Spain: Burqa’d 18-year-old Sumaya can’t listen to music, her husband says

And of course, the burqa is not really bad, as it has holes to let the air in..

Anyway, I know why he doesn’t wear a burqa: he is so ugly I doubt really any woman in her senses would look at him. From Diario de Navarra.es:

The black burqa hides the face of a young Moroccan, 18, called Sumaya. Sohaib sleeps in his arms. Her baby. He was born in Tudela, on Wednesday September 22nd, at five in the afternoon. Right of Sumaya, is Benaomar Rachid, 33, her husband. Rachid has not hesitated to answer this newspaper’s questions and explain why his wife has to live under a burka.
On Saturday, September 25, Said, 12, and his brother Hamza, 7, waited impatiently beside the gate that guards the village mosque. Said explains, the weekends, the Muslim children of the city and the region come to study the Koran and learn to read Arabic. Although Said was born in Morocco, is expressed with a local accent. “What are you a journalist? Why do you want to interview the imam Mustafa?” Said asks and answers a frantic pace. “My father works on site. I want to be a policeman.” Hamsa is impatient at the delay of the magnet and starts throwing stones at the gate. “It is showering,” says Said. “He can not hear because the mosque is very large, has five doors,” apology to the magnet. The minutes pass. Said adds the release. This time, the stones fall inside a courtyard.

The interior is a ship enabled with two carpeted rooms, the largest for men’s prayers, on the other, for women’s. Villafranca’s neighbors believe that is one of the largest mosques in northern Spain. Across the walls are the desks and blackboard, where small study. “It’s cold!” says Hamza. The minutes pass. The imam does not make an appearance. At that time, a Moroccan appears. Mohamed tells the boys that the magnet is traveling in Morocco, says he is managing his wife’s papers to bring. Hamsa Said and attentive listening and translating. Then, playing away to an irrigation canal. The journalist took the opportunity and asked the newcomer by Rachid Benaomar and his wife. “They live in front of the Civil Guard barracks,” says Mohamed, “but he is not the imam,” corrected. 

The uneasiness among the residents of this town of three thousand inhabitants began in April. The locals could not believe it. They had just crossed the street with the silent pace of a “faceless woman“. And the concern evolved into fear and worry. The deputy mayor of Villafranca, Enrique Marín San Miguel acknowledges that it surprised them. “Never before has there been a similar case despite the increase in Muslim population in the area which reaches now 22%,” he says. “We are concerned. Do not know if this will go further. That woman lives in a prison. Do not you see the eyes. The municipalities can not prohibit the burqa. It should be done by the Government of Navarra.”
Is Rachid here?
He isn’t, says one of the children with a good Castilian accent.
When will he get here?

I do not know. He’s working, inside the house heard a few words in Arabic, they seem uttered by a woman. He is arriving now, says the boy.
A few minutes later, Rachid arrives by car. He’s sitting in the passenger seat. Mohamed, a friend,drives. Without getting off, he asks the reporter to enter the car and sit back. “We apologize for the delay. “I have not much time,” he says with the palm of his hand on his chest.

Q: Villafranca’s neighbors say they’d known you for years.
A: Yes, I came to Spain 12 years ago. I live in Navarra since 2001. Sumaya came in April.
Q: How did you get?
A: By patera (that is, he entered Spain illegally).
Q: Do they think you have changed?
A: Yes, I was a young boy who came to Europe to improve life. Here I have experimented with almost everything, as usually young do, but that’s something that is between Allah and me, “he confesses. I was pursuing happiness and truth. To see if I could find it. I asked. Didn’t find it. I have lived in many parts of Spain. I was working in the field, had some money, car, home, women, but my heart wasn’t calm. I was not happy. It was empty. I was getting out much at night. I came to Navarre in 2001. That year some friends came to visit me and they told me it was a good boy, that religion should be respected. And I put it into practice. I spent the first few days praying and crying with happiness. I felt good with the world. I was at peace with myself.
Q: Speaking of peace … Your religion is related to terrorism
A: My religion forbids killing anyone.
Q: Why does Sumaya dress like that?
A: My wife wears a burka since before marrying me. In addition, it is said by the Qur’an, our holy book. There are two or three pages in the talk about women’s rights. Women must be covered to go out. 
Q: People think you force her to wear a burqa.
A: She dresses well because it says that the Koran. Forcing her to dress like that would not help. It would be false. She is the one that has to want this. I respect the Spanish culture, I have many Spanish friends. Why do people think that we forced them to cover his face? It is not serious.
Q: But the Qu’ran says nothing about the burka. According to Islamic tradition or Sunna (second source of Islam), it was the prophet who set the women of his harem to wear the veil as a sign of identity.
A: Yes, the Koran says it, Mohammed interrupted.
The prophet explains what the Koran says. I can not say – begins to drop verses from the Koran. You have to cover the woman’s neck, breasts … When a woman passes the first thing we look at is the face, eyes. So you have to cover the face.
Q: What is most important for you, the heart or the physical appearance?
A: The heart. But first, you always look the flesh of women. After that, the heart is the boss.
Q: So how can a man fell in love with a woman who is concealed by a burqa? 
A: I went to visit my family in a city near Melilla and Sumaya was there in the house, covered with the burka. My sister asked me if I wanted to marry her. In my country, love knows no age difference. For a year, we just talked. Everything was fine. All I wanted she wanted it too.
Q: For a year your relationship went on without seeing the face of your wife?
A: My religion says that the first day you can see the hands and face of your future wife, then you can not date her until you get married, is prohibited. I returned to Spain to work. Until the wedding night, I never saw her again.
Q: Does she also wear it at home?
A: If she is with her family members, she can take it away.
Q:  Do you like your wife?
A:  I love her. I’m happy with her.
Q: Is she happy?
A: Of course. She has always worn it. 

Q: Does your wife like her life in Navarra? What is the kind of life she leads here?
A: (He is silent) She is religious. She likes very much to read the Koran. We go to the mosque. I have brothers here who come to help. She is with me.
Q:  Does Sumaya have any hobbies?
A: She likes to cook, especially fish and tortilla.
Q: And the music?
A: No. .. she can not hear music. It’s prohibited because most of the songs express bad words.
Q: Do you walk together down the street?
A: When I was pregnant almost every day. Yes, arm in arm.
Q: Isn’t Sumaya lacking nature’s experience with all senses? For example, fresh air in the face …
A: The burka has small holes. The air can enter through them. For example, if we are in the country alone, she goes behind and discovers herself.

Q: Can she go out alone?

A: (He doubts for a few seconds.) If she wants to buy something, of course she can, but must be accompanied by her husband, father or son when she travels. The husband is the one who orders here. We are those who bring money home. In our religion we all have our work. And our women are to be at home. They have to explain to our children the religion. So we leave our wives at home.
Q: Do you think the burqa or veil allows Muslims to integrate into Europe?
A: I traveled a lot. I know and respect all cultures. I respect a woman if she wants to go without clothes, but if a woman wants to be coated, her will should be respected too. So far in Navarra, they respect us. We are calm.
Q: How about banning the burka?
A: It goes against the rights of women.
Q: What if one day it’s forbidden here?
A: We would go immediately. We would go back to our country. 
Q: What if your wife decides one day not to wear it anymore?
A: I would’t not forbid it. She does this for god, not for me. I’m just her husband. I respect her.
Q: The Qur’an permits polygamy.
A: The Quran allows many things but I can not ...
Rachid terminates the interview. He has to cut his child’s hair, as it’s said in the Qu’ran it’s necessary to mark the birth of a baby. He must also sacrifice a few lambs in his honor. On Tuesday the kill will take place. I ask to take a photo of them. At first, Rachib disapproves it. There are people at home. He thinks for a few seconds. Then he agreeds. “Wait a minute.” He enters the house. Then he comes out. “You can now”. The joy is gone. “Where are the children?“. In the room there’s nobody left. The burka is black. It covers her entire body. The hands also are hidden by black gloves. Sumaya doesn’t even utter a word. 

In the comments’ section, some commenters say that she always goes behind her husband and that if the latter stops to speak to someone, she just stops too, but at a distance, as if she thought she was meddling in other people’s business, and never utters a word.

France: the "Niqabitches" protest against burqa ban… in minishorts

I don’t think they understand the meaning of “full” in “full veil”. From France Soir (Translation: T&P):

You may have run across them through the streets of Paris … They, are the Niqabitch. Two young woman in her twenties who had the idea of shock parade to show their disapproval of the law on banning the full veil in public, adopted by the MPs on September 14.

In an article published Thursday on Rue89, they explained: “To wear the burqa would have been too simple. So we asked ourselves the following question: how would the authorities deal with women wearing a burqa and a Minishort? And to clarify: “We do not seek to attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists-all the trip. But rather to challenge the elected officials of the Republic who went after the passing of this law that is believed to be largely unconstitutional … And finally, LOL it is not (funny) to denounce (this way)? “

These two activists also point out they do not feel directly concerned by the law, therefore, have marched to the Ministry of Defence or the Socialist Party. Will this cause any reaction in high places? In any case, within hours, their work has spread across the Net like wildfire … and is indeed a bomb.

They don’t want to “attack or degrade the image of Muslim fundamentalists“. Of course not: we are showing too much skin to please fundamentalists, so please just tell them we are just against French law (the same law fundamentalists are agaist too), not against them. Just in case some fundamentalist feels he has to show us he doesn’t like our move…
http://player.vimeo.com/video/15104826
Niqabitch secoue Paris from NiqaBitch on Vimeo.

Related: Video: The NIQABITCH. Liberals are so stupid.

UK: Schools enforcing the full veil on pupils

Telegraph:

The Sunday Telegraph has established that three UK institutions have introduced a compulsory veil policy when girls are walking to or from school. They are:

• Madani Girls’ School in east London;
• Jamea Al Kauthar in Lancaster;
• Jameah Girls’ Academy in Leicester.

All three are independent, fee-paying, single-sex schools for girls aged 11 to 18. Critics warned that the spectacle of burka-clad pupils entering and leaving the schools at the start and end of the day could damage relations between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

Found here.

Turkey: "Headscarf ban is against freedom of believe", Erdogan says

Reuters:

Turkey’s prime minister said on Wednesday a law that prohibits women wearing the Muslim headscarf at university was against freedom of belief, in his strongest hint yet the AK Party might try again to lift the ban.

Turkey’s Constitutional Court struck down in 2008 an attempt by the ruling AK Party to remove the ban. But after voters approved constitutional changes in September to overhaul the court, AK Party officials have put the sensitive issue back on the government’s agenda.

“We agree with society on the headscarf issue,” Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to university students in Istanbul, which was broadcast live.

“We do not want to disappoint our youth. There is no sense in being so interventionist in freedom of belief and education anymore,” Erdogan said.

His comments come months before a election that will herald a new constitution if his party wins.

Wearing the Muslim headscarf is a touchy issue in European Union candidate Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation with a strictly secular constitution.

Photo found at JcDurbant.

Chechnya: Govt. Coerces Women on Dress, Activists Say

The Female Factor – Chechnya Coerces Women on Dress, Activists Say – NYTimes.com:

“Activists in Chechnya, where Russia has waged two wars against separatists in the past 16 years, said intimidation reached a peak during the fasting month of Ramadan. There was also a crackdown on violations of Islamic law such as the sale of food before sundown and any sale of alcohol, they said.

The activists who spoke from Chechnya insisted on anonymity because they said they feared reprisals.

Threats tapered off, they said, as Ramadan ended in mid-September. Men in Islamic clothes had been approaching women whom they deemed unsuitably dressed to pull them by the arm, an offense according to Chechen custom.

A woman activist said that incidents she recorded in August included a woman being taken away by men in a jeep for wearing a skirt they regarded as see-through and no head scarf in Grozny, the Chechen capital. Other men handed out leaflets to women advising them how to dress, she said.

According to Chechen tradition, women should not wear sleeveless clothes; they usually wear a strip of headscarf more like a hairband than a hijab. Until recently, it was considered the prerogative of male family members to decide their style of dress, but Islamic activists, with support from Mr. Kadyrov, are calling for much fuller cover.

….The New York-based Human Rights Watch said in August that women’s rights were being violated by efforts to impose an Islamic dress code. It said women without headscarves or in immodest dress had been attacked with paintball guns in Grozny.

Last week, Russia’s human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, asked the federal prosecutor general’s office to investigate the paintball incidents.

Tanya Lokshina, a researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Moscow office who travels regularly to Chechnya, said the situation of women had deteriorated under Mr. Kadyrov, 33, who succeeded his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, a former rebel leader and mufti who became a fervent Kremlin supporter before he was killed by an assassin’s bomb in 2004.

“Instructions were given that girls can’t go to school without scarves, or young women to university, and that it’s impossible to work without a scarf,” Ms. Lokshina said. “Pressure grew, through television programs and declarations, to control the morals of women.””

Flag: Wikipedia.

Spain: Hijab’s case will be revised by judiciary

El País:

Najwa Malha began classes at the same institute where she finished the previous term, Gerardo Diego de Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid). The case of this child, a Spanish Muslim, shot to limelight after Malha had to go almost to the end of the course from her institute, Camilo Jose Cela, after going to class with hijab (Islamic veil).

The family appealed the decision to the Ministry of Education, which now considers the center and the administration acted properly. The next step is to go to court. The family will file an appeal before the Administrative Courts of Madrid, as their attorney, Ivan Jimenez Aybar, said yesterday.

The lawyer filed a motion in May to the Community’s Department of Education in which it considered that the decision to take her to a new school, violated her dignity and rights (both of identity and religious freedom) and the internal rules of the institute. The Madrid region has responded with a resolution, dated Sept 20th. In the text, seen by El Pais, the Ministry of Education reports that there is no contradiction between forbidding her to wear a headscarf and the rights of students to have their identity, dignity or religious convictions respected.

Nor does it infringe the right to education of Malha, because the Community offered her “immediately” the possibility to be schooled in another center with different rules. He added that not wearing the head covering does not violate any rights of students, but “a simple rule on the clothing of students.”

Aybar Jimenez is a lawyer, but also a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He believes that the community considers the “political criteria above the legal ones” with this decision. “I firmly believe that the Judges once they have listened to our arguments, aimes at defending Najwa’s right of religious freedom, which has been ignored, intentionally and unlawfully, by the Community of Madrid“.

Background:

16-year-old removed from class for wearing the hijab.

School confirms hijab’s prohibition.

Opinions on Najwa’s hijab.

Najwa’s hijab: National Federation of Muslims will take legal action against the school.

High school passes resolution to forbid veil on hijab’d Najwa’s affair.

Najwa’s family announces legal action against institute.

Germany: Islamic "aggressive" proselytizing in the streets (Video)

Muslims are protesting against the mosque closure… passengers and shoopers in the market where they held their “prayer” sessions, are not comfortable with them as they follow students and young people to convert them. Of course, they insist they are peaceful but German police doesn’t agree. The reason why the mosque was closed is the extremist version of Islam they are preaching: support for the stoning of adulterers and the killing of apostates and opposition to gender equality, so some women are wearing burqas or niqabs.

http://www.youtube.com/v/o3yS7aeDzHQ&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

Malaysia: Islamic party says veil ban could spark terrorism

Malaysia Islamic party says veil ban could spark terrorism < French news | Expatica France:

“Malaysia’s Islamic opposition party said Wednesday that a vote by French lawmakers to outlaw the full-face veil had angered Muslims and could trigger terrorist attacks.

The Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) said France should adopt a path of engagement with Muslims instead of introducing the controversial bill.

‘It will widen the efforts of many organisations to narrow the gap between the Western and Islamic world,’ PAS deputy president Nasaruddin Mat Isa told a press conference.

‘We hope it will not spark further terror activities. The French move has sparked anger around the Islamic world.’

Nasaruddin said the ban violated individual rights, and that Muslim women should be allowed to wear what they want in France, just as non-Muslim French women are permitted to dress as they wish in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

‘They can come here and wear their bikinis,’ he said.

PAS lawmaker Hatta Ramli said he did not accept arguments that the burqa — a full-body covering with a mesh over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil that leaves an opening for the eyes — suppress women’s rights.

‘I don’t think that holds water,’ he said.”

Yeah, a bikini is just the same as a burqa. So, if the burqa is so good, why these men don’t use it? Because Muslim men can’t be distinguish from a non-Muslim men in beaches and swimming-pools, while Muslim women are really quite distinguishable.

Background:
Senate Overwhelmingly Approves Ban on Muslim full-body robes; Eiffel Tower Evacuated.

Fadela Amara: The burqa is a prison, a straitjacket.

“Allah’s revenge” on Sarkozy for proposing “burqa ban”?. 

Fadela Amara: more on the burqa ban.

Sarkozy’s UMP studies burqa’s prohibition in public places.
Moving closer to banning the full veil.
Curb on veil in Egypt, backed by Islamic clerics.
French opposition takes stand against burqa ban.

France: Senate Overwhelmingly Approves Ban on Muslim full-body robes, Eiffel Tower evacuated

French Senate Overwhelmingly Approves Ban on Burqas – WSJ.com:

“France’s Parliament banned the burqa, niqab and other full-body robes worn by some Muslim women, by passing a law forbidding people to conceal their faces in public.

The bill passed Tuesday after a final vote in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament, and is scheduled to come into force after a six-month observation period. It has already passed the National Assembly. At the Parliament’s request, the law will be reviewed by France’s Constitutional Council before it is formally promulgated.

‘Showing one’s face is a question of dignity and equality in our republic,’ said Justice Minister Michéle Alliot-Marie during Tuesday’s debate in the Senate.

The vote came as a number of European countries are trying to figure out how to reconcile the values of modern Europe with more assertive expressions of Islamic faith. Some countries, such as the U.K., have over the decades encouraged the expression of immigrant cultures and religions under the principle of multiculturalism.

But others have taken the position that it is more important for immigrants and their descendants to adopt the values of the country they have settled in. Switzerland, for example, banned the construction of minarets after a referendum last year. Belgium and Spain are discussing measures to outlaw the niqab.”

French Constitutional Council has still to pronounce itself on the issue in a month. Of course, salafists are going to defy the law.

But the worrying detail is that the Eiffel Tower has been evacuated after an anonymous call announced there was a bomb planted on it at 21:00 (local time) At the moment, nearly 2000 tourists were in the Tower.  We’ll see if the threat was real or it was just someone with a very weird sense of humour.

Background:

Fadela Amara: The burqa is a prison, a straitjacket.

“Allah’s revenge” on Sarkozy for proposing “burqa ban”?. 

Fadela Amara: more on the burqa ban.

Sarkozy’s UMP studies burqa’s prohibition in public places.
Moving closer to banning the full veil.
Curb on veil in Egypt, backed by Islamic clerics.
French opposition takes stand against burqa ban.

Spain: National Federation of Muslims will take legal action against the school on Najwa’ hijab affair

Mohamed Mahla and his daughter Najwa

El Mundo:

The secretary of the Federation of Muslims in Spain, Yusuf Fernandez, announced that they will complain to the Constitutional Court about the decision the Camilo Jose Cela Institute of Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) took of expelling the young Muslims away from school for wearing the hijab in class. They consider this poses a “clear case of ‘Islamophobia”.

Fernandez said that this case “can be won in court” because the rejection of the child by the school board of the institute is an “aberration” that “violates and tramples” the rights recognized by the Constitution. “It is a rule that discriminates and that it lacks any legal validity,” he argued.

“There is no negotiation because we are talking about a basic right. This is a battle for freedom of the Muslims and the Spanish people in general. We can not live in a state that violates human rights for free. We are undertaking this battle until the end of the Constitutional Court”he said.

In this regard, he hoped that the young Nawja wins the case and get that “triumph of freedom” that any citizen could be free to profess their religion and “dress as it sees fit”. The State must not be allowed to deny a central manifestation of religious freedom, not to Catholics or anyone, he scolded.

Now he is champion of Catholics’ rights. Well, just let me recover from my surprise.

So veil is a “central manifestation of religious freedom”. Fernández should explain in the same defiant tone what is its meaning. And why it’s not only a “cultural” thing, something that other politicians, like Leire Pajín, Secretary General of the Socialists, have claimed to be its right interpretation.

It’s interesting that there was an express regulation forbidding anyone, be it Muslim or non-Muslim, to dress with the head covered. So where is the “trampling of her rights”? She has been treated as any other student!!

He went on further to answer Equality Minister Bibiana Aido, who said yesterday that she doesn’t like any kind of veil. “I don’t mind whether this person likes it or not. If they don’t like others to exercise their rights, that’s their problem“, he said.

On the other hand, regarding the opinion of the president of the Community of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, leaving the decision of expulsion of the young in the hands of the Board of Education school, Fernandez said that “it is a wrong decision” because the Constitution “protects” a Nawja.

It also protects the autonomy of each school.

Finally, said he is handling the complaint and its legal services and seek to “all Muslim organizations in Spain” to join these legal actions.

 ABC runs an opinion piece on the subject titled “The thousand faces of Hijab”:

For some it is a sign of forced submission of women in a backward culture. For others it is a free and safe expression of faith who someone wants to exhibit. And even some people describe it as a purely social outfit and totally detached from religion. The hijab means so many different things. (It has so important a meaning) the piece of cloth to Malha Najwa, the teenager and resident of Pozuelo, who feels so attached to forego her schooling. There are many faces of a garment around Europe which is waging a virulent ideological battle. Now the battle has come to Spain.

A minor, with its commitment to assist your school with the “hijab” although the school regulations prohibiting head coverings, has stirred the educational community and the general public, reopening a debate that is still pending in Spain resolution. While in other countries, like France, the law prohibits the display of the controversial garment in the classroom, in Spain, the legal vacuum left the decision on this difficult issue to the governing bodies of schools. Moreover, as happens usually in subjects like this one, it is accompanied by a media pressure that blurs the school life.

The IES Camilo José Cela, in which is registered Najwa, has chosen to enforce the rules and separate her from the rest of his classmates while she doesn’t change her attitude. For the child’s environment this is an intolerable prejudice to her right to education and religious freedom.

But the question that in the few Western media made and yet remains open within the bosom of Islam really is whether the “hijab” has the religious aspect attributed to the environment of the child in the controversy. For Laure Rodriguez of the Union of Muslim Women in Spain, the scarf is just “a piece of personal choice of the woman who has no religious nature.” However, Alilech Mohamed Said, a friend of Najwa’s father and imam in the mosque of Pozuelo, argues that “it is a religious practice, an obligation for women, resulting from the rules of their religion“, but insists that Islam is embraced a voluntary decision.

Remember that Najwa’s father is also an imam at that mosque? Voluntary decision to wear the scarf, hah! As this guy says, it is compulsory for Muslim women to wear it. Is that true? Maybe not, but sincerely who would have had more influence on this teenager: some far away boss of a “Unión of Muslim Women in Spain” or his father’s friend and co-imam and the mosque?

La Razón:

The ball is now on the roof of the Malha family. Finally, it will be Najaw’s parents (…) who will decide on the academic future of the 16-year-old girl. At this moment the situation is paralyzed. On Tuesday, the school Board of Education refused to amend its rules to allow the young to receive her classes with the Islamic headscarf over her hair. Nawja has frequently expressed its intention to continue with the “hijab” in the classroom and the only solution now is to transfer her to another center in the same locality, Pozuelo de Alarcón, who did allow their students to wear the Muslim headscarf .

If Nawja does not give up and lets her veil outside the classroom, she can not return to school to completed all the compulsory secondary education so far. Following the decision of the School Council, the center’s director informed Mohamed Malha that his daughter, with her handkerchief, can not enter into any classroom and that the regulation stops them. Yesterday was the Department of Education of the Community of Madrid, directed by Lucia Figar, who rejected an appeal made by girl’s father in the early days she spent away from their classes in the school library.

As of April 9 entered in the register of the Ministry a letter from Mohamed Malha in which it claims “in essence, the precautionary suspension of the warning sanction” and asks for “his daughter to complete the course in the center,” as it says in the document rejecting the petition by the Education’s Department.

The center has invoked Article 32 of its internal rules and Jose Macias, director of the West Area Planning of the Education’s Department, says in the document that the director of the institute ‘rules correctly applied and fully respected the procedure established to discipline students”. In addition, it plays the same Article of Rules of Procedure which states that “inside the building is not allowed to use caps or any other garment that covers the head.” His appeal has not yielded the expected results and now provides family legal action to get the teenager to wear her headscarf in the IES Camilo José Cela. So far, according to Mohamed Said Aliech (remember? the imam who says that the veil is a religious obligation for women), a spokesman for the Malha, they haven’t made up their mind about changing her of school or forcing her to remove her veil.

They are been advised to launch an education havoc based on two motives: first, they want to “ask the responsibility of the director, who decided to isolate the student for twenty days”, the second appeal against the decision of the School Board until the direction’s body of the school approves the change in its rules and allow Nawja Malha attend class with their “hijab” post.

For now, because of her “poor health“, the girl’s parents want to have her away of everything. They don’t want her to be more fagile after suffering an anxiety attack on Monday when she learned that the School Board did not intend to make an exception for her (that’s right, it’s an EXCEPTION what she is asking for, not to be recognised as equal to her classmates). Moreover, according to his father, she has depressed since her away from their peers (remember she said she wanted to wear the hijab “whatever the outcome”?). The media pressure is making her health worse.

Although Aliech (“the veil is compulsory” imam) said the Malha’s do not want to “harm the child and their basic rights” the fact is that unless they take matters into hands, Najwa will not be able to finish the course. Either she leaves the IES Camilo José Cela or she goes without a scarf. These are the two options that the family must urgently resolve given the approaching end of the school year, which will occur in less than two months.

In this same situation are the families of the friends of Nawja. “They’re afraid, they do not want to create problems with their school mates,” said Hadir Zerrad yesterday, the father of one of the young Muslim Eisner Institute of Pozuelo de Alarcón.

Fatima, Manar and Latifa decided to go yesterday without their “hijab” in the center. They had all week going to school with her hair covered with scarves as a sign of support for her friend, who, like them, Spanish is of Muslim origin.

Yesterday, about twenty past eight in the morning, appeared bare-headed (this is where I just got it wrong: they didn’t actually remove their hijab when entering school but the school removed them from their classes to a common hall yes, they wear the hijab outside school and they remove it when entering their classroom via). The reason for this decision, as explained Zerrad quoted by Ep, was the emergence of the National Democracy stickers on the front of the school.

The stickers, which were quickly withdrawn by the makers of the institute and several students, railed against the “Islamization” of Spain. “The thing already goes wrong … If they were accompanied, but girls are alone and do not want anything to happen to them, “said Zerrad. He has deterred her daughter to wear the “hiyab” to avoid having problems like Nawja.

So they don’t end up wearing hte hijab, because it’s the law, but rather because some far-righters put some stickers in their school against the Islamization of Spain. They only understand threats and violence, not the fulfillment of the law. And this people claim to be integrated?

I’m astonished…

Background:
16-year-old removed from school for wearing the hijab.
School confirms hijab’s prohibition.
Opinions on Najwa’s hijab.

France: Interior Minister wants an investigation on niqab’d driver’s husband

The niqab’d driver with her husband

The interior minister wants to deprive
the husband of the niqab’d woman of his French nationality. He suspects he is a polygamist and a welfare faudster.

The case of the veil bounces up in place Beauvau. Reacting to verbalisation on April 2, Nantes, by the police to a 31-year-old woman because she was driving while wearing a full veil, the interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, wrote Friday to his Immigration colleague, Eric Besson. In this letter, which Le Figaro had access to, he reveals that according to his information, the husband of the woman “belongs to the radical movement Tabligh and lives in a situation of polygamy, with four women with whom he had had twelve children. Moreover, each of these women would benefit from the single parent allowance. “

The Minister continues: “I add, moreover, that these four women would wear the full veil.” The minister concluded: “I ask the prefect of the Loire-Atlantique to immediately take all reasonable steps, with prosecutors and social services, to repress any evidence of polygamy and welfare fraud have been reported. I would be very grateful, also, if you would kindly study the conditions under which, if these facts were confirmed, the person (note: the husband) could be deprivement of his French nationality. ” On Friday the driver gave a press conference where she claimed to feel a “sense of injustice” after been fined with 22 euros by a police motorcyclist who believed that “wearing a full veil while driving affects driver awareness”.

We’ll see the result of this affair.

From ExtremeCentre.org: The gendarme has made

A reference to Article 412-6 of the Highway Code, which states that “all drivers must be constantly ready and in position to perform conveniently and without delay all its compulsory maneuver”. The field of vision, especially, should not be reduced “by the number or position of passengers transported by objects or by adding non-transparent objects on the glass.”

Her lawyer has said that motorcyclists couldn’t drive with their helmets on. So a niqab is a protective security tool, isn’t it?

More photos from the press conference:

Related:
Tablighi Jamaat.
TJ and allegations of terrorism.
Women and the Tablighi Jamat http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=13855960&access_key=key-1evq58580xmzozw40r92&page=1&viewMode=list

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• French Driver Is Fined for Wearing a Veil (nytimes.com)

Egypt: sexual harrassment on the rise

ON 2009, “only” two thirds of women had been assaulted. Now the percentage is even higher, via Women Against Shariah:

According to a study, 98 percent of the foreign women and 83 percent of the Egyptian women have at some point been subject to sexual harassment in Egypt. Often the blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of the victims.

…Most tourist guidebooks on Egypt, particularly those published abroad, warn foreign women regarding sexual harassment in the street and offer advice on how they should act and react. This could easily suggest that this phenomenon is on the rise. The aggression is hardly confined to foreign women; its victims include Egyptian women from all social and religious classes, veiled and unveiled.

…while Egyptian authorities took action and installed security cameras in the center of the city – the site of the 2006 riot, when a crowd of hundreds of sexually frenzied young men participated in violent attacks on dozens of women, surrounding them in the streets, groping and even trying to undress them – to alleviate the phenomenon, the effort did nothing to prevent similar attacks from being perpetrated in other parts of the city. Incidents spread and in fact intensified in other areas, including Al Haram Street and Al Mohandesseen district, where many girls were assaulted on Eid al-Fitr. This time, however, police successfully arrested many of the attackers.

Unfortunately, many dominant beliefs still place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the victims of sexual harassment. Society makes an implicit assumption that women dress provocatively, or otherwise behave suspiciously to excite men into violently attacking them – or blame women simply because they are unveiled or don’t conform to conservative Islamic dress codes.

But this phenomenon is not confined to Egypt and it’s driving women inside their homes even more:

Activists from 17 countries across the region met in Cairo for a two-day conference ending Monday and concluded that harassment was unchecked across the region because laws don’t punish it, women don’t report it and the authorities ignore it.

The harassment, including groping and verbal abuse, appears to be designed to drive women out of public spaces and seems to happen regardless of what they are wearing, they said.

But, not considering the evidence, people then receive this kind of ads:

“You can’t stop them. But you can protect yourself. Your creator has your best interests at heart.”

India: riots after an article says Mohammed was against burqas

Image via Wikipedia

(Translation: T&P)

An article published in an Indian newspaper,  Kannada Prabha, in which the author defended that Mohammed was against the use of the burqa, has caused violent riots in the state of Karnataka. A group of ten men with their heads covered has assaulted the newspaper’s offices in Bangalore, attempting unsuccessfully to burn down the place. During the quick police reaction, two Islamists were killed. In the near-by zones of Hassan and Simoga, Muslims also rioted, violence quickly spread by the Hindu reaction. 50 people were injured and a higher number of arrested because of the riots. The article was attributed to Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who has stated that the translation from its English version to the local version was manipulated to create inter-faith tension.

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• India newspaper offices attacked (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Indians angry at Nasreen article (news.bbc.co.uk)

Gaza: Hamas terrorism against Christians

It’s shameful this is not published and reported on by those same useful idiots who are protesting about Israelis. Just have some balls you people and fight the real enemy!!

France: Citizenship will be denied to Moroccan man who forces wife to wear niqab

France denies citizenship to Moroccan man who forces wife to wear full veil | World news | guardian.co.uk

France is to refuse to grant citizenship to a Moroccan man who forces his wife to wear the full veil, arguing that his adherence to a strict strand of Islam is incompatible with the country’s values, the immigration minister said today.

Eric Besson said he had signed a decree explaining that the man, whose identity was not made public, was being denied citizenship because his behaviour towards his French wife (!!) contravened secularism and women’s rights.

“It emerged during the inquiry and the interview process that this person forced his wife to wear the full veil, deprived her of freedom of movement with her face exposed and rejected the principles of secularism and equality between men and women,” Besson said in a statement.

Really good news!!

Tags: Women in Islam , Islamic veil , France , secularism , Islam , Human Rights , Eric Besson

Spain: Princess Letizia, veiled in Abu Dhabi

The front page of Spanish “heart” magazine says; “Lady Letizia, dazzling like an Orient princess”.

(via).

UKIP calls for burqa ban in Britain

Now that Sarkozy has abandoned the law to ban the burqa because of the “danger of stigmatization” that could suffer burqa’d women, English UKIP wants to ban the burqa:

British right-wing political party UKIP is reportedly mulling a call to ban the wearing of the burqa and the niqab, after claiming the clothing is an affront to British values.

The party is also keen to address the influence of Sharia law in Britain, he told the newspaper.

“We are not Muslim bashing, but this is incompatible with Britain’s values of freedom and democracy.”

UKIP is to make an announcement on Sunday denouncing the burqa as a threat to gender equality and a danger to public safety, as terrorists could use them to conceal their identity, the newspaper said.

via UK political party calls for burqa ban – Politics & Economics – ArabianBusiness.com.

More in BBC.

France: moving closer to banning full Muslim veil

Marianne

An interesting piece which WaPo run some days ago about UMP’s project of banning full Muslim veil:

In a country whose national emblem is Marianne, a bare-chested woman, there is deepening concern over the all-encompassing garb, often black or brown and worn with gloves, attire typical in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Here, it is widely viewed as a gateway to radical Islam, an attack on gender equality and other French values, and a gnawing away at the nation’s secular foundation.President Nicolas Sarkozy opened the door to a possible ban in June, telling a parliament session in Versailles that such dress “is not welcome” in France. A parliamentary panel set to work in July on a six-month mission gathering information on the garments.

A Widow's Black burqa

On Tuesday, the head of Sarkozy’s conservative UMP party in parliament’s lower house, Jean-Francois Cope, jumped the gun before the panel’s report was finished, and filed draft legislation on a ban. “No one may, in spaces open to the public and on public streets, wear a garment or an accessory that has the effect of hiding the face,” the draft text reads.

The document cites public security concerns, thus includes all face-covering clothes, in a bid to head off challenges from those who might claim such a law would violate constitutional rules on individual rights – a major concern along with how such a law would be enforced. It foresees fines for those who break the law.

The initiative, unlikely to go to debate before spring, would be the second time France targets Muslim dress. A 2004 law born in acrimony bans Muslim headscarves and other “ostentatious” religious symbols in the classrooms of French public schools. Sarkozy’s party dominates parliament and the president reiterated Wednesday his wish for a law on full veils, though it’s too early to say whether it will pass.

Europe’s growing Muslim population has bred tension across the continent. Wariness is pervasive since deadly attacks in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005 by Islamic radicals living in Europe. And some non-Muslims sense a threat by a foreign culture to their way of life. It took only four minarets on Switzerland’s 200 mosques to push the Swiss to vote “no” to minarets in a November referendum.

via France moves closer to banning full Muslim veil – washingtonpost.com.

Before: Fadela Amara: The burqa is a prison, a straitjacket, “Allah’s revenge” on Sarkozy for proposing “burqa ban”?, Fadela Amara: more on the burqa ban, Sarkozy’s UMP studies burqa’s prohibition on public places, Curb on veil in Egypt, backed by Islamic clerics, French opposition takes stand against burqa ban.

Marianne | Detail from Delacroix’s Freedom Leading the People, 1830.

France: opposition takes stand against burqa ban

This is an update on this story:

France’s opposition Socialists on Wednesday came out against calls for a law banning the full Islamic veil but said Muslim women must be discouraged from wearing the burqa.The announcement by the Socialists came after President Nicolas Sarkozy left open the prospect of legislation to ban the veil and ahead of a much-awaited parliament report on the loaded issue to be released at the end of the month.

… “We are totally opposed to the burqa. The burqa is a prison for women and has no place in the French Republic,” Socialist Party speaker Benoit Hamon said. “But an ad hoc law would not have the anticipated effect.”

The Socialist spokesman nevertheless called for action.

The wearing of the full veil reflects a “shift away from a certain type of (moderate) Islam”, he said, adding: “We must use all of the legal instruments at our disposal to ensure that this behaviour is condemned when it is encouraged.

via AFP: French opposition takes stand against burqa ban.

But not only burqa’d women will be punished, but any person who has the face completely covered will be fined with €750.

Indonesia: religious police on Islamic dress

She wears a helmet and drives her scooter slowly through the capital of Indonesia’s Aceh province, but Yuli is still stopped by the sharia police. Her crime: wearing tight jeans and a blouse deemed “un-Islamic”.

The 20-year-old lowers her eyes and doesn’t argue with the khaki-clad male officers who summon her to the side of the road.

“I promise to buy a more Muslim outfit,” she says, showing enough contrition for the police to wave her on her way.

In one hour, 18 women are pulled over because the guardians of morality decide their slacks are too tight or their shirts reveal too much of their feminine curves.

Only three men receive the same treatment, for wearing shorts.

“We have to respect sharia (Islamic) law, which has been adopted by the provincial government and which stipulates that women can only show their faces and their hands,” sharia police commander Hali Marzuki told AFP.

via France24 – Indonesia’s religious police on hemline frontline (via).

Doens’t matter if the un-Islamic dressed is a man or a woman: they will be stopped and, in some cases, arrested. And, supposedly, Indonesia was, with Turkey, a “moderate” Islamic country. On past elections, it was clear that Islamism was growing: all candidate’s wifes (but one) wore hijab. As experts said, Indonesian Govt wasn’t addressing fundamentalist ideology and that’s not only referred to terrorism.