November 18, 2006

Ban on Burqas in Holland

It seems things are moving quite fast in Holland these days. I totally missed out on this public discussion until I saw it flashing by on CNN; The Dutch are going to ban the burqas in public places. The burqas is the traditional dress of – as far as I know – muslim women under the Taliban regime. It basically envelopes the woman entirely in a piece of cloth.

The Dutch government said the following: “The Cabinet finds it undesirable that face-covering clothing -- including the burqa -- is worn in public places for reasons of public order, security and protection of citizens," Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said in a statement. "From a security standpoint, people should always be recognizable and from the standpoint of integration, we think people should be able to communicate with one another."

I know there were issues in England about a woman who was fired (at least they tried) from a teaching job because she wore a face veil, and as such the children couldn’t see her speak, only hear her. I think that makes sense; body language – of which facial expression is one – does make up a greater part of communication than speech.
So I can imagine you would want to ban it from public jobs. You wouldn’t want to be seeing a judge or a lawyer in a burqa, or a teacher and a police officer. I can imagine it makes driving a bit of a hazard as well.

But to ban them entirely from public places seems a bit strong. I wonder how we are going to get away with this. Besides, what about the ladies from the Gulf? I guess Amsterdam is no longer on the list of possible holiday destinations, now is it?

I wonder if this one is going to stand, but I seriously doubt it.
Translation: "We feel much liberated since the Taliban regime has gone."

13 comments:

Laila said...
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Laila said...

But please: what they are doing in the Netherlands is absolutely correct. Beside all the legal reasons and justifications your emmigration office makes, this jungle the Islamic extremists trying to make out of normal societies is disgusting. You probably know that the number of these women in your country is 50. So, all this fuss about this number of people? Oh, come on! You see, I have no problem with the beliefs of people. What I find really outragous is that they are misusing the freedom given to them. They are trying to impose themselves on the society:"Ah-ha, you claim we are free? Let's see how far you can go! How much you can tolerate us?"
And I really really wonder with this kind of attitudes these people have, isn't it proper to find other heavens on the earth to live in?

Laila said...
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Laila said...

After writing the angry comment above, I saw this which put a bitter smile on my face. The sign reads:" Beauty Salon - Palace of Bride"

http://www.asriran.com/content/img/news/

Laila said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Laila said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Laila said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Laila said...

Dear Sietske,

I have been trying to post a URL which blogger erases ending part of it. If you try to delete the comment, you would see the entire URL. I don't know what's wrong with it.

Blacksmith Jade said...

I think the context in which this ban was presented is unfortunate. I'm personally against burqas, to me, they seem demeaning to women, but then again, I'm not a muslim - or a muslim adhering to the extremist philosophy which promotes burqas - but by presenting the issue in a public security context within the climate of distrust that seems to prevail the dutch muslim scene, it seems like the government is targeting a specific group of people.

As I understand it, the danger is with having people walking around with their faces and identities completely hidden. So why not put a ban on all masks which completely hide the face? This would encompass the burqa but not specifically target a segment of dutch society which wears them for religious reasons.

Wouldn't that deprive opponents of this measure of their argument of persecution?

Another idea would be to present the question in terms of women's rights.

I'm curious to hear what other people think about this.

Anonymous said...

blacksmith is right
The way this ban was presented is provocative. They could have simply announced the ban on clothes covering face without mentioning burqa or anything about social integration. Just keep it strictly a security issue, it would have diabled people to argue about it.
As far as I know, Quran never mentioned Women need to be completely covered head to toe?
And those who made it so are interpreting it wrong apparently.

Anonymous said...

Hi Leila, I see you are struggling with blogger. I don't know what's wrong with the program, throws me out all the time. I'm going to ge back to you on this post later. I am waiting for the discussion in Holland, see what happens, but I found the different points of view offered here very interesting.

Anonymous said...

i'll give my opinions as a muslim.

As it is true they seem to target a specific group of ppl, it would be fair to ban all masks period.

what those ppl did to the store owner is despicable.

As a security measure also, Sikh are a religion where you have to wear a sword at all time, and would be a greater security risk than a niqab or burqa in my view.
It does not seem fair to rule out one part of one religion and not another religion.

Also Besides the point, it is not obliged to wear the burqa, only the hijab. Also men should wear a head dress although not obliged it is sunnah.

ഷാഫി said...

Itz fun to hear some nations ban someone's clothing, identity etc... when you cannot beat them logically, beat them legally... ha ha ha... anyhow, i don't Islam or Muslims will be wiped out from earth by this ban. the motive is correctly religios...