theQuestion: Should niqabs or burkas be banned at citizenship ceremonies?*
Furor over the niqab has engulfed the federal election campaign in a debate that leaves many missing the point. The essence of the rule requiring women to remove the niqab or burka at citizenship ceremonies runs deeper than just proving their identity. It is about rejecting a symbol of oppression, antithetical to the values of the West.
The niqab covers a woman’s face and leaves open a slit for the eyes. The burka covers the entire face and body, leaving only just a mesh screen over the eyes to see through — made notorious by the Taliban.
The niqab should be seen for what it is — a tool to control women. It matters not that Muslim women in the West have the right to choose to wear one, when there is no choice for the millions who could be stoned if they fail to don the veil. Just last February in Iraq, Islamic State militants caught 15 women not wearing the niqab and poured acid on their faces.
The requirement for women to cover the face is not in the Qur’an, the Islamic holy book, which instructs all Muslims in the way of life and obedience to Allah. According Prof. Mohammad Qadeer of Queen’s University, the “argument about concealing one’s face as a religious obligation, is contentious and is not backed by the evidence.” And there was “never a time in Muslim history, not even in the early days of Islam, when a majority of women covered their faces.”
So if not from the Qur’an, where does the practice come from? According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of Heritic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now, it stems from the more violent fundamentalist branch of Islam she calls the “Medina Muslims.” They are predominantly Sunni and live by the strict letter of Islamic religious law. They fight for the forcible creation of a new caliphate and see Islam as “largely or completely unchanged from its original seventh-century version.”
Medina Muslims reject the individualistic values of Western culture. They spurn free speech, the separation of church and state, representative government, tolerance, freedom and equality before the law.
The niqab represents a repudiation of these cherished western ideals and should not be allowed in official ceremonies or proceedings. We should not tolerate a symbol and practice of another culture’s intolerance.