Activist Farzana Hassan wants law to ban burqas in public in Canada
Former president of the Muslim Canadian Congress contends that face coverings pose a security risk
An Ontario-based author, educator, and women’s-rights activist thinks that there should be laws in Canada preventing teachers from wearing burqas in the classroom. “In a public-school environment, how is a woman going to teach in a burqa?” Farzana Hassan asked during a phone interview with the Georgia Straight.
“If there are young boys there, for example, she’s not going to be taking her veil off. Don’t they have the right to know who they’re interacting with? And don’t they have the right to even look at the face of the teacher?”
Whether a woman should be allowed to wear a burqa in public is one of the questions Hassan plans on addressing during her lecture at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC on Saturday (April 16) at 8 p.m. Hassan has been invited to deliver a speech entitled “Is the Niqab a Symbol of Religious Expression?” as part of the 2011 UBC Laurier Institution Multiculturalism Lecture series.
Hassan uses the terms burqa and niqab loosely to include all forms of veiling. “The burqa has come to be used as a generic term for face coverings and coverings that are more concealing of identity,” she said. “So it’s not just the burqa, it’s all kinds of face coverings, including the niqab, so, basically, it’s a generic term for all of those.”
According to Hassan, who is a practising Muslim and previously served as the president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, all kinds of face coverings should be banned in public, mainly because she feels that they pose a security risk. “There was an incident in Ottawa, in Mississauga, about people having gone into banks and robbed them, and you don’t even know if they’re men or women doing it,” she recalled.
“With the threat of terrorism now, with this highly volatile and political situation between the Islamic world and the West, terrorism is pervasive in the sense that it can happen in a random manner. Why have this very enabling garb that people and criminal elements can use to walk around in and cover themselves up? It’s become a security threat, and I think it’s the security and safety of the public that needs to be given the most consideration.”
Hassan doesn’t believe that a burqa ban would infringe on any constitutional rights. She equates wearing a burqa in public to walking around nude. “There is a difference between a democracy and an anarchy,” Hassan said. “In a democracy, you still need some rules and regulations. When you enter into the public arena, you basically enter into a social contract with other people. Nudity isn’t allowed in public, so that’s one extreme. This is the other extreme”¦so if we’re willing to put limits on one extreme, why not put limits on the other extreme, especially when it has the additional disqualification of being a garb that enables this kind of criminal activity?”
Canada would not be the first country to introduce a ban on veiling. France made public veiling illegal on April 11. Hassan cited Syria as another country that does not allow veils to be worn in public, and in Egypt, she said, women cannot enter universities without first removing their veils.
“There’s no sort of expressive junction in the Koran saying women need to cover their faces,” she said. “The burqa is actually antithetical to Islam. I’m going to argue that point a bit more, and in my opinion if there’s a ban on the burqa, that’s not going to implicate Islam.”
Besides posing a security issue, Hassan argues that the burqa is entirely about patriarchal control and that women who believe otherwise are victims of propaganda. “This argument is often presented as, ”˜Women who wear the burqa are liberated.’ To me, that’s just a very big contradiction, and the one thing that I believe very strongly is that these women need to be liberated from these tyrannical ideologies,” she said. “They always talk about, ”˜Oh, well, we would then be seen as sex objects.’ No, that’s just propaganda. That’s just being somewhat disingenuous about these things.
“You and I walk around in public, and are we always seen as sex objects?” Hassan asked. “People interact with us. People want to have discussions with us. It’s not just always about this, and that’s just stigmatizing and casting allegations on every single man you come across, you know, every time he looks at you, you’re going to be looked at as a sex object. I think that’s a very patriarchal way of looking at things.”
Hassan wants the Canadian government to be more engaged with the issue and would ultimately like to see a burqa ban come into play. “The burqa is impacting Canadian society in general,” she said. “There is a debate here. It’s going on at the societal level. It’s going on at the political level as well. Just from that aspect of it, I think the Canadian government needs to be involved a bit more.”
Comments
18 Comments
Emil
Apr 14, 2011 at 5:44am
She thinks that the government should be involved. Good luck with that one. They are spineless and would will do nothing without pressure from the people. Besides she is right.
where can I line up to vote for the ban???
State Sponsored Church
Apr 14, 2011 at 9:29am
Are we also going to ban waring a necklace with a cross in it? What about Yarmulke or Kippah? And will the Turban worn by Sikh's be next?
Learn from history. Politics and religion should not be mixed. Don't let selfish politicians use this to create tension between different religions/ethnic groups.
RF
Apr 14, 2011 at 11:44am
Firstly, how many women and/or bank-robbers in Canada wear burqas?
Secondly, when did we start buying into this U.S.-style everything-in-the-name-of-security nonsense? I'd like to think we're not that stupid.
Frazana Harziel
Apr 14, 2011 at 12:36pm
The burqa is the great equalizer. Everyone looks the same in one of those things and it gives the most hideous as well as the most ideal women a chance to feel as if they need to hide themselves from men. As ugly as it sounds - the burqa is liberating for the undesirable women as they are on equal footing. No one is saying that only the pretty women should wear them - so for a less than ideal woman wearing the burqa means she is just as dangerously sexually objectifying as her prettier counterpart. I think there is more sexuality/fetish in this burqa thing than is being revealed...
Arachne
Apr 15, 2011 at 10:45am
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms would make it hard to ban one form of visible religious expression without the others. If thst law passed, as the anti-immigrant one did in France, I might have to start wearing a Niquab with my cross on top.
Some people think (especially Americans) that no woman would dress this way unless coerced. But Ms Hassan does not even suggest this. There's no evidence that more domestic abuse occurs in households of different religious groups. Muslim women around the world and here at home know what rights and freedoms they want and how to get them even if they are out of reach right now. North American feminists or modernists who want to help them by erasing their culture aren't needed.
I don't know how many teachers and lecturers are wearing niquab and how many students are not learning in consequence, but perhaps they should change class. Everyone is required to identify themselves to police when driving, in a movie theatre, or in other specific circumstances only. As for robbery, someone in a niquab is equally as outstanding as a clown costume--their comings, goings, and so on would certainly be noted.
But the most important point is religious freedom, whether Ms Hassan thinks Islam requires veiling or not. The point of modesty in the grander sense is one I think we all can agree on--that society today puts so much emphasis on outer beauty: youth, imaginary body type, multiple cosmetics, complicated hair, expensive clothes; that one's inner and spiritual self gets lost. For believers in God, getting caught up in looking good, or getting rich, is idolatry, or putting anything ahead of God. So you can see how the niquab is a contrast to our consumer society. We should have the choice,
Birdy
Apr 15, 2011 at 4:03pm
Banning people from wearing burqas is just as fucked up as forcing people to wear them.
Once the government gets started on clothing laws, it gets out of hand quickly. In Britain, you can't wear any kind of hooded clothing, such as a rain jacket, in malls. Even if you don't have the hood up. That's the kind of nanny state you can look forward to if this anti-burqa nonsense goes forward..
pissed
Apr 15, 2011 at 4:30pm
she has no right coming in and saying that the burqa is unethical to islam. she is ignorant and very misleading.
interior
Apr 16, 2011 at 4:49pm
Finally someone who is willing to actually say what the burka represents...enslavement of women. Hell, that are even banned in Syrian state universities. They have nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the control and subjugation of women.
orchid
Apr 16, 2011 at 5:43pm
Um to above:
I believe she is a practicing Muslim.
I can only believe it is the covering is a great equalizer, if the woman shows her face and has the rest of her body clothed from head to foot. I do agree that it helps de-sexualize the woman so that one's focus is on her intelligence, etc. But the same effect is still achieved if she at least shows her face.
The face is a window to a person, quite simply. Otherwise what's the point, then we might as well be blind, I mean have no real visions at all.
cuz
Apr 16, 2011 at 5:47pm
Yeah, Islam is such a "peaceful" religion that it forces female circumcision and favors DEATH TO ALL UNBELIEVERS. Where do you stand? Farzana Hassan is a practicing muslim - obviously a moderate. How do you people get off putting her views down but supporting murderous extremist bullsh*t??? If you want a real view of how Islam treats women read "Infidel" by Aayan Hirsi Ali. And don't even get me started about how Islam treats homosexuals (except their imans), people who drink alcohol or smoke pot, or basically anybody who thinks for themselves. The whole struggle in Islam is really about the people in control losing control over the Muslims who want to be free to live their lives the way they want.