EU rights body blasts veil ban

Cairo, NU Online
The European Union's human rights watchdog has criticized laws banning the wearing of Muslim veil, warning that the legislation fuels anti-Muslim sentiments across the continent.

"[These laws] would further stigmatize these women and lead to their alienation from the majority society," Thomas Hammarberg, Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, said in statements on the council's website on Wednesday, July 20.

"Banning women dressed in the burqa/niqab from public institutions like hospitals or government offices may only result in them avoiding such places entirely."

Several European countries have enacted laws banning the wearing of hijab and face-veil in public places.

Belgium will become the latest European country to ban the face-veil after a law banning the outfit takes into effect on Saturday, July 23.

According to the new law, Muslim women would not be allowed to go in public while donning full face veil.

If any woman failed to comply with the law, she will be punished with a penalty of 137.50 euros ($195) and up to seven days behind bars as a punishment.

The move comes after France banned face-veil in public in April. Paris also banned the wearing of hijab in public in 2004.

Calls are also growing in several countries such as Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands to impose similar bans.

In northern Italy, an old anti-terror law against concealing the face for security reasons has been used by some local authorities to punish women who wear face-veil.

"This is not liberation," Hammarberg said.

While hijab is an obligatory code of dress for Muslim women, the majority of Muslim scholars agree that a woman is not obliged to wear the face veil.

Scholars believe it is up to women to decide whether to take on the veil or burqa, a loose outfit covering the whole body from head to toe and wore by some Muslim women.

Islamophobia

Hammarberg warned that banning the Muslim dress violates European human rights standards.

Such bans "may run counter to European human-rights standards, in particular the right to respect for one's private life and personal identity," he said.

"In principle, the state should avoid legislating on how people dress.

"We react strongly against any regime ruling that women must be dressed in full-cover veils. This is absolutely repressive and should not be accepted. However, the problem is not solved by targeting and penalizing the women."

The European commissioner warned that the veil ban leads to discrimination and fuels anti-Muslim sentiments across Europe.

"The way the dress of a small number of women has been portrayed as a key problem requiring urgent discussion and legislation is a sad capitulation to the prejudices of the xenophobes," he said.

"Such forces are certainly not undermined when others are adopting some of their terminology and attitudes."

Anti-Muslim feelings have been rising across the West with rightists seeking a ban of the construction of Muslim worship places in their countries.

In 2009, Switzerland banned the construction of mosque minarets in a referendum championed by the far-right Swiss People Party.

Similar moves are being sought in a number of European countries.

"Much deeper problems of intercultural tensions and gaps have been sidetracked by the burqa and niqab discussions," Hammarberg said."Instead of encouraging this unfortunate discourse, political leaders and governments should take more resolute action against hate crimes and discrimination against minorities." (iol)