Australian call for burqa ban dismissed as 'ignorant'

[Al-khiyal]

Australian call for burqa ban dismissed as 'ignorant'

May 6, 2010 -- An Australian Liberal senator's call to ban the burqa has been dismissed as a political stunt aimed at tapping into anti-Islamic sentiment. Islamic groups hope the vast majority of Australians will see through the comments as "nothing short of either ignorance or political opportunism". Writing on his personal blog, outspoken South Australian senator Cory Bernardi referred to a burqa-clad man who robbed a Sydney shop, commenting that the veil was now "emerging as the preferred disguise of bandits and n'er do wells". He wants to see it banned, but also because it prevents women from interacting in normal day-to-day life. "The burqa isolates some Australians from others," he wrote. "It is un-Australian ... and its symbolic barrier is far greater than the measure of cloth it is created from. For safety and for society, the burqa needs to be banned in Australia."

Islamic Friendship Association's Keysar Trad rejected the call as ignorant. Wearing the burqa actually encouraged women to integrate into Australian society, whereas a ban would only force them indoors where they'd "miss out on the vitamin D". "It's tantamount to denying them the right to drive, the right to enjoy all the services of society as well as equal opportunity," Trad said. "I hope Australians will see this for what it is, it's nothing short of either ignorance or political opportunism." "In France, a bid to ban the veil from public places was about President Nicolas Sarkozy trying to win anti-Islamic votes," Trad said. "It was no surprise that with only months to go before a federal election, an Australian politician was trying the same tack. But such comments only drove a wedge into the community." Trad also said that once caught, authorities should prosecute the burqa-clad robber on race-hate charges as well as stealing for doing it in a racialised manner. Senator Bernardi refused to comment further on his blog, but fellow Liberal Tony Smith said that while the Howard government never moved on the issue, it was up for community debate.

[Al-khiyal]

What women wear is their business

May 8, 2010 -- A woman gets arrested for wearing a controversial item of clothing that the state deems out of line and is convicted of public indecency. We are not talking about Belgium, Italy or France but, rather, Sudan. However, these days it's easy to get the countries mixed up. It's hard not to compare the recent cases of a French woman who was fined while wearing a niqab and driving, a fully veiled Italian woman* who was issued with a fine of 500 euros ($A712) while walking in the street and the absurd arrest of a woman for wearing trousers in Sudan last September. The issue came closer to home yesterday when Opposition Leader Tony Abbott responded to calls by Liberal senator Cory Bernardi for a ban on the burqa by saying there is ''understandable community concern'' about the attire. The common thread in these cases is the attempt at state intervention in the personal spheres of women's clothing and expression.

France, Belgium, Italy and Sudan seem to be cut from the same cloth on the issue of women's expression and participation in society. Each country criminalises certain items of clothing - but one country is a traditionalist theocracy and the others are Western liberal democracies, so why are they so similar? Ironically, France condemned Sudan for punishing the woman for wearing trousers. Belgium - with its impending ban of the burqa - has on countless occasions, through the UN Human Rights Council, criticised countries such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan because of their treatment of women and called for the end of discrimination against women.

While it can be said that fundamentalist right-wing Muslims only claim and fight for human rights when it suits their agenda, the same selectivity can be seen by feminists, given their failure to defend Muslim women's choices. The burqa is obligatory for women in Yemen or Afghanistan, but this cannot be the case for all women in France, Italy or Belgium who have clearly asserted their personal choices in wearing the full veil. Despite their views of the burqa, the defence of women's autonomy and choice should be enough to stir feminists. Yet there is silence from this quarter. Strong Muslim women who wear the burqa are speaking out, but the debate is still disproportionately dominated by the misogynistic voices of male politicians and conservative Muslim men.

Why should any state determine what women should wear? And how is this in line with liberalism and the republic? What about Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the rights of minority groups to preserve their culture? Is a ban the right way to go for ''liberation''? Human rights experts say no. They have warned that these bans are counterproductive in their aims of ''liberating'' Muslim women who are coerced into wearing the burqa or niqab. This ban would only serve to confine vulnerable women who are forced into wearing the full veil and whose movements and freedoms are already restricted. The long-term effects of such bans will limit the participation of Muslim women in public life.

Last year, during a presentation given to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, we reported on the state of the Muslim minority in Australia. Among the issues raised was the intolerance and bigotry that had been a feature of previous government policies and rhetoric, but what was also highlighted was the various responses from Muslim Australians, notably the burkini - Muslim Australia's very own creation. This specially made swimsuit for Muslim women has encouraged the participation of Muslim women in Australia's iconic beach culture, an unlikely immersion. The European diplomats and UN human rights officers were surprised such an innovation could emerge from a country with one of the smallest Muslim populations in Western democracies. Months after our presentation, the burkini was banned in several European cities.

As hijabi-wearing women, we understand the significance the hijab has on our identity, lifestyle and how we are perceived. What bewilders us, however, is why a piece of cloth has become the centre of a cultural war in societies with a small number of veiled Muslim women. It becomes clearer when we look at the political context surrounding these European countries. In France, for instance, there is an evident attempt on the part of the Sarkozy administration to pander to xenophobic segments of the French voting public. This exploitation of anti-Muslim sentiments and targeting of such a small but visible group is cheap politics aimed at gaining popularity among the ultra-right voter base. We say to the misogynists on the political right and to fundamentalist Muslims, stop sacrificing women for your causes.

* Press reports describe the woman who was fined in Italy as a Tunisian, not an Italian

[Al-khiyal]

Nile seeks conscience vote on burqa bill

May 17, 2010 -- New South Wales (NSW) Christian Democrats MP Fred Nile wants a conscience vote on his controversial bill to ban the wearing of the burqa. Mr Nile's private members bill, due to be introduced in state parliament on Thursday, would ban the wearing of the burqa and other face veils in public. It follows similar legislative moves in France. However, the upper house MP, struggling to get the major parties on side, is calling for a conscience vote on the issue. "There are a number of members who support it ... and that's why I'm trying to get a conscience vote on it," Mr Nile told AAP on Monday. "The bill calls for a ban on any face covering, which includes the veil and the burqa. But it also includes people who cover up their face carrying out terrorist acts. Security cameras film their actions but they don't know who it is. I want to make it the law that if anyone covers up their face police have the power to then charge them for concealing their face with a suspicion of committing a criminal act."

Mr Nile said that by introducing the bill he was trying to help Australia avoid the cultural clashes which have occurred in some European countries with relatively large Muslim populations. He denied the bill was racist, saying his concern lay with issues of security and women's rights. Mr Nile previously called for a ban in 2002. "What's happening in Europe is that the burqa and the Muslim attempt to impose their culture on the Europeans has caused this backlash," Mr Nile said. "I'd like to nip it in the bud in Australia before we have any controversy or backlash."

Greens upper house MP Lee Rhiannon accused Mr Nile of grandstanding in the lead-up to next year's state election. "From what I see in the NSW upper house, there is a lot of exasperation with Mr Nile's tactics of using these sorts of issues for his very narrow political agenda, rather than working for the improvement of the lot of women," she said. "Mr Nile in bringing forward this bill is looking to appeal to a narrow constituency to try and shore up his vote coming into the next election." A spokeswoman for Premier Kristina Keneally said the Labor Party didn't allow a conscience vote "on such matters". A spokesman for NSW Opposition leader Barry O'Farrell said the Coalition had not decided how to vote on the bill "for the primary reason that shadow cabinet hasn't seen the legislation."

[Al-khiyal]

Australian state parliament to vote on ban-the-burka bill

Sydney, May 17, 2010 -- Australian lawmakers will get the opportunity ahead of their colleagues in some European countries to vote on whether the Islamic burka should be banned in public. Fred Nile, a Christian Democrat in the New South Wales state parliament, said Monday he would introduce a private member's bill banning the wearing of the full-length veil later this week. "There are a number of members who support it," Nile told domestic news agency AAP. "The bill calls for a ban on any face covering, which includes the veil and the burqa, but it also includes people who cover up their face carrying out terrorist acts." Nile, an ordained Anglican minister, has been campaigning against the burka since 2002, saying it could could be used as a disguise. "I want to make it the law that if anyone covers up their face police have the power to then charge them for concealing their face with a suspicion of committing a criminal act," he said. Last month, Australia had its first case of an armed robber using a burka to hide his identity. A recent opinion poll showed wide public support for a ban. "What's happening in Europe is that the burka, and the Muslim attempt to impose their culture on the Europeans, has caused this backlash," Nile said. "I'd like to nip it in the bud in Australia before we have any controversy or backlash." Pru Goward, shadow minister for women in the New South Wales government and a former federal sex discrimination commissioner, warned that banning the burka might inspire Islamic terrorism. "Many Australians are offended by burkas and even by the headscarf," she said. "We are entitled to feel offended and to say so. I am. We are also entitled to ban them, but it would be unwise."

[Al-khiyal]

Australian lawmakers vote down burqa ban

SYDNEY, May 20, 2010 — Lawmakers in Australia's most populous state voted against banning the burqa Thursday, with one accusing the Christian MP who moved the bill of stigmatising Muslims. Fred Nile, of the right-wing Christian Democrats Party, urged the New South Wales parliament to vote in favour of banning the full Islamic veil for security reasons and to "set women free from domination of males". But his bill was quashed in the state's upper house by 26 to three votes, with the centre-left Labor and more radical Greens parties condemning it as racist. "There is no urgency in spreading further fear and hatred in our community," said Islamic Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane. Nile's real intent was "stigmatising an entire community", added Greens MP John Kaye.

It follows heated public debate sparked earlier this month by calls from conservative national Senator Cory Bernardi for a ban on the burqa, which he claimed was "emerging as the preferred disguise of bandits and ne'er-do-wells". Bernardi's comments, prompted by the use of the Islamic veil in an armed robbery in Sydney, led both Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his opposition counterpart Tony Abbott to declare that such a ban was not current policy.

Muslims make up about 1.7 percent of Australia's heavily Christian population of 22 million, and religious tensions have run high in recent years. Anti-Muslim sentiment flared on Sydney's southern Cronulla Beach in December 2005 when mobs of whites attacked Lebanese Australians there in a bid to "reclaim the beach". The race riots, the country's worst of modern times, sparked a retaliatory campaign in which churches, shops and cars were attacked. The French cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law to ban the Muslim full-face veil from public spaces, paving the way for a parliamentary vote in July. Belgium last month became the first country to pass such a national ban.

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Burqa debate stopped in New South Wales upper house

SYDNEY, May 20, 2010 — An attempt by New South Wales (NSW) MP Fred Nile to bring on a debate on his bill to ban the wearing of the burqa has been voted down by the NSW upper house. Mr Nile on Thursday introduced his private member's bill, seeking to ban the wearing of the burqa and other face veils in public. However, an attempt to bring on a debate on the bill was voted down by other parties in the state's upper house, with some MPs accusing him of trying to stigmatise Muslims. Mr Nile has denied the bill is racist, saying his concern lay with issues of security and women's rights. Its introduction follows news the French cabinet had on Wednesday approved a draft law to ban the Muslim full-face veil from public spaces. "This bill is really setting women free from domination of males, and I call on women in the house to give this bill their wholehearted genuine support," Mr Nile told the upper house on Thursday.

However, MPs from each party lined up to stop an immediate debate on the bill, arguing that it wasn't a matter of urgency. Labor's Shaoquett Moselmane, the first Muslim MP in the NSW parliament, was strident in his criticism of the bill. "There is no urgency required to expedite further divisions amongst our harmonious multicultural community," he said. "There is no urgency in spreading further fear and hatred in our community. There is no urgency for freedom of speech, expressions of individual rights to be trashed by this bill." Greens MP John Kaye agreed. "There is absolutely nothing urgent at all in stigmatising an entire community," he said. "That's the real intent of this bill." The attempt to force a debate on the bill was defeated 26 votes to three.

The Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations (FAIR) said Mr Nile's bill amounted to curtailing people's religious obligations. FAIR executive director Kuranda Seyit said the burqa was worn by a tiny minority of women in Australia who adhere to a strict interpretation of the Islamic religious requirement for women to cover themselves. "The burqa is not common amongst Muslims, but for those who believe that they must wear it here in Australia, we cannot tell them what they can and cannot wear," he said in a statement. "This country allows women to take off all of their clothes except for a bikini brief, why cannot it allow people to cover their faces in public, if that is what they believe?"