The Burqa Barrier

17/10/07

Are Jack Straw's comments about the Muslim burqa unfair? Strip the veil, says GAY.COM's Hassan Mirza.

Is it a surprise that any comment remotely criticising Muslim practices, no matter how tactful or politically correct, results in a ‘furor’?

Raised as a Muslim American, I can understand why women wear face-covering scarves in Muslim countries, yet I struggle to understand why it is necessary in the West. And being out, gay, and from a Muslim family, I'm constantly dealing with my own frustrating conflicts with Islam's take on gender and sexuality.

Cabinet Minister Jack Straw's suggestion to Muslim women to remove the face veil has sparked massive controversy, despite his effort to not be "prescriptive" when suggesting that covering peoples’ faces makes community relations difficult.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission called Straw’s article in the Lancashire Telegraph "astonishing" and accused Mr Straw of discrimination, according to the BBC.

The Protect-Hijab organisation said Straw showed “a deep lack of understanding".

What is more ‘appalling’ and ‘astonishing’ is the swift, angry response from Muslim organisations, despite Straw carefully questioning if covering one’s face is as an anti-social statement.

“Communities are bound together partly by informal chance relations between strangers - people being able to acknowledge each other in the street or being able pass the time of day," Straw explained.

“I have no problem with Muslim women wearing a scarf but to exclude the person you are talking to from your facial expressions is not reasonable.”

"I understand the concerns but I hope, however, there can be a mature debate about this.”

Sorry Jack, but unfortunately you’re dealing with people who consider debate blasphemy.

Before getting into Muslim ‘sensitivities’ about women being covered in face sheltering niqabs (only eyes exposed) or worse, the burqa, covering the entire face and body, leaving just a mesh screen to see through – let me just say that if anyone, man or woman, Muslim or non-Muslim – covered his or her face, it would always result in a paranoia.

If I happen to decide to cover my entire face and body, I would expect people to be suspicious of me. I would be suspicious of me.

Covering your face – in this country - as a form of body language says things like ‘I’m ashamed’ , ‘I don’t want to be seen’ , ‘I am not one of you…’ and it can also say things like – ‘I don’t want to be identified by CCTV!’

Yet we make an exception for some women to cover up. And before the women who actually wear burqas or niqabs speak up (oh wait, they’re not allowed) – Muslim men and hijab (face exposed) - wearing women are the first ones to condemn the comments.

One Muslim woman on the BBC this morning insisted that wearing face-covering veils – is NOT forced upon women by men, but instead a choice of the women. And this, boys and girls, is what we called Disillusionment.

Dr Reefats Drauba, the chairman of the social and family affairs committee of the Muslim Council of great Britain said, “ If Mr Straw thinks this is going to break down barriers, it isn’t. If anything, it was going to alienate Muslim women and be a catalyst for more of them to wear the veil and prove a point.”

How insightful, ‘Doctor’! In response to a Straw’s tactful suggestion, you’ve just declared a burka jihad.

I’m sorry, Dr Drauba but no, actually Muslim people isolate themselves and insist that others are isolating them.

Or maybe that's too harsh a statement, maybe it’s the fault of organisations like the Muslim Council of Britain, who are suppose to bridge the gap between British Muslims and everyone else (including me, not just wealthy old white men), but they repeatedly fail to do so and drive a bigger wedge between the Muslims and the rest of the world.

Do we ever hear from these people unless they are condemning something?

They have no concept of integration and face-to-face communication, yet they ponder why Muslims feel alienated? A nasty foreign policy is not an excuse to withdraw from the rest of society, especially from people who are interested in initiating dialogue.

This organisation repeatedly disappoints in its ridiculous accusations, and I can only hope it is unrepresentative of the greater British Muslim population.

I’m not going to try to speak for all Muslims. I’m certainly not representative of one.

However, I will say that even my Pakistani Muslim mother shares my disdain for the oppressive burqa barrier - which does nothing but to foster more hostility and alienate women.