Acts of the seminar Muslim Women in the Media Between myth and reality European parliament 15 may 2007 Actes du séminaire de réflexion L’image des femmes musulmanes dans les medias Entre mythes et réalités Au Parlement Européen Le 15 mai 2007 European Forum Of Muslim Women (EFOMW) 34, rue de la Pacification - 1210 Bruxelles - BELGIUM - Tel : +33 (0) 66 15 10 423 / +32 (0) 47 32 17 507 Acts of the Seminar Sarah Ludford my own constituents will now finally have similar protection from racial abuse abroad as at home. Liberal Democrat However, this alone will not protect them from Member of the European Parliament (ALDE) draconian laws designed to appease popular prejudices rather than tackle them. Prejudice, Welcome everyone and after all is not an act but an idea, one reinforced thank you for coming. It is a by stereotypes perpetrated in wider society by its great pleasure and privilege main opinion formers, the press. to be with you here today. I would also like to thank the There are few better examples of how such European Forum for stereotypes are shaping public debate and in turn Muslim Women for inviting the laws of EU member states than the me to open this seminar, a Netherlands, where MPs are debating a ban on momentous and timely wearing the burka in public. The supporters of discussion of the challenges this ban have included hard liners who claim that faced by one of Europe’s biggest and most Muslim women are failing to properly integrate understated minorities. into Dutch society and indeed could be hiding explosives under the garment. The so-called Europe is facing a dangerous situation with progressives, on the other hand, have argued that the rise of Islamophobia. This form of intolerance the ban is necessary to liberate such women from is worryingly commonplace today and is fuelled “clothes of control”. How ironic that the denial of by a sometimes hysterical media. This, in turn, is a civil right as basic as deciding what to wear is only further inflamed by reactionary government actually viewed by some as liberating. policies such as demanding cultural assimilation and banning Islamic garments. And increasingly, In the Belgian city of Maaseik, a ban is the targets and victims of such discrimination already in place and women who do not abide by within Europe’s vast and varied Muslim it can be fined or even imprisoned. The decision communities are women. was defended by the city’s mayor on the grounds that women dressed in burkas were scaring old Over the years, I have worked on this issue ladies and making little children cry. with many dedicated parliamentarians within the committee on civil liberties, justice and home These views are very much peddled across affairs as well as the anti-racism and diversity Europe by the media who, in each of their inter-group. We have made no secret of our respective member states, have exhibited a deep frustration at national governments’ failure to hostility for Islam as a religion and a culture. tackle such intolerance head on. We have Never was this more apparent than in Denmark in vociferously campaigned for more robust EU 2005 upon the publication of a series of cartoons legislation to do exactly that. Indeed we have had satirically depicting the prophet Muhammad. some success in the form of the recently passed Although freedom of the press is sacrosanct in race hate law. As an MEP, I am proud to say that any liberal democracy, there is a lot to be said for a newspaper which championed caricatures of - 2 - Muhammad as a victory for free speech, but regimes or victims of them. As a result, they are refused to publish satirical images of Jesus Christ either shunned or pitied by their European two years earlier for fear of causing offence. detractors. The ensuing protests and even outbreaks of Of course this could not be more false. Islam violence were led by a vocal and radical minority has been around for more than a millennium and whilst the silent, but still aggrieved, majority did has helped to shape modern European law, not question the newspaper’s freedom to print medicine, science and culture alongside whatever it wanted. The reaction of the rest of the Christianity and Judaism. Furthermore, as real as European press though was to condemn Islam as the subjugation of women’s rights in many being incompatible with liberal democratic Muslim countries is, it is hardly synonymous with principles laying their hostility bare. Islam as the emergence of Islamic women’s rights campaigns proves. Their message was that while Muslims may live and work in Europe, while they may marry in I use that phrase instead of the simpler term Europe, dress like Europeans and even speak like ‘feminism’ as I understand that it carries western Europeans, they can never assimilate European connotations which miss the point. This point values. being that campaigning for women’s rights is just as possible within an Islamic framework as it is This perceived rift between Islam and liberal within a western liberal democratic framework. democracy has ultimately led populations and Indeed, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey have policy makers to question whether Muslims had female Prime Ministers. Iran for all its belong in Europe at all. This has inevitably taken failings regarding women’s rights has a sizeable its toll on the citizenship rights of Muslims in contingent of women sitting in its Parliament. As those countries that decide the answer is no. As a a matter of fact, there are more women in the result in countries like the Netherlands, Muslim Iranian parliament than there are Muslims in the migrants are forced to undergo tests to prove their UK parliament. allegiance to the nation just to gain the right to reside there, let alone become a citizen there. However, merely the sight of so many of you Immigrants from the US, EU, Canada and here today who have campaigned tirelessly for Australia though are commonly exempt from these key freedoms and entitlements whilst such tests. retaining your beliefs and traditions is proof enough of Islam’s compatibility with European These restrictions on residency and values. citizenship rights hit Muslim women the hardest. Although such discrimination can arise simply Furthermore, the combination of Islamic and when residency rights are dependent on marriage, western beliefs and cultures directly entails a it is often because they stand out the most. tempering of the extremism and ignorance that has led to the polarisation of cultures in Europe. Critics refer to the sight of Muslim women Access to jobs, security and social acceptance wearing burkas and hijabs as visible proof of their engenders trust, respect and confidence. The subjugation under men and therefore a further friction between Islamic communities and wider indictment of Islam as being incompatible with society, depicted by the media as a fundamental European values and of Muslims as being clash of cultures, has intensified in the context of unwilling to integrate. the war on terror, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and This is because such customs are associated extraordinary rendition. with Muslim countries where they are enshrined So as long as stereotypes are allowed to in Sharia law. They are associated with legal prevail and the achievements of women such as inferiority imposed on women by repressive yourselves are dismissed as exceptions that prove regimes where a woman can be raped and beaten the rule, we run the risk of moderate voices not only to then be accused and convicted of crimes being heard; women’s voices not being heard. against chastity. Therefore, women who embrace their faith and practice traditional customs are On that note, I want to introduce to you two perceived as either apologists for these repressive colleagues of mine from the Alliance of Liberals - 3 - and Democrats in Europe who have been instrumental in the organisation of this seminar, Saj Karim and Filiz Husmenova. Noura Jaballah Saj, also a colleague of mine in the anti- President of European Forum Of Muslim Women racism and diversity intergroup, of which he is Vice-President, and the Liberal Democrats, is a Ladies and gentlemen, truly exceptional parliamentarian. He is a member members of parliament and of a range of committees through which he journalists, dear guests, I addresses the key challenges of the 21st century: am very happy to welcome globalisation, climate change and freedom and you and thank you for your security in the global war on terror. participation in this meeting aiming at exchange and Saj, on becoming the first British Muslim to mutual enrichment. be elected to the European Parliament in 2004 has been very active tackling the rising levels of Let me present the intolerance and the emergence of Far Right EFOMW, this organisation of young Muslim groups across Europe and he shall of course, be women anxious about their future in the European moderating today’s seminar. space. This organisation seeks to bridge a gap in the representation of Muslim women on the Filiz is a recent and welcome addition to the European scale. Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe since Bulgaria’s accession. It is a group of fifteen organisations that are eager to act and participate fully in building a She is currently vice chair-woman of the fairer, more human Europe, a multicultural committee on regional development and, since Europe where dialogue is possible and essential. 2006, has been a member of the central executive They have resolved to break away from the bureau of the movement for rights and freedoms.