Are concepts such as religious freedom and social cohesion compatible with the rule of law? A priori it seems that sã, but what if it was not the case? © Which law should prevail? This is the debate that Western societies will have to face sooner or later. A controversy that, although not new, has once again jumped out in the public eye after the European Court of Human Rights this week approved©the Belgian law banning the use of clothing “that covers all or part of the face in public spaces in such a way that it cannot be identified”. The law, which came into force in June 2011, punishes the use of, among other things, the niqab and burqa with fines ranging from 15 to 25 euros and penalties of up to seven days in prison in the event of relapse. The argument that the niqab and burqa are offensive or intimidating to the general public does not provide valid reasons for a ban, as different people may be insulted or intimidated by different cultural expressions that are still allowed to be practiced. Keulen`s statement refers to another charge against the niqab and burqa, namely obstruction of communication. Both issues, that of alignment with national cultures and interpersonal communication, have gained ground in other parts of Europe, such as the Uk, where the ban was proposed by conservative politicians in 2010. Speaking to a Scottish woman wearing the niqab, she said the reason the niqab is considered incompatible with Britain is that “colonial Britishness” is used as a reference for integration. “He takes the colonial white Anglo-Saxon male view of life as the norm. Everything on the outside is deviant,” she added. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed double standards that continue to shape Western politics. In 2020, some European countries introduced mask requirements where not everyone was identifiable in public. Security concerns, often cited as reasons for the burqa ban, have been sidelined without consequence. People have developed new communication skills specifically for the context of mask wearing.
But the niqab, a face covering worn by some Muslim women for religious reasons, was banned in seven European countries between 2010 and 2021: France, Belgium, Latvia, Bulgaria, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland. Often mistakenly referred to as a “burqa” in the media, the niqab has been portrayed as incompatible with “national values” and a security risk. The wearing of the pandemic mask has made it clear that it is not the fact of the face covering itself that worries European countries, but that it is the Muslim face covering that is considered the problem. The brutal idea that women who cover their faces should be forced to do so because of their husbands` regressive gender beliefs manifested itself in a legal ban on face coverings in France in 2010. The “burqa ban” was hailed as a challenge to the perceived gender inequality of French Muslim women and therefore aimed to protect women from gender discrimination. Now, the Taliban`s new diktat on the application of the burqa in Afghanistan is likely to overshadow the fact that women who wear face coverings in the West do so for religious reasons and of their own free will. The application and prohibition of women`s decisions about what they wear stems from the same basic idea: paternalism towards women. By primarily targeting non-white women who want to cover their faces, governments that ban face coverings may have more in common with the Taliban than they want to admit. En agosto de 2019 entró en vigor la prohibición del “burka” integral en espacios públicos.
La norma -en un país donde el 5% de la población es musulmana- fue ratificada el 26 de julio de 2018 por el Senado y define la prohibición como «parcial», y no «total», porque solo limita el uso de estas prendas en áreas públicas como escuelas, hospitales, transporte público y edificios gubernamentales. Philippine law recognizes the right of Muslim women to wear headscarves, including the hijab. The Commission on Human Rights announced on 8 August 2013 under the CHR advisory number 2013-002 that its Gender Ombudsman reaffirms the fundamental rights of Muslim women to wear the hijab, burqa and niqab as part of their freedom of expression and religion in response to schools that prohibit the wearing of headscarves. He cited the Magna Carta of Women, in particular article 28, which states: “The State recognizes and respects the rights of Morose and indigenous women to practice, promote, protect and preserve their own culture, traditions and institutions, and to take these rights into account in the formulation and implementation of national policies and programmes.” [257] The legislation allows people to cover their faces when there is a “recognizable purpose” such as cold weather or compliance with other legal requirements, such as the use of motorcycle helmets under the Danish Highway Code. El uso de “burka” sigue siendo un tema que divide en muchos países europeos, especialmente en aquellos donde la población musulmana es elevada. En Suiza, este domingo se vota la prohibición del burka y el niqab. In March 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) approved the ban on Islamic vows in companies, provided that the internal rules include any religious, philosophical or political symbol and not only those of a particular profession. According to a 2019 study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics[16], a higher proportion of girls of Muslim origin born after 1980 graduated from high school, bringing their graduation rate closer to the non-Muslim female cohort. Having a “Muslim background” was defined as an immigrant father from a predominantly Muslim country (therefore, indigenized Muslims with a longer history in France were not taken into account), as the study highlighted the “difficulties of adolescents with a foreign cultural background in forming their own identity.” Men in the Muslim group also had a lower graduation rate than men in the non-Muslim group.
While secularism is often criticized for restricting religious freedom, the study concluded that, for the French context, “the implementation of more restrictive measures in French public schools promoted the educational empowerment of some of the most disadvantaged groups of female students.” [17] The law was challenged in 2014 and brought before the European Court of Human Rights. The court upheld the legality of the law. Desde 1975 existe una ley en Italia que prohíbe llevar la cara y cabeza completamente tapadas en espacios públicos ya sea con velos o con cascos de motos. In 2011, the government parties Pueblo de la Libertad (PDL) and Liga Norte, as well as the parliamentary group “Iniciativa Responsible” voted in favor of the decree banning the use of the “burqa”, with sentences of up to one year in prison for those who wear the “burqa” in a public space and fines of up to 30,000 euros for those who force others to wear these clothes or even go out on the street. the face covered. 2017 wurde vom österreichischen Parlament ein gesetzliches Verbot gesichtsbedeckender Kleidung verabschiedet. [5] [6] Der französische Gesetzgeber argumentierte, dass das Gesetz für die Trennung von Kirche und Staat und für die Emanzipation der Frauen wichtig sei. Similar to the 2004 bill that banned the use of ostentatious religious symbols in public schools, including Muslim headscarves and Christian crosses, this law aimed to further remove religious expression and iconography from public spaces in France. Some lawmakers have argued that the burqa is a nefarious symbol of gender inequality, forcing women to assume subordinate status to men in public. According to her, the law has freed women from a discriminatory and patriarchal subculture. On May 7, the Taliban introduced a new law that requires Afghan women to wear the burqa, a traditional garment that covers the entire body with just a grid for the eyes. The new law follows the closure of secondary schools for girls in March.
These actions show that the Taliban`s promises to respect women`s rights when they took power in August 2021 were empty. As fears about Afghanistan`s bleak future become reality, the burqa is once again poised to be a symbol of Taliban brutality. For Muslim women in the West who freely choose to wear the burqa or niqab for religious reasons, the renewed attention paid to their clothes in the news does not bode well.