [42] BBC News, Mar. 15, 2002. [43] Labidi, "Faces of Janus," pp. 117-8. [44] Chesler, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings." [45] Author interview, New York, 2010. [46] "Egyptian Newspaper Roz Al-Yousuf Criticizes Phenomenon of Compelling Egyptian Women to Wear a Hijab," The Middle East Media Research Institute, Sept. 6, 2010. [47] The Times (London), Oct. 28, 2006. 315 [48] Los Angeles Times, Jan. 12, 2005; Al-Jezeera TV (Doha), Sept. 17, 2008. [49] See, for example, CBN News, Oct. 15, 2009; David Raab, "The Beleaguered Christians of the Palestinian-Controlled Areas," Jerusalem Letter/Viewpoints, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jan. 1-15, 2003. [50] "Discrimination in the Name of Neutrality," Human Rights Watch, New York, Feb. 26, 2009. [51] The Guardian (London), Feb. 2, 2010. [52] The Daily Telegraph, May 18, 2010. [53] Islam in Europe Blog, Aug. 4, 2010. [54] The Foreigner (Raege, Norway), May 28, 2010. [55] BBC News, Apr. 30, 2010. [56] Associated Press, July 20, 2010. [57] The Swedish Wire, Aug. 5, 2010. [58] Benjamin Ismail, "Ban the Burqa? France Votes Yes," Middle East Quarterly, Fall 2010, pp. 47-55. [59] Associated Press, May 6, 2010; "Brussels Barqa Ban Backfires When City Ends up Paying Fines for Muslim Women on Welfare," Militant Islam Monitor, Aug. 26, 2005. [60] The Daily Telegraph, June 3, 2010. [61] Ibid., Apr. 16, 2010. [62] The Daily Mail (London), July 2, 2009. [63] ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, July 19, 2010. [64] The Guardian, Aug. 1, 2010. [65] Penelope Tuson, Playing the Game: The Story of Western Women in Arabia (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2003), pp. 149-50. [66] The Daily Telegraph, July 18, 2010. [67] Islam in Europe Blog, July 2, 2009. [68] The Jerusalem Post, June 30, 2009. [69] BBC News, Feb. 20, 2007. [70] Daniel Pipes, "Niqabs and Burqas as Security Threats," Lion's Den: Daniel Pipes Blog, Nov. 4, 2006. [71] The Daily Times (Lahore), Mar. 23, 2010. [72] The Daily News Egypt (Giza), June 7, July 27, 2010. [73] Colombo, "Europe: Behind the Burqa Debate." [74] Kuwait Times (Kuwait City), Oct. 9, 2009. [75] Colombo, "Europe: Behind the Burqa Debate." [76] Pipes, "Niqabs and Burqas as Security Threats." [77] The Daily Telegraph, June 22, 2009. [78] See, for example, Reuters, July 7, 2009. [79] Edward Hunter, The Past Present: A Year in Afghanistan (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1959), chap. 4, 5. [80] Jean Sasson, Princess: A True Story of Life behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia (Georgia: Windsor-Brooke Books, 2010), pp. 94-5. [81] Author interview, New York, 2009. [82] Reuters, June 25, 2007. [83] The Christian Science Monitor, Aug. 13, 2010; "Iran: End Executions by Stoning," Amnesty International, Jan. 15, 2008.

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Literally, Hijab means “a veil,” “curtain,” “partition” or “separation.”1 In this regard, it is believed that The verse in which it is mentioned is when the pre-Islamic Arabs went to specifically addressed to the wives of battle, Arab women seeing the men off the prophet; there is no dispute among to war would bare their breasts to scholars about that at all. The verse encourage them to fight; or they would states as follows: do so at the battle itself, as in the case of the Meccan women led by Hind at the And when you ask [his wives] Battle of Uhud.2 for something, ask them from behind a partition (hijab). That Nikkie Keddie, a prominent historian is purer for your hearts and and an expert on women’s issues in their hearts. And it is not Islam, said that this verse does not refer [conceivable or lawful] for you to covering the hair. It was only “later to harm the Messenger of interpreted as meaning covering the Allah or to marry his wives whole body, including the hair, and most after him, ever. Indeed, that of the face.” She continued that; “This would be in the sight of Allah interpretation is illogical. If the whole an enormity. (Quran 33: 53) body and face were meant, there would be no reason to tell women to veil their The term hijab then is meant to have a bosoms specifically, while the later partition between the wives of the interpretation of ‘adornment’ to mean prophet and his companions. It is not everything but the hands, feet, and addressed to the Muslim women, (possibly) the face is a forced one. otherwise it would have been stated, says Mohamed Rashed. However, Al Qaradawi, a famous Egyptian scholar, quoted the same Bouthaina Shaaban seems to have verse to conclude that the Hijab is held the same belief. She said that those compulsory and is an injunction based who imitate the wives of the prophet and on a literal reading of the Koran. He wear the Hijab are disobeying God’s will, asserted that the Hijab is, “not the result for He said: of an opinion by jurists or even by Muslims; it is a Koranic order.”3 O wives of the Prophet, you are not like anyone among As regards the verse in which women. (Quran 33: 32) Jalabib is mentioned, the researcher considered it to be misplaced evidence. As for the term Khimar, it is found in a verse of the Quran stating, O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the And tell the believing women women of the believers to to reduce [some] of their bring down over themselves vision and guard their private [part] of their outer garments. parts and not expose their That is more suitable that they adornment except that which will be known and not be [necessarily] appears thereof abused. (Quran 33:59) and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests. The supporters of Hijab as an Islamic (Quran 24: 31) duty overlooked the historical background and the cause of revelation, The researcher pointed out that the for the verse was meant to distinguish evidence is invalid. The intent of the text between the pure and promiscuous is to refer to the cover of the breast women and slaves. At that time, all 318 women tended not to cover their faces. wonder if the Arab Spring was Hence, the verse was revealed so as to conducive in bringing this issue to the protect the pure from some men, who surface. would gaze at them while they were excreting or urinating. References: Mustapha Mohamed Rashed rejected the Hadith, reported by Abu 1. Cyril Glassé. The Concise Dawud, in which Asma, daughter of Abu Encyclopedia of Islam. Harper and Bakr, was ordered by the prophet to Row Publishers, New York, N.Y., expose only her face and palms. He 1989. says it should not be taken into any sort of consideration because it is “Ahaad” or 2. Bouthaina Shaaban. The Muted its narration does not fulfill one of the Voices of Women Interpreters. In most important required conditions, FAITH AND FREEDOM: Women’s connectivity. Human Rights in the Muslim World, Mahnaz Afkhami (Editor). I. B. Tauris It is not clear whether the Publishers, New York, 1995. p.72. dissertation was preserved on the shelves of Al Azhar University and could 3. “Live Sermon from Umar Bin-al- not be discussed. This possibility made Khattab Mosque in Doha,” Qatar TV, the Moroccan newspaper, Almassaa, December 19, 2003.

Update to the article:

Al Azhar University published a statement in June 2012, denying the claims that one of its scholars had defended a thesis that concluded that Hijab, or the veil, is not an Islamic duty.

319

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! %"$! Louise Casey’s review into integration, slave to racism doesn’t think) . . . the which found that women of Pakistani demand is simple, REMOVE THE BAN and Bangladeshi heritage especially FROM THE GIRLS YOU face “a double onslaught of gender PAEDOPHILLIAC PERSON . . . may inequality, combined with religious, you never be happy . . . how many shoes cultural and social barriers preventing did you lick to be where you are today?” them from accessing even their basic rights as British residents”. In And this: “Have you got as problem with conversation Dame Louise Muslims? I think you are in the wrong job characteristically puts it more bluntly: you coward. Stupid cow!”. This email “The level of misogyny within some of was headlined “You Horrible VILE rat.” that community was jaw-dropping.” Or British Muslims have now had almost a as Churchill might have put it, the generation of being told by a myriad of influence of Islam “paralyses the social activist organisations claiming to development of those who follow it” represent them that almost any because “in Mohammedan law every restriction or even implied criticism of woman must belong to some man as his Islam is motivated by an irrational fear absolute property.” and even hatred of Islam, otherwise known as Islamophobia. The response to Spielman’s comments that she would like to inquire into the Hatred of Islam is indeed irrational, but rapid expansion of the hijab for small apprehension about the long-term girls was a spasm of venomous hate impact of a large and expanding mail, including a “we-know-where-you politicised faith that seems intent on live” and “can-get-you-any-time” threats integrating on its own terms seems mainly, she says, from “Islamic entirely logical. A culture war is far more extremists and the hard Left”. dangerous to the cohesive health of this country than occasional attempts at Worse was dished out to Neena Lall, the mass murder, although not of course for head teacher of St Stephen’s primary those killed or injured. And the problem school in East London, when she dared is that it is becoming almost impossible to ban the hijab for 4-7-year-olds — to reconcile our differences in civilised again, out of concern for the welfare of public debate. the children under her care. The youngest girls tended to fiddle with their Typical of the reaction to those like me hijabs which affected their concentration who have scrutinised the more in class. Lall was also concerned their regressive versions of Islam since 9/11 scarves were working loose and might is to play the man and not the ball. The get caught around their necks while latest bout (“rabid Islamophobe”, “piece using playground equipment. She also of Islamophobic shit”, “sinister”, “white worried about the impact on the children supremacist”, “racist”, “witchfinder of fasting during Ramadan. Up to 19 general”, etc) followed my recent hours without food had left some feeling investigation for Channel 4 into the faint and unable to concentrate. So organisation claiming much of the credit parents were asked to feed their children for leading the campaigns against before sending them to school. Neena Lall and Amanda Spielman.

Here’s a flavour of the response to Lall’s That organisation is called Mend decision: “Having been exposed as an (Muslim Engagement and Islamophobe culturally ignorant, Development), which claims to be prejuidiced [sic] against Muslims, can Britain’s most active and successful you please confirm when you will resign grassroots Muslim organisation. from your post.” Mend proclaims an exemplary ambition Here’s another: “You are disgusting to “enhance civic engagement” by Islamophobic Nazi-like thinker (though a Muslims and to “foster social cohesion 322 and community resilience to all forms of claims are alarmist. A 2014 Mend prayer extremism”. There is no suggestion that urged British Muslims to “make sure that Mend orchestrated the flood of poison the threat of Islamophobia doesn’t reach against the Chief Inspector of Schools or a state where neighbours start Neena Lall, head teacher of St murdering one another, such as what we Stephen’s primary school. However, saw in Bosnia, or even in the Central Mend activists were busy on the ground African Republic today”. In January this and their boss Sufyan Ismail has year Mend’s Head of Policy, Isobel boasted privately that Lall “felt the wrath Ingham-Barrow, said she was “sorry to of the local Mend group and the say” that when it came to Islamophobia, parents”. I have yet to see Mend publicly “we may already be close” to creating condemn the cruder manifestations of the same “conditions” that led to the this wrath, inflamed by unwarranted extermination of more than six million claims from them and fellow activists Jews and other minorities in Nazi that Islamophobia had motivated Lall’s Germany. decision to ban the hijab for 4-7-year olds. The notion that Islamophobia here is inching towards genocide on the scale of Ismail is a wealthy 42-year-old Bosnia, let alone the Holocaust, is entrepreneur from Blackburn who patently absurd. Mend presents travels in a chauffeur-driven Bentley. statistics for anti-Muslim hate crime by Common to all his companies is the adding religiously-inspired attacks letter E, which he says stands for against Muslims to racially-inspired “ethical” because “at the heart of our attacks, whether or not the perpetrator operations” is a “core value . . . integrity.” knew the victim was a Muslim — despite One subsidiary was OneE Tax Ltd, the Metropolitan Police warning that “the which was involved in what he describes two figures should not be summed”. as “tax planning” rather than “tax Anecdotally, the actual instances of avoidance”, which went into voluntary Islamophobic hate crime — as distinct liquidation shortly after launching Mend. from those reported to the police — would appear to be growing. However, Since 2010, Ismail has been trying to the police do not consider the reality is persuade politicians to engage with anything like as bleak as Mend organisations like Mend because, he suggests. “Sometimes the outside world says, its values are representative of his internationally can look in and think, fellow British Muslims. In November that ‘Goodness me; there is all that hate year he briefly succeeded after an crime’,” says the Metropolitan Police organisation he created called “iEngage” Commissioner Cressida Dick. “‘Have was appointed secretariat to the newly- they got gangs of armed thugs going launched All Party Parliamentary Group around with shaved heads attacking on Islamophobia (APPG). However, people?’ No, we haven’t. We have a reports emerged of iEngage defending base level of two or three crimes per Islamists regarded by the government borough per day online and off, the vast as extremists. According to the majority of which are at the less serious Community Security Trust, which end of the spectrum, and I do not believe protects British Jews from anti- the problem is getting worse. But I am Semitism, iEngage displayed a not complacent about that.” “troubling attitude to anti-Semitism”. In July 2011, MPs voted 60-2 to remove This is not to minimise the trauma to iEngage from the APPG. individual Muslims from vile baiting, being spat at, called names or having a Three years later Ismail rebranded garment ripped off. But the danger of iEngage as Mend. Again its main focus talking up Islamophobia in such an was tackling Islamophobia. While alarmist way is that it risks creating a Islamophobic incidents recorded by the siege mentality among Muslims. Day in, police have been growing, Mend’s day out, Mend feeds Muslims a 323 relentless diet of news and dramatised organisations Mend lists as its “strategic videos of Islamophobic attacks (not partners” are regarded by the Home always accurate) as if to emphasise: Office Extremism Analysis Unit as being “You do know your fellow non-Muslim “extremist”. For example, Cage, the citizens hate you, don’t you?” Its leader Islamist group that has campaigned to Sufyan Ismail has himself told Muslims free convicted terrorists, famously that “society hates us.” described Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man”, and defended the right of a Still, Mend seems to have persuaded British jihadi to carry out a suicide several MPs from all parties and some bombing on a jail in Syria in which many police forces that it is an appropriate are said to have been killed in order to organisation to advise on how to tackle free prisoners. Indeed, Sufyan Ismail Islamophobia. In Manchester, it has says he has “personally donated to partnered with the police and the council Cage over the years, and I continue to on a joint “Ending Islamophobia Action do so. Let’s get that on the record, and I Plan” which includes advising schools don’t know how many people have on how to “identify the difference donated as much as I have, but it’s not a between free speech and cyber-hate”; it small amount.” Like Cage, Mend wants has provided research to Manchester’s “counter-terrorism legislation which is Mayor, Andy Burnham, about policing unnecessary abolished”. Muslim communities; in Cardiff it has trained the British Transport Police on In the immediate future Ismail says he Islamophobia; in Leeds they’ve trained wants Mend to focus on schools by NHS staff on Islamophobia; in London hiring “schools content officers”, Mend says it is an official partner of the presumably to try to persuade schools to Electoral Commission; it claims to be the present Islam the way he views his faith. only Muslim group to have given oral And if Ofsted does indeed launch an evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into the inquiry into the rise of the hijab among culture and practices of the press; and primary school girls, we can expect across the country it has held events hostilities to resume. Mosques in with police and crime commissioners. Manchester, Stockport, Oldham, Mend representatives even sit on the Rochdale and Bolton have advised odd local authority committee advising parents not to allow their daughters to be them how to implement the questioned by school inspectors. government’s counter-terrorism Prevent programme, aimed at preventing We are often told that wearing the hijab vulnerable individuals from being drawn is a matter of personal choice for into Islamist and far-right extremism. women. However, when Ofsted’s Chief This, despite Mend campaigning for Inspector Amanda Spielman suggested Prevent’s abolition as part of “state- that parents who expect their children to sponsored Islamophobia”. wear the hijab before puberty might be sexualising them, the Greater These well-intentioned politicians and Manchester mosques condemned her public servants have been less than comments as “abhorrent”. Why? curious about the rebranding of iEngage to Mend. Some Mend staff and If the hijab really is a matter of personal volunteers have promoted ideas that choice — and not widely regarded by meet the government’s definition of Muslims as a sexual modesty garment extremism contained in its Counter- — what explains the 2017 slut-shaming Extremism Strategy: support for and terrorising of a 17-year-old hijab- organisations proscribed as terrorist, wearing girl in Birmingham filmed anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and twerking in the street? After the film was visceral attacks on fellow Muslims who uploaded (receiving a million views), one have dared to suggest that Mend has Muslim wrote: “That’s so disrespectful is not always practised the anti-hate you [sic] are wearing hijab you are principles it preaches. Some of the representing Islam dignity so how to act 324 like a fool is a big disrespect.” Another: Nasser: Every woman walking — “She should be shot!!!!!!!!”. Another Crowd: (More laughter.) wrote: “Killing her oughta teach her!”. Two self-appointed male modesty Man: Let him wear it! (Loud laughter guardians are reported to have been and applause.) contacted by the girl’s family. So Nasser: And I told him if I make that a intimidated was the girl by the law, they will say that we have “community” opprobrium heaped on her returned to the days of Al Hakim bi- for being immodest (“This is the work of Amr Allah who forbade people from the devil”) that she was recorded walking at day and only allowed sobbing and begging forgiveness. “To all walking at night. the girls that wear the hijab and wear abaya (Islamic cloak) I’m sorry for Crowd: (Laughter.) disrespecting it,” she wailed. Nasser: And my opinion is that every person in his own house decides for Others, like Dr Siema Iqbal, a GP who himself the rules. And he replied: was until recently Mend’s Manchester “No, as the leader, you are co-ordinator, say many young Muslim responsible.” I told him “Sir, you girls simply wish to imitate their mother, have a daughter at the school of or a relative. Perhaps. It’s also true that medicine. She is not wearing a tarha some mothers in highly-segregated [hijab].” areas worry what their neighbours might say “about their daughter being Crowd: (Loud laughter.) immodest or slutty” as one Muslim friend Nasser: Why didn’t you make her raised in such an environment told me. wear a tarha?

To suggest that the hijab has not been Crowd: (Rapturous applause — adopted primarily as a religious symbol whistling.) of sexual modesty ignores its evolution. Nasser: If you are unable to make one While there are no specific references to girl who is your daughter wear the the term hijab in the Koran, verse 24:31 tarha, you want me to put a tarha on does refer to the Prophet telling 10 million woman — myself! “believing women” to “lower their gaze Crowd and Nasser: (Both collapse and be modest”, to “wrap (a portion) of with laughter amid more thunderous their headcovers” over their bosoms and applause.) not to “display their beauty” except to close male relatives. That all changed with the arrival of By the 1950s, however, the hijab had Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. Resurgent become something of a museum piece Shi’ism forced Iran’s Sunni rival Saudi in parts of the Arab world. A video of Arabia to regress into one the most rigid, Egypt’s President Nasser at a mass rally and illiberal regimes since the Kingdom in 1958 shows him mocking the hijab was founded and much of the Islamic after the Muslim Brotherhood demanded world followed. Today, though, a more he make it compulsory: progressive breeze is wafting through Saudi Arabia, with clerics ruling that the Nasser: And I met the head of the abaya — a long-fitting robe for women Muslim Brotherhood and he sat with me — should no longer be compulsory. and made his requests. What were his requests? The first thing he asked for In Iran reform is also in the air. True, was to make the wearing of a hijab women are still being arrested by mandatory in Egypt. And demand that hardliners for refusing to wear the every woman walking in the street wear compulsory hijab, but they have taken a large scarf. comfort from the words of President Rouhani: “One cannot force one’s Crowd: (Laughter.) lifestyle on the future generations.” As 325 for the Gulf, parts of Dubai now look like threatened and even killed for not Marbella with skimpily-clad women. wearing it. “Kill her and throw her corpse to the dogs,” was one outraged Britain seems to be moving in the response in 2016 to a young Saudi opposite direction with some pockets of woman who posted a picture of herself our major cities and towns resembling — on social media in public without in appearance at least — a sort of wearing a hijab. caliphate. Of course, British Muslims are not alone Mend demands to know what evidence in worrying about where a liberal there is for the hijab sexualising young permissive society might take their girls. How about the words of Nazma children. Equally, there is concern about Khan, the Bangladeshi-American owner how the hijab is being used by Islamist of a New York headscarf company who organisations to position conservative inspired World Hijab Day, run annually Islam in the mainstream. since 2013? Khan says she wanted to “foster religious tolerance and Quite why a branch of the British understanding by inviting women (non- government should be willing to help hijabi Muslims and non-Muslims) to them do this in a country increasingly experience the hijab for one day.” And segregated by faith and culture is what exactly is it that she invites them to puzzling. Not to Scotland’s First Minister understand about the hijab? The Nicola Sturgeon though: “Women “recognition,” she says, that “millions of should be able to observe their faith — Muslim women who choose to wear the and wear what they choose,” she says hijab . . . live a life of modesty.” on the World Hijab Day website. Sure, they should. Is there some suggestion A Canadian Shia TV station, Ahlulbayt, that they cannot? The case made by that promotes World Hijab Day runs a Amanda Spielman and Neena Lall is not similar project called “Global Hijab about the right of British Muslim girls Awareness”. “Why does Islam who have reached puberty to wear the encourage hijab?” asks its homepage hijab: it is whether it is right for the state Q&A. Answer: “It not only makes a to collude in its imposition on 4-7-year woman feel confident and liberated but olds, long before they reach puberty, encourages society to not see women instead of giving them the freedom to as objects of desire.” Women who choose at puberty. haven’t yet worn the hijab should “get on the train of repentance, my sister, before Some British Muslim leaders seem to it passes by your station”. want to reduce that choice. The Greater Council of Mosques in Greater Our well-intentioned Foreign Office Manchester insist that the hijab celebrated World Hijab Day in February, becomes a “religious obligation” at and is reported to have offered free puberty and parents who put it on their headscarves to women, inviting them to pre-pubescent daughters “do so to its Walk-In event — just to feel the power accustom them to wear it in later life”. of its “liberation, respect and security”. Mend boss Sufyan Ismail gives the Muslim women are often quoted as game away when he says: “Our view saying the hijab does indeed “empower” was that if a girl does not wear the hijab them. But how, exactly? By providing a before puberty then she won’t wear it deterrent to ogling men because they’re afterwards.” So much for Mend’s claim left with less to look at? How exactly that the right to wear the hijab in schools does that represent empowerment of is about religious freedom. It also women? It seems to me that by suggests scant parental regard for the encouraging women in the West to wear famously quoted Koranic verse that the hijab, the Foreign Office is there should be no compulsion in disempowering those of their sisters in religion. the East who have been arrested, 326 To Asra Nomani, co-founder of the US- Mend also cites the “UN Declaration on based Muslim Reform Movement, the the Rights of Persons belonging to likes of Sturgeon and the Foreign Office National or Ethnic, Religious and “stand on the wrong side of a lethal war Linguistic Minorities” because of ideas that sexually objectifies women signatories are required to ensure as vessels for honour and temptation, “minorities can fully exercise fully and absolving men of personal effectively all their human rights and responsibility. This purity culture covers, fundamental freedoms without any segregates, subordinates, silences, discrimination and in full equality before jails, and kills women and girls around the law’.” the world.” What Mend doesn’t seem to have Likewise the American author Yasmine grasped is that none of these rights are Mohammed, who says she was beaten unqualified, as the Department of as a child for not memorising the Koran Education’s guidance on school and was forced to wear a niqab: “The uniforms for governors, teachers and absurdity of #feminists in the West local authorities makes clear: “Pupils embracing modesty culture while their have the right to manifest a religion or disempowered sisters in the #Muslim belief but not necessarily at all times, world risk arrest, imprisonment, and places or in a particular manner.” worse to free themselves from the #hijab would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic.” There are now some 511 schools across 43 local authority areas with 50 per cent The way that Mend wreaths its hijab or more pupils from Pakistani and campaign in the language of inalienable Bangladeshi ethnic backgrounds. The civil and religious rights isn’t a joke either Chief Inspector is concerned that some — but it may fool many ordinary of these schools are in areas beset by Muslims. community tensions. The DfE guidance says that “where a school has good Arguing that a ban on the hijab at reason for restricting an individual’s primary school would be a breach of the freedoms, for example, the promotion of Equality Act 2010, Mend says: “One cohesion and good order in the school, must ask whether Jewish boys wearing or genuine health and safety or security a kippah, or Sikh boys wearing a topknot considerations, the restriction of an or a turban, could be considered individual’s rights to manifest their sexualised too, and whether they will be religion or belief may be justified”. asked similar questions?” Must one? There is no equivalence. How could a In other words, the school must balance kippah, a topknot or a turban be the rights of individual pupils against the considered remotely sexualising for best interests of the wider community — boys? None are intended to guard male a consideration that was absent from the modesty. campaign directed by Mend and some of its “strategic partners” at the head Mend flatly asserts that the right to wear teacher of Britain’s best performing religious clothes “is protected by the primary school. Human Rights Act 1998, which guarantees freedom of thought, belief Neena Lall is a public servant who has and religion.” A school can, however, devoted her professional life to stop a pupil from wearing an article of enhancing the life chances of some of religious clothing if it considers this the most marginalised children in Britain: necessary to the health and safety of the 70 per cent of her 800 children at St child — as the Chief Inspector of Stephen’s primary school in Newham, Schools thinks it may be and which in east London, are Muslim, some from the case of St Stephen’s primary school, very underprivileged backgrounds, the head teacher adjudged it was. many born to parents whose education and grasp of English is limited. What 327 turned this Muslim community against concerns about the hijab, now accusing the school that had done so much for its her of having caused “grave distress disadvantaged children is partly a throughout British Muslim communities” consequence of years of being with “potentially . . . severe conditioned to believe the British state is repercussions impacting the rights and intrinsically Islamophobic. wellbeing of Muslim children and parents”. Meetings were held in the In January the Sunday Times reported nearby Plashet Grove mosque with the that Lall had banned the hijab and young imam, Abdul Wahab. Meanwhile, fasting to help her Muslim pupils Mend volunteers were on the ground integrate into modern British society. It “working with the parents” angry at the quoted her saying that when asked to ban. Why so much anger with a school raise their hands if they thought they prized as a community crown jewel and were British “very few children” did. The the ban introduced just fourth months report said St Stephen’s had “called on earlier with barely a peep? the government to take a firm stand on hijabs and fasting”. A statement was signed by ten Newham councillors led by two pro-Mend Lall insists — and those present confirm brothers, one of whom was a trustee of — that she commented on integration the mosque. It accused Lall of having quite separately from her ban on hijab “unilaterally intervene(d) in matters of and fasting. However, the way a video of faith without the full consultation of her interview was edited linked them parents”. Really? seamlessly. “They are not my words,” she says. School sources say reception class parents whose children were due to start An online volcano erupted. There was in September 2017 were informed the fury at the implication that the hijab was previous June, three months before the incompatible with being British. The ban was due to come into force. Formal embers were still smouldering from notices were also sent to Key Stage 1 comments two months earlier by the parents with parent governors instructed Chief Inspector of Schools that the hijab to deal with any questions. The father of might sexualise young children. Hafsah one six-year-old girl was the only one to Dabiri, a presenter with the Islam object. He met with the school, Channel, popular with British Muslims, accompanied by Mend’s “Group weighed in with an intemperate and near Coordinator” for Newham, Tahir Talati. It hysterical petition #Leaveourhijab: “We was explained the ban was being cannot and will not stand for this . . . to introduced not on religious grounds but Neena Lall, we say Leave our Hijab! . . . for the health, safety and welfare of the It’s not a request or a plea, it’s demand.” youngest children. With its half-hourly mantra “voice for the voiceless”, the channel has done much As for the fasting ban because some to embed a victim mentality into British children had been observed close to Muslims. fainting, the Muslim chair of governors, Arif Qawi, says he consulted with a total Dabiri was joined by Mend, which issued of six imams over three separate this statement: “Mend is extremely meetings. Aside from a handful of concerned with these developments and objecting parents, some parents were has been in touch with both the school conflicted between their obligations as and Muslim parents.” It signed off with all Muslims and the welfare of the children. the portentousness of a 10 Downing Qawi says a few told him they were Street bulletin during a national crisis: grateful for having the decision taken out “We will be issuing an update on the of their hands. situation shortly.” When the school returned in September Mend resurrected Spielman’s previous 2017, every class was reminded of the 328 hijab ban at parents’ meetings. Lall also and independent skills”. She reminded introduced an “open house” Q&A the imam that “primary school education session for each year group with an in this country is required by law, invitation to come to the school to talk whereas the religious classes are a about anything they wanted. Few matter of choice.” parents are said to have taken up the offer. As Ofsted reported: “The decision She copied in Qawi. Thinking it was only to remove the hijab from the Key Stage a draft, he replied to Lall, not realising his 1 uniform was . . . implemented with little reply was being copied to Wahab too: fuss in September 2017 following careful “Not strong enough . . . crucify the consideration by the governors.” unholy bastard . . . I know neither of the authorities (DfE or Newham Council) So far, so passive. Four months on and have the balls to do the right thing. parents were said to be up in arms. The However . . . I will put an end to this Newham councillors said the hijab and disgusting Mullah menace permanently . fasting bans had “understandably . . the children must be protected against aroused great anger and concern these religious imposters at all costs. If amongst parents and the community” the community is too scared and weak, and “clearly divided” the school “from the I’ll take the flak.” very community they look to serve”. An angry Wahab called in Mend, who What led to this “community” volte-face? complained to Newham Council, who The proximate cause was the Sunday contacted the school. Qawi’s own life Times report eliding the bans with British has been a rich tapestry: he is well- values. But for some, there was also fat versed in Islamic jurisprudence from his to pour onto the fire. time at Islamic schools in Saudi Arabia, followed by Harrow, and Sandhurst as a On December 7, Imam Abdul Wahab military cadet sent by the Pakistan army. wrote a high-handed letter to parents. He was a Tank Commander in the first Wahab ran a two-hour after-school Gulf War, and then had a successful madrassa attended by many of the career in business. He is also a fluent children five days a week. This clashed Arab speaker. with a school trip to an outdoor educational centre in Essex which During one of his discussions with included the kind of activities that kids imams on the fasting ban, Qawi says an love. Wahab warned parents that if their imam “pulled out his latest fancy Apple children went on the trip they would iPhone” and quoted from a religious text “most likely lose their position in the in an attempt to show that fasting was madrassa” because it was “absolutely compulsory. Qawi recognised the quote crucial to provide one’s child/children as coming from a Hadith (the reported with an Islamic education” which was words of the Prophet) rather than the “an obligation”. Fearful of expulsion from Koran. “I said, ‘Sorry, that is NOT the the madrassa, staff reported some Koran. It’s 238 years after the Prophet’s children as “visibly upset and distraught” death.’ I said, ‘Son, I’ve forgotten more when told by their parents they couldn’t than you’ll ever know’.” go. While Neena Lall sometimes tired of Both Lall and her chair of governors, Arif Qawi’s aversion to political correctness, Qawi, were furious at what they saw as she found him to be a singularly selfless Wahab’s attempt to interfere with the chair of governors despite it being an school curriculum broadening the unpaid role. Of all his predecessors, she children’s horizons. In her response to regarded Qawi as being by far the most Wahab, Lall explained that these school committed. Qawi’s apology to Wahab trips helped to produce “marked three days before Christmas was also improvement in academic results” and contrite: “Dear Wahab, I am extremely “significant improvement in confidence sorry for using the language I used . . . I 329 should not have insulted you in the resigned. This follows meetings manner I did.” He signed off saying he between the school and parents acting hoped this would “draw a line under the on Mend’s advice. This is an important matter”. step towards resolving concerns about structural #Islamophobia Further It did not. When the hijab row erupted updates to come. #HijabBan three weeks later, Newham Council Dabiri trilled: dispatched Shaykh Yunus Dudhwala, Head of Chaplaincy and Bereavement The ban has been lifted and Arif Qawi Services at St Barts NHS Trust, to try to has resigned!! Guyssssssss! We did it!!! broker a peace. Your support, shares and signatures had a HUGE impact combined with the There was talk of Qawi’s email calling work of the parents, community leaders Wahab an “unholy bastard” being and Mend!!! Tell EVERYONE, that released to the “community” with the today, we protected religious potential to inflame relations with the expression! school beyond repair. Dudhwala This was news to Qawi, who had neither suggested one way of averting this resigned nor yet been asked to. But Lall might be for Qawi to resign and the hijab had been boxed into a corner. And so ban lifted. I am told that he presented she submitted. A school statement this idea thus: “These things will help if I followed the Mend victory tweet: “Having can go back to the community and say spoken to our school community, we these things are on the table.” now have a deeper understanding of the matter and have decided to reverse our Never in her entire professional life had position with immediate effect.” In fact, Neena Lall experienced anything like the Lall had yet to speak to the “school inferno of tension, anger and hatred now community.” being unleashed. So fearful was her senior leadership team of the damage Not that submission bought Lall much the email might cause that they relief. No sooner had the school suggested Qawi should be sacrificed. announced its capitulation than word Shaykh Dudhwala was about to attend reached them that Qawi’s offending another meeting at Imam Wahab’s email to Imam Wahab was going to be mosque along with Mend and some 150 released anyway. Which is what parents. happened, despite Shaykh Dudhwala having argued against this. So much for School sources say Lall told Dudhwala Dudhwala’s hope that capitulation by the that before making any final decisions, school on all fronts might avert this she needed to hear directly from escalation. parents. Because she had called a parents’ meeting she asked Dudhwala Lall now felt she had no choice but to ask to see if he could buy her more time. He Qawi for his resignation — and with apparently has no recollection of this. immediate effect, before the email was published so as not to be forced into At the mosque the parents were said to reacting to it. She feared this final be “very, very angry”. By now a petition humiliation over the email might cost her started by the Islam Channel job — as well it might have. “Limited” presenter/activist Hafsah Dabiri had got and “ineffective . . . emotional care and almost 20,000 signatures. Any hopes public support for school staff” had come Lall may have entertained of a 92-hour from Newham Council, says Ofsted. breathing space were dashed that evening. At 07:59 the following morning Qawi immediately acceded to Lall’s Mend tweeted victory: request with customary grace: “I wish the school continued success and am Announcement: The Chair of Governors truly sorry that my actions have caused at St Stephen’s Primary School has any harm to the reputation of the 330 fantastic school.” back to haunt her because a recording of the meeting Lall held with the parents “Tell EVERYONE, that today, we shows her conceding the hijab ban was protected religious expression!” “a huge error in judgment” and trumpeted Hafsah Dabiri. “We represent apologising for not having what British values mean . . .” “communicated with you more”. That simply underscores how devastating a Do they? They think they do because religiously inspired campaign can they helped galvanise the public, got a become. The truth is Lall felt she had to petition signed by 20,000 people, and say that. Mend also complains that acted within the law. But using the Ofsted should have consulted the trappings of British values to impose a Muslim Council of Britain and its affiliate religious diktat on a state secular school — the Association of Muslims Schools concerning 4-7-year-old children while UK before deciding to inquire into why others bombarded the school leadership the hijab is increasingly being worn by with hate mail and likened them to small children. Nazis, was distinctly un-British. That’s not tolerance or pluralism. That’s mob But why should these organisations rule. have been consulted? Both still refuse to accept the findings of two independent A spoof video even parodied Lall, her inquiries into the 2014 attempt to staff and Arif Qawi as the twin Islamise the curriculum and the ethos of abominations of the last century — her secular state schools in the Trojan as a raging psychotic Adolf Hitler in his Horse affair in Birmingham. Ofsted put bunker with her leadership team as his five schools with 4,000 children into Nazi admirers, and Qawi as Joseph special measures following these Stalin. inquiries. The MCB has demanded Huge damage has been inflicted on the multiple concessions for Muslim pupils relationship between the school and the in state schools. In a 2007 MCB “community” — partly by the publication, “Meeting the needs of “community’s” self-appointed Muslim pupils in state schools”, the word representatives Mend. They may not “should” was used over more than 90 have sent nasty emails to the school, times. Its demands included the leaked the Qawi email or been following: responsible for the offensive video. Rather, what Mend do is help to keep • permitting girls to wear full-length Muslims angry. That seems to be just loose school skirts or loose fine with Mend’s boss Sufyan Ismail, trousers, long sleeved shirts, and who has boasted that the “wrath” Mend headscarves to cover the hair. helped generate over the hijab ban • permitting girls to wear tracksuits “turned it around . . . the sheer pressure and headscarves for sport. on the ground was so significant”. And for what? Now that the hijab ban has • permitting boys to grow beards. been lifted, just one Muslim girl out of • providing single-gender swimming some 150 4-7-year olds has put her classes. hijab back on — the same child whose father complained about the ban the • providing halal food. previous July. • providing time and space for obligatory ablutions and prayer. As Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman says: “It is a matter of deep • adapting school life to the regret that this outstanding school has obligatory fast of Ramadan been subject to a campaign of abuse by • avoiding sex and relationship some elements within the community.” education (SRE) during Ramadan.

Mend thinks Spielman’s words will come • making SRE consistent with 331 Islamic teaching which considers the non-Muslim majority of Britain is girlfriend/boyfriend as well as becoming more secular while the homosexual relationships to be Muslim population — especially young unacceptable. Muslims — is becoming much more religious. The 2011 census foretells the • marking Eid holidays as religious realignment under way in authorised absences. Britain since 2001: while the proportion • allowing parental withdrawal of of Christians fell from 70 per cent to 59 children from dance lessons on per cent, and those holding no religion grounds of religious conscience. grew from 17 per cent to 26 per cent, • accepting the Muslim refusal to those identifying themselves as Muslim shake hands with members of the leapt by 1.2 million, a 72 per cent opposite sex. increase, far higher than for any other faith group. That divide will be even • offering Arabic as an option in deeper now — and Islamists know it. As primary and secondary schools. Cage tweeted recently, “ultimately the • buying relevant and authentic demographic changes cannot be books on Islamic heritage and reversed. This will have a significant civilisation for the school library impact on govt. policies both foreign and and for class use. domestic.”

• ensuring that pupils in schools Where communities live separately, with where there are no Muslims less interaction between people from nonetheless learn about Islam. different backgrounds, mistrust, anxiety • not encouraging Muslim pupils to and prejudice grow, whereas the produce three-dimensional opposite is true with meaningful mixing. imagery of humans. And it’s here where British values do have an impact, however much Islamists • not serving alcohol at social events and the pro-Islamist Left, with their and avoiding other activities that shared disdain for the West, try to deride might make Muslims feel excluded. them. Resilience, meaningful social integration and shared common values British schools have gone out of their — respect for the rule of law, way to accommodate the religious democracy, equality and tolerance — demands of Muslim parents. Trousers are inhibitors of division, hate and and jogging bottoms have replaced extremism. skirts and gym shorts; baggy trousers and long shirts in the form of a shalwar To what end, then, do some politicians kameez now come in school colours, seem to prefer to engage with illiberal and so on. Islamist organisations like Mend than with progressive Muslims such as the The Pakistani-born journalist and newly-appointed Commissioner for commentator Khadija Khan says that Counter-Extremism, Sara Khan, who appeasing Islamists “is a bottomless pit”, has run a charity that both challenges a point the late Professor Zaki Badawi, extremism and promotes gender head of the Muslim College, London, equality? made to me shortly before he died in 2006: “You have to understand, a When the government announced proselytising religion cannot stand still. It Khan’s appointment in January, Mend, can either expand or contract. Islam Cage, MCB and other Islamist endeavours to expand in Britain.” organisations launched a blogging tirade against her (Mend four in one week); the And it’s true that for Islamists, religious sour nihilism of her political detractors identity trumps all other identities. This was on full display, chief among them presents a significant challenge for any Labour MPs Naz Shah and Shadow kind of meaningful integration because Home Secretary Diane Abbott, the 332 former Conservative Communities Ummah should be more important to Minister Baroness Warsi, and the Liberal British Muslims than their own nation Democrat equalities spokeswoman state. Baroness Hussein-Ece — all effectively branding Khan a “government stooge”. To pro-Mend clerics like Abu Eesa They variously condemned her Niamatullah, a close friend of Sufyan appointment as “very ill-advised”, Ismail from their days at Manchester “alarming”, “damaging to relations University, liberal-minded Muslims like between Muslims and government”, Khan are “the biggest danger within our “McCarthyite”. community . . . closer to kufr (unbelievers) than Iman” (belief) Surely what is “ill-advised” is to lend because they want to “hijack Islam” to support to organisations like Mend “dilute Islamic religious practice” in order because it provides them with the to create a “new Western Islam” that will validation its boss Sufyan Ismail has be in line with those “who want Islam to sought for Mend from politicians and be washed away”. civic society as the authentic representatives of British Muslims and While mainstream Britain sees Muslims what they broadly define as “normative like Sara Khan as “progressive”, Islam”. Niamatullah sees them as “regressive . . . if this is progression then we need the One of Mend’s “strategic partners”, an Stone Age, definitely. The Stone Age is organisation called 5 Pillars, has set out definitely better for our deen [creed] and what for them “Normative Islam” actually our dunya [world] . . . we are more represents. In so doing they have opposed to these people than ever.” targeted those they regard as the Niamatullah calls them “brown sahibs . . biggest obstacle to achieving this: not . the equivalent of what Malcolm X called the government but their fellow Muslims ‘house negroes’” who served in their whom they disparage as “reformers”, master’s house during slavery. most especially Muslims like Sara Khan. A slick 5 Pillars video opens by saying Mend’s south-west regional organiser, that in “the last 16 years ‘Muslim Sahar Al Faifi, a geneticist, tweets: “I Reformers’ have been supported by decided to be politically correct and Western governments”. That would instead of calling Sara Khan a coconut I include their own government by the will call her an Oreo (i.e. a dark biscuit way — the British government. with a white filling).” So much for an organisation that so proudly proclaims With a picture of Khan next to the Prime its anti-hate credentials. Indeed, it is Minister, she and other “reformers” are Muslims like Al Faifi and Niamatullah accused of: who are the real Islamophobes.

• Delegitimising the concept of a We have reached a crossroads over caliphate (over a map shading in religious fundamentalism, hardliners, southern Europe, the Middle East and extremism, whichever word you prefer. North Africa). Mend and some of their supporters in • Erasing the concept of physical jihad Parliament and on the Left seem to (over pictures of a Saladin-like figure delight in pointing out that because the urging his army onwards — and into government has failed to come up with a battle). legal definition for “extremism” it doesn’t • Invalidating the Islamic penal code (like really exist and therefore doesn’t need to the death penalty for adultery). be countered by promoting something • Downplaying the Ummah (the global equally vague as “British values”. Those Muslim community) in favour of national invoking David Cameron’s call for identity (over a Union flag). “muscular liberalism” as an antidote to extremism are greeted with eye-rolling What this suggests is that to 5 Pillars the despair at the rampant “structural 333 Islamophobia” which they have This programme is being rolled out convinced themselves grips this country. quietly, sometimes too quietly for fear of provoking activist sensibilities. But Typical is Mend’s recent Manchester rolling out it is, whether Mend and its group co-ordinator, Dr Siema Iqbal. “strategic partners” like Cage, the MCB, When she is not treating patients or 5 Pillars and the rest of them like it or being a “mum” (her phrase) to her two not. boys, she blogs, tweets and expostulates almost daily. “Currently,” Amanda Spielman is right to emphasise she writes “we have a commission to that schools shouldn’t assume that the counter something we haven’t defined “most conservative voices” of a and don’t even know needs countering particular faith group speak for yet. Yes, it really is that bizarre.” everyone; nor should they be afraid to “call out” practices they believe could Actually it isn’t. Most people recognise negatively affect young people. intolerance and fundamentalism when they see it and it’s been on display in the The Chief Inspector of Schools has reaction to Amanda Spielman and shown she is unafraid. Neena Lall was Neena Lall. Was it acceptable for them knocked down but she has picked to be so viscerally trolled after Mend, the herself up. An Ofsted inspection found mosques around Manchester, the imam her leadership of St Stephen’s school is in Newham, Newham councillors, and “effective” and that she and her team others raised the temperature? The “continue to run an outstanding school.” answer is clearly no. Is it acceptable that Inspectors report that the “bullying and the state should always adapt to the harassment . . . has been co-ordinated demands of a vocal politicised religious by some people outside the school lobby, rather than the other way around, community”. Ofsted has put a muscular with no consideration of the offence that arm around Lall with a clear message to might be caused to others if they’re any faith group hoping to browbeat a browbeaten into complying with their school into submission: “Hands off our demands? Again no. headteachers.”

After many years of hand-wringing by She is not alone. At only 38, Sara Khan those fearful of causing offence lest they is already battled-hardened from years be labelled “Islamophobe”, a “neocon”, a of vicious trolling and has the confidence “Zionist”, “house Muslim”, “native and conviction to expose the informant”, or any other epithet contradictions in anger-stoking, name- signifying “bad” people, the government calling, Islamophobia-accusing seems to have concluded that enough campaigns. Khan has been massively really is enough. Step by step, the let down by Labour: Diane Abbott counter-extremism strategy is criticised her appointment with no constructing a tangible, values-driven explanation beyond parroting the infrastructure: counter-extremism co- “widespread” (largely Islamist) ordinators, including Muslims who “perception” that she is not trusted understand the dangers to the stability because she supports the government’s and cohesion of this country, are being Prevent programme. Others will see a appointed to local authorities; the Home feisty, focused, principled woman Office programme called “Building a prepared to confront those determined Stronger Britain Together” now has a to force their narrow, intolerant and network of 124 organisations across the fundamentalist view on this country. country — again, many run by Muslims — delivering small-scale community Other Muslim women have also been projects to build resilience into speaking out. Indeed, the challenge to communities vulnerable to radicalisation religious fundamentalism is being led from Islamist extremists and the far mainly by Muslim women. More are less Right. concerned now with being trolled as 334 “bad Muslims”, “house servants”, Khan included — have lost their fear. “coconuts” and all the other racist barbs And this is the game-changer in the hurled at them by organisations that ceaseless battle for the soul of British claim piety and nobility and to be Islam. “You don’t scare us any more,” representative of British Islam but are they are saying. It’s time more politicians not. and others in public life manned up — and followed their example. All of these women — Spielman and

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Conclusion It can be seen how far removed in crucial areas certain Muslim groupings are from the common sense, middle of the road observance of Islam that the Quran prescribes. Muslims are sometimes plagued by a warped mentality towards, and twisted interpretation of, their Islamic heritage. In spite of this, and broadly speaking, at the grass roots level Islam will always be in good health in the sense that its individual adherents believe passionately in the basic message of the Quran. But if that message is to succeed in the way it was meant to for proper organisation of the masses today there must be put in place assorted structures allowing the citizens of Muslim countries a say in effective governance of their lives, through meaningful institutions. In other words, there must be Islamic democracy - along with the mindset for it (which will need time to develop and mature) - which naturally includes protection for minorities. Nowhere in the so- called Islamic world does there exist this democratic consultation process in the genuine sense of the term. Dictatorship, corruption, incompetence, mis- management, over-population, poverty and ignorance are the abiding influences of the day. Looking to the Middle East, for the present, the region is doomed. The celebrated author Saïd K. Aburish in his book, A Brutal Friendship - The West and the Arab Elite (published by Indigo in 1998), ably demonstrates the history behind the current impasse. Muhammad Asad in his work, The Principles of State and Government in Islam (first published in 1961 by University of California Press with a new edition in 1980 published by Dar al-Andalus Limited, Gibraltar) gives the best guidance available as to how to begin giving the ‘Islamic’ countries an honorable code of laws (sharia) and hope for efficient self-government. It is not therefore, necessarily, the proper thing to do to look to the ‘Islamic’ world for guidance on Islam or how it should be practiced. This is why Zaki Badawi was so keen to put into effect a ‘British Islam.’ At the end of the Second World War the British were, of course, kicked out of India which was followed in 1947 by partition and independence for India and Pakistan. The Muslim state of Pakistan had been created. Nonetheless Asians soon came to the United Kingdom in large numbers, happy to embrace the opportunities offered here. They had rejected their former homelands. The new arrivals brought with them, though, their cultural backwardness and in the case of the Muslim migrants religious practices they thought, wrongly, were Islamic. These same cultural and religious practices, in no small measure, are still with us in Britain today (along with a new wave of zealotry). The Asians, for the time being, can hardly be admired as a yardstick for the Islamic ideal. Only after (as Zaki Badawi thought) a couple of generations, when Indian and Pakistani cultural baggage has been jettisoned, will things improve. When that time arrives, the Muslims will be better equipped to challenge the decadent ways that liberal Britain has so obviously been infected with.

Omar Hussein Ibrahim

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