The Ambassadors Magazine - July 2010

"Niqab, hijab, burqa - I don't think they are religious requirements. They are cultural requirements."

- Dr. Ghayasuddin Siddiqui, leader of the Muslim Parliament of Great Britain

There is no doubt that the tragedy of September 11, which was sponsored by Osama bin Laden and his group, had a great effect on the perception of Islam in the Western world and the rise of Islamophobia. In Canada, which preaches multiculturalism and the respect of others, many Muslims have achieved great successes in all fields. While there are many, some are exceptions, including Prof. Tayseer Abulnasr, who has reached new heights as one of the most exceptional engineers in Canada. She was elected to the Deanship in Engineering at the University of Ottawa, a rare accomplishment for a woman in a male-dominated field, let alone a veiled Muslim.

Despite the increasingly inflammatory tone between the West and the Muslim world that characterizes the post-9/11 period, many institution have broken the mental blockade and reached out to the other. For example, many universities in Canada have not shied away from courting students and faculty from the Muslim world. Many Canadian universities have opened their doors to men and women from Muslim countries to pursue their undergraduate and post-graduate studies. Manal Al-Johani, is a 27-year-old veiled Saudi accountant who is studying English classes at Toronto's York University. Ms. Manal, a tiny fine woman in a fuchsia headscarf and large down coat, is applying to Masters programs across Canada and hopes to go on and pursue a PhD. In a small classroom at York University, all the students in her English language class are from Saudi Arabia. And this is no exception. Roughly, ten thousand students of similar backgrounds are studying across the Canada at numerous universities, including Dalhousie University and the University of New Brunswick, with thousands more on their way.

Since September 11, 2001, Canada has become the most popular destination for students from oil-rich nations, behind the UK and US. For the Saudi students, life in Canada begins with 18-months of language training and a hunt for a spot in a field of study that has the blessing of their country's government.

Dalhousie University president, Professor Tom Traves, recently led a delegation of presidents from four Canadian universities on a trip to the Gulf countries earlier this year, in order to recruit more students. Professor Eddy Campbell, president of the University of New Brunswick, and one of the leaders on the trip to the Gulf states, said that the 300 students arriving from Saudi Arabia to his university will find an enriching environment that promotes understanding among different cultures.

The Saudi government encourages their students to pursue studies in the following approved fields: sciences, technology, and business. Women can only come to Canada with a male chaperone - usually a husband or brother, who can also seek higher education in Canada paid by their government. Other Saudi women are studying biochemistry or education, like Sana, who is planning to become an instructor at a Saudi university training other teachers.

The growing number of Saudi students does not surprise Dr. Bessma Momani, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. As anti-Arab sentiment grows in Europe and the U.S., she predicts Canada will gain more prominence as a favored destination. Ease of travel as well as a reputation for tolerance are factors, she said.

At the University of Toronto Islamic legal scholar, Prof. Anvar Emon, gives his students an exercise to show why the veil ignites fear in Western societies. He asks them to imagine a woman on a Toronto street corner wearing an Afghani burqa, or wearing a niqab. Prof. Emon points out that the veil can be a political and religious statement by Muslim women which says, "I am Muslim, accept my difference. I am here."

Dr. Barry Levi, dean of the faculty of religious studies, McGill University, and scholar on Christian, Jewish and Islamic relations notes that the veil's origin lies far earlier in history than Islam. Both Jewish and Arab women in medieval times were veiled. Christian nuns, until recently, exposed only their faces, and many orders still retain the headscarves. Furthermore, until recently, Christian laywomen rarely went to church without a hat or something to cover their head.

Some Muslims cover the head and neck, while others insist to cover the entire body including the hands and feet. There are cultural differences that vary across the Muslim world, which stretches from Indonesia to Morocco, and the result is head coverings of all descriptions.

The commonest is the hijab, which is a tightly worn scarf that covers the head and neck but leaves the face exposed, and is worn by women in the Middle East, Indonesia, Europe and North America. Some Muslim women begin to wear it only after hajj - pilgrimage to Mecca. As Maleiha Malik, lecturer in law at King's College London and author of Feminism and Muslim Women (Cambridge, 2007) put it, "For many, it is response to religious vocation. For some covering their hair may be linked to patriarchal pressure, for others a symbol of emancipation in a patriarchal society."

Chador is an all-enveloping black garment that leaves only the face uncovered. It was also used by Hindus and Persian Christians hundreds of years ago.

Burka is a full body garment that leaves only a grill for seeing. While its use is not mandatory in Afghanistan anymore, it is still widely worn there.

Wearing a niqab is a religious obligation in Saudi Arabia. The niqab, is a rectangular piece of cloth drawn over the lower face, leaving only the eyes exposed. Women wear it with a shapeless long gown worn over their clothes, that conceals every curve - which is called a abaya or gilbab. Gloves are sometimes also worn. The implication of those clothes is that women must hide their beauty from every man except their husbands and their immediate male relatives. Adil Salahi, an Islamic scholar who writes an advice column for Arab News newspaper, "The niqab is mainly something supported by some Saudi scholars and their followers overseas. But they don't have any real evidence [for its use], and women in the Prophet's time did not wear it."

In Iran, Shia Muslim women wear the long black chador, which leaves only the face uncovered, as a symbol of religious devotion after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. But the chadors originated with upper-class Persian Christians or Hindus several centuries ago to distinguish themselves from their social inferiors.

The most infamous covering is the head-to-toe burqa, worn mainly by Afghani women. It leaves only a small blue grill over the eyes, through which to see. It is no longer a requirement, but Afghani women continue to wear it, because it offers a measure of security and anonymity in a country that has been lawless for two decades.

With the furor in Britain over an Anglican school's decision to suspend a 24-years-old teaching assistant for wearing a niqab, many Islamic scholars pointed to Western hostility towards the Muslim veil. Some believe that the hostility is rooted in the West's deep cultural antipathy toward the East articulated by the American-Palestinian philosopher, Edward Said, in his essays on Orientalism, and writings of French psychiatrist Dr. Franz Fanon on European colonization. Others link it to campaigns by Western feminists to liberate Islamic women, and to aggressive male reactions to women who when veiled are seen as unattainable. And, of course, they link it to post 9/11 fears.

In the United Kingdom, Mrs. Aishah Azmi, 24, was asked to remove the veil after the Church of England school in Dewsbury, West Yorks. Headfield Church of England Junior School, which has 546 pupils, suspended Mrs. Azmi because it said pupils found it hard to understand her during lessons. Kirklees Council said the decision was taken after a monitoring period in which the impact of wearing the veil on the teaching and learning was studied. It said: "In this case the school and local authority had to balance the rights of the children to receive the best quality education possible and Mrs. Azmi's desire to express her cultural beliefs by wearing a veil in class. "The education of the children is of paramount importance and it is disappointing that the school was unable to reach a compromise with Mrs. Azmi in this case." The tribunal dismissed her claims of religious discrimination and harassment on religious grounds. But Kirklees Council was ordered to pay her £1,100 for victimizing her. Mrs. Azmi, a married mother of one, said she would be appealing against the decision to dismiss her religious discrimination claims. In a statement she criticized ministers who had intervened in the case and said it made her "fearful of the consequences for Muslim women in this country who want to work." She said: "However, I am pleased that the tribunal has recognized the victimizing way in which the school and the local education authority have handled this matter and the distress that has caused me." The case attracted comments from the prime minister, who backed Kirklees Council for suspending Mrs. Azmi. Tony Blair said the wearing of a full face veil was a "mark of separation" and made some "outside the community feel uncomfortable." The government's race minister, Phil Woolas, demanded Mrs. Azmi to be sacked, accusing her of "denying the right of children to a full education."

Mrs. Azmi, who is originally from Cardiff, said: "Muslim women who wear the veils are not aliens, and politicians need to recognize that what they say can have a very dangerous impact on the lives of the minorities they treat as outcasts. I will continue to uphold my religious beliefs and urge Muslims to engage in dialogue with the wider community, despite the attacks that are being made upon them."

France is shaping up over whether fully-veiled Muslim women with niqab should be banned from appearing in the streets or any other public setting. French President Sarkozy has said that the head-to-toe garment is unwelcome on French soil. He called it, "A negation of life in society." The spokesman for the Socialist opposition condemned it as "a prison for women". Jean-Francois Cope, the party's parliamentary leader, called the garment a threat by radical Islamists to the nation's security. Furthermore, the French Minister of Justice, Michèle Alliot-Marie, also added her voice to those against the niqab in France. Women wearing the head-to-toe covering, which leaves just a narrow opening for the eyes, are a rare sight in France. Only 367 niqab wearers are documented in the country, where the Muslim population is estimated as close to six million. Saadia Boussana, a writer for Woman Magazine (MWM-mag), a webzine aimed at Muslim women said, "As a Muslim woman, I don't see the point of debating a question that concerns a tiny minority of women, and making a political policy from it. What is worrisome with such a law, that it can exaggerate feelings of frustration, and that would be a prelude to a phenomenon of people turning in on themselves. To forbid is to restrict."

On June 13, 2010, France's lower house of parliament voted to ban the face veil from public places. The tally of votes ended up being an overwhelming 335 supporting the ban and only one vote opposing. The total number of women thought to wear the face-covering veil in France does not exceed 2000. New York-based feminist Muslim writer Mona El-Tahawy argued in a Salon article that by outlawing the conservative Islamic garment, all women in France are victorious.

Women win if France votes this week to outlaw the conservative Islamic garment, says a Muslim feminist commentator

Aisha is a 25-year-old permanent resident of Quebec, Canada from India. She is the second young Muslim woman whose face was hidden by the niqab in a French class in Quebec. She was told to chose between unveiling the niqab or leaving the course. Aisha's expulsion for the class last March, raised questions about Quebec's proposed anti-niqab legislation which denies covered women government services.

Naema Ahmed joined the Centre of d'integration multi-services de l'Quest de l'Ile, until the Immigration Department asked her to remove the niqab since it posed a problem for "pedagogical" reasons. She demonstrated great diligence in the course, in addition to actively participating in class. This would leave Aisha and Naema at home rather than in the classroom, especially since they said they could not remove the niqab. "It is like someone is asking me to take off my clothes," said Aisha.

It is well-known that France banned the niqab in public. France, with its highly centralized state, is the only European country to have outlawed a form of Islamic dress throughout the country. An 2004 law bans religious symbols from public schools, prohibition that could apply to large crosses, Jewish stars and Muslim niqabs. In several German state, Muslim teachers are not permitted to wear a headscarf and face-covering niqab.

There is an open discussion now in Western countries to adopt the banning of the niqab in public settings. The Quebec government requires Muslim women to expose their faces in government buildings, and had declared its commitments to secularism and gender equality. The proposed law in Quebec, would prohibit women from wearing a niqab or burqa, when they receive government services or take a government job. Quebec Premier, John Charest, said the legislation is a matter of Quebec values.

The tension between gender equality and religious rites has flared into political debate, with two new rulings by Quebec's human rights commission, on the right to wear the niqab and hijab. M. Amir Khadir, an Iranian-born Muslim and Quebec Solidaire MNA said, "I am against the veil. I don't think the veil represents anything more than a symbol of submission of women to religious authorities.

The action taken to bar a woman from attending a free French language class for immigrants due to her niqab, raised a lot of debate. The case of Naema Ahmed, the niqab-wearing woman who was expelled from a French language in Montreal, has turned into a "cause celebre".

On the niqab, there are two stories: the French and English versions. In France, the problem is clearly since Ms. Naima Ahmed is stubborn hardliner, who's unreasonable demands people bent over backwards to accommodate. She is an Egyptian pharmacist who joined a language class for immigrants last August. She insisted to wear a face veil, in class to help integration students into Quebec society. The next part of the course, required students to sit around the table and converse. She did not want to do it because the presence of three men in the class of 20. The teacher decided that Ms. Naema could not be taught properly unless the instructor could see her mouth - so the asked her to leave the class.

Naema Ahmed, with an inflexible attitude, filed a complaint on the situation with Quebec's human rights commission. Quebec's Immigration Minister, Yolande James, said, "If you want to attend our classes, if you want to integrate into Quebec society, here are our values. We want to see your face."

In Britain, any politician who would dare suggest such a thing would be denounced as fascist. In English-speaking Canada, provincial government officials are too eager to distance themselves from the perceived intolerant Quebec.

Of course, we must respect people's rights, but newcomers should also respect our values.

In California, a rabbi, a minister, and an imam walk into a classroom at Claremont School of Theology, to teach Methodist ministers and theologians for more than a century. They are trying an unorthodox approach, by cross-training future Muslim, Christian, and Jewish religious leaders, in classrooms scattered around southern California, as they work towards their respective degrees. The experimental approach is intended to create US religious leaders, who not only preach religious tolerance, but who have themselves lived by rubbing shoulders with those of other Abrahamic faiths. Rev. Jerry Campbell, president of the Claremont School said, "Educating people in a segregated environment is not a way to teach them to be peacemakers. It only steeps them in their own religion and with their own people." The course includes inter-religious conflict resolution, scripture and ethics. The collaborative effort of the seminary, Jewish academy and Islamic center is believed to be the first to integrate the three studies. There are hopes to add Hinduism and Buddhism to the training courses. The hijab-wearing Dr. Najeeba Syeed-Miller, is the Muslim professor who teaches these inter-religious courses at Claremont School of Theology.

Canadian democracy can be viewed as a large tent and a broad-minded one, with room in it even for a handful of veiled women.

When seeking judgments on religious matters of contention, many seek the views of Islamic leaders. The new Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed el-Tayeb, and the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Ali Goma'a, have both made it clear that while the hijab, covering of the head and neck, is based on Islamic teachings, the nijab on the other hand, which covers the face except for the eyes, is not a requirement for Muslim women. The moderate view is "Yes to Hijab, No for Niqab!" Additionally, several prominent clerics, including the late Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi argued that the Koran and the Hadith clearly state that Muslims are expected to act in good conscience but be adaptable when traveling or residing in a foreign culture or society. This has been used to advocate for Muslims to acclimate to non-Muslim societies and accept different interpretations generally and becoming part of the fabric of society, especially with regards to the face veil.

Dr. Mohamed Ahmed el-Tayeb

Dr. Ali Goma'a