Rilek1Corner

Tag: headscarf

  • Discrimination Against Muslimahs Wearing Tudung Is The Number 1 Factor Inhibiting Them From The Nursing Profession

    Discrimination Against Muslimahs Wearing Tudung Is The Number 1 Factor Inhibiting Them From The Nursing Profession

    AsSalaam’alaikum!

    There is a convoluted reasoning when it comes to the tudung. It is said that those who are calling for the end to the discrimination against tudung clad women are putting pressures upon Muslimah nurses such that these nurses are put into a spotlight thereby somehow such talk of tudung has disadvantanged and discouraged them from doing their work. The reasoning further goes to say that nursing is fardhu kifayah and thus must be encouraged.

    It is as if those calling for a stop to the ongoing discrimination are somehow at fault of inhibiting a fardhu kifayah which would benefit the society of which nursing is a prime example.

    Such a reasoning is flawed and can only be thought of by a muslim PAP cadre member who is trying to be too smart by half. Such reasoning ignores the fact that in the first place, it is the discrimination against muslimahs wearing tudung which is the number 1 factor inhibiting them from the profession which is a fardhu kifayah. Again to be clear, the fact is that those who promote and enforce the current policy of discrimination not allowing muslimahs to don the tudung are the ones inhibiting fardhu kifayah. Not to mention such discrimination against women belongs to the Dark Ages of Europe not the 21st century anywhere in the world.

    The fact is that the ongoing discrimination against women due to them choosing to wear the tudung is the policy denying them all sorts of working opportunities and professions. Such discrimination is totally indefensible. And yet some foolish people persist in their stupidity and indeed they are actually encouraging transgression against the Islamic prescription of covering the aurah. Their argument is invalid and exposes them as defiant of the Commands of Allah swt and the teachings of our beloved Prophet s.a.w.

    And as for the Muslim men who make such convoluted arguments and therefore allow such discrimination to continue, their hypocrisy lies in the fact that their own wives don the tudung in public.

    Allahu Musta’an!

     

    Rilek1Corner

    Source: Ustaz Abd’ Al-Halim

  • EU Headscarf Ban Ruling Sparks Faith Group Backlash

    EU Headscarf Ban Ruling Sparks Faith Group Backlash

    Companies may ban staff from wearing Islamic headscarves and other visible religious symbols under certain conditions, the European Union’s top court ruled on Tuesday, setting off a storm of complaint from rights groups and religious leaders.

    In its first ruling on an issue that has become highly charged across Europe, the Court of Justice (ECJ) found a Belgian firm which had a rule that employees who dealt with customers should not wear visible religious or political symbols may not have discriminated against a Muslim receptionist it dismissed for wearing a headscarf.

    The judgment on that and a French case came on the eve of a Dutch election in which Muslim immigration is a key issue and weeks before a similarly charged presidential vote in France, where headscarves are banned in public service jobs.

    French conservative candidate Francois Fillon hailed the ECJ ruling as “an immense relief” to companies and workers that would contribute to “social peace”.

    But a group backing the fired employees said the ruling may shut many Muslim women out of the workforce. European rabbis said the Court had added to rising incidences of hate crime to send a message that “faith communities are no longer welcome”.

    The judges in Luxembourg concluded the dismissals of the two women may, depending on the view of national courts, have breached EU laws against religious discrimination.

    They determined that the case of the French engineer Asma Bougnaoui, fired by software company Micropole after a customer complaint, may well have been discriminatory.

    Reactions, however, focused on the findings that services firm G4S in Belgium was entitled to dismiss receptionist Samira Achbita in 2006 if, in pursuit of legitimate business interests, it fairly applied a broad dress code for all customer-facing staff to project an image of political and religious neutrality.

    “BACKDOOR TO PREJUDICE”

    The Open Society Justice Initiative, a group backed by the philanthropist George Soros, said the ruling “weakens the guarantee of equality” offered by EU laws: “In places where national law is weak, this ruling will exclude many Muslim women from the workplace,” policy office Maryam Hmadoun said.

    Amnesty International welcomed the ruling on the French case that “employers are not at liberty to pander to the prejudices of their clients”. But, it said, bans on religious symbols to show neutrality opened “a backdoor to precisely such prejudice”.

    The president of the Conference of European Rabbis, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, complained: “This decision sends a signal to all religious groups in Europe”. National court cases across Europe have included questions on the wearing of Christian crosses, Sikh turbans and Jewish skullcaps.

    In the Belgian case, the ECJ said: “An internal rule of an undertaking which prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination.”

    It was for Belgian judges to determine whether Achbita may have been a victim of indirect discrimination if the rule put people of a particular faith at a disadvantage.

    But the rule could still be justified if it was “genuinely pursued in a consistent and systematic manner” to project an “image of neutrality”.

     

    Source: Today

  • Firms Can Ban Wearing Of Religious Symbols: EU Court

    Firms Can Ban Wearing Of Religious Symbols: EU Court

    European companies can ban employees from wearing religious or political symbols including the Islamic headscarf, the European Union’s top court ruled on Tuesday (March 14) in a landmark case.

    The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said it does not constitute “direct discrimination” if a firm has an internal rule banning the wearing of “any political, philosophical or religious sign”.

    The Luxembourg-based court was ruling on the case of a Muslim woman fired by the security company G4S in Belgium after she insisted on wearing a headscarf.

    The ruling came on the eve of a Dutch election in which Muslim immigration has been a key issue and a bellwether for attitudes to migration and refugee policies across Europe. Terror attacks by over the past year or so have raised alarms in the continent, where the wearing of religious symbols, and especially Islamic symbols such as the headscarf has become a hot button issue.

    Mr Manfred Weber, head of the centre-right European People’s Party, the biggest in the European Parliament, welcomed the ruling.

    “Important ruling by the European Court of Justice: employers have the right to ban the Islamic veil at work. European values must apply in public life,” Mr Weber said in a tweet.

    The ECJ was ruling on a case dating to 2003 when Ms Samira Achbita, a Muslim, was employed as a receptionist by G4S security services in Belgium.

    At the time, the company had an “unwritten rule” that employees should not wear any political, religious or philosophical symbols at work, the ECJ said.

    In 2006, Ms Achbita told G4S she wanted to wear the Islamic headscarf at work but was told this would not be allowed.

    Subsequently, the company introduced a formal ban. Ms Achbita was dismissed and she went to court claiming discrimination.

    The ECJ said European Union law does bar discrimination on religious grounds, but G4S’s actions were based on treating all employees the same, meaning no one person was singled out for application of the ban.

    “The rule thus treats all employees of the undertaking in the same way, notably by requiring them, generally and without any differentiation, to dress neutrally,” the ECJ said.

    “Accordingly, such an internal rule does not introduce a difference of treatment that is directly based on religion or belief,” it said.

    However in a related case in France, the ECJ ruled that a customer could not demand that a company employee not wear the Islamic headscarf when conducting business with them on its behalf.

    Design engineer Asma Bougnaoui was employed full-time by Micropole, a private company, in 2008, having been told that wearing the headscarf might cause problems with clients.

    Following a customer complaint, Micropole asked Ms Bougnaoui not to wear the headscarf on the grounds employees should be dressed neutrally.

    She was subsequently dismissed and went to court claiming discrimination.

    The ECJ said the case turned on whether there was an internal company rule in place applicable to all, as in the G4S instance, or whether the client’s demand meant Ms Bougnaoui was treated differently.

    The ECJ concluded that Ms Bougnaoui had indeed been treated differently and so the client’s demand that she not wear a headscarf “cannot be considered a genuine and determining occupational requirement”.

     

    Source: Today

  • Hijab: A Personal Choice

    Hijab: A Personal Choice

    Hijab might have been rarely seen on the streets 20 years ago, but it increasingly gained popularity, especially with the start of the Reform Era in 1998. Today, various types of Islamic headscarves have become common sights on the streets. The rising popularity of hijab has also influenced the development of the fashion industry, as seen in the rising number of hijab retailers and Muslim fashion designers.

    Women’s rights activist Neng Dara Affiah said she had worn hijab since she was young. She said it made her feel more confident.

    “In the town I grew up we wore hijab because it was tradition and also for our religion,” said the former commissioner with the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan).

    Devi Asmarani, editor of Magdalene magazine, gave her view on the trend of wearing hijab.

    “When I was growing up, not many women were wearing hijab. I remember at school one girl suddenly started wearing a hijab to school and we were shocked,” she said.

    She said the scene had been changing so much in the last 10 to 15 years.

    “I think Indonesian people aren’t the most critical people, because historically, the most successful parts of the Soeharto years taught us not to question things. A lot of people wear hijab and tell their children to wear it because other people are wearing it.”

    “There is a lot more peer pressure and we don’t like to be different, so we also wear hijab,” she said.

    While peer pressure to wear hijab does exist, it requires a lot of thought to pull it off. Vita Kartika Cahyarani started to wear hijab one year ago. The 20-year-old woman said she had never been extremely religious but the thought of wearing hijab kept coming to her mind until it was clear to herself that she genuinely wanted to wear hijab.

    She said the best way to describe her decision was by quoting writer RM Drake, “Some people try so hard to change but sometimes it doesn’t happen that way; we cannot force it. Sometimes it just happens overnight, like one day it all makes sense and just like that […] you change.”

    When she was finally ready to wear it, people in her surroundings were not. They began to question her decision.

    “People were shocked and asked me if it was a joke,” she said.

    “It was not easy to put on the hijab. I experienced a lot of prejudice. I don’t wear it because it is a trend. I want to be the only one who’s in control of even one single hair strand of mine.” Taking hijab off is not easy either. Arlita, 25, eventually took off her hijab after wearing it for 10 years. At first, she started to wear hijab because she wanted to hide herself; she was uncomfortable with the attention that she got and wanted to seem neutral.

    She found that wearing the hijab she never explored relationships and therefore never explored herself. “There was a saying that I heard many times ‘don’t be concerned by the men who will seduce you, but be concerned whether you seduced them,” she said.

    Arlita became very lost and decided to take off her hijab to learn about herself.

    Aulia Kushardini, 23, took her hijab off three years ago against the wishes of her family. She made the decision when she went to college and explored her identity. She started to think that wearing hijab was not a true representation of who she was.

    When she was in Europe, she experimented by taking off her hijab. She has not worn it since. This was not an easy change, especially for her family. She said her mother cried for days and people relentlessly questioned her decision.

    “People thought that I did it because I had broken up with my boyfriend and I was stressed out. There were backhanded compliments like ‘you looked prettier with the hijab on’ […] People assumed I had started to live a very liberal life and would ask me very personal sexual questions.”

    She said the biggest misunderstanding was that women who took off their hijab just wanted to look pretty.

    “It really bothers me because it has nothing to do with beauty. It took courage to do it and if it wasn’t coming from within you, you would not do it,” Aulia said.

    The decision to wear or take off hijab should be a personal one. Neng hopes women learn to accept each others’ differences.

    “I think that women in Indonesia have to be more tolerant of each other and accept others’ decisions,” she said.

    Source: TheJakartaPost

  • Turkey Lifts Ban on Hijab at High Schools

    Turkey Lifts Ban on Hijab at High Schools

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who co-founded the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), has long been accused by opponents of eroding the secular values of the modern Turkish state.

    Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, a close Erdogan ally, said that an amendment was made to the dress code regulations for female students to say they will not be forced to keep their heads uncovered.

    “I know that some female students were longing for (this amendment) to high school regulations,” Arinc told reporters after the cabinet meeting late on Monday.

    Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu welcomed the amendment as an effort for “democratization.”

    “This should not only be seen as the lifting of the ban on the wearing of headscarf,” Davutoglu told the private NTV television Monday.

    “There has been an effort for freedoms and democratization in every sphere.”

    Kamuran Karaca, head of the Egitim-Sen education union, said that the measures would provoke a “trauma” in Turkey.

    “Turkish society is heading back to the Middle Ages through the exploitation of religion,” he said.

    Last year, Turkey lifted a long-standing ban on women wearing the headscarf in state institutions as part of a package of reforms to bolster freedoms and democracy — which drew the ire of secularists who denounced the move as an attempt to Islamize the staunchly secular country.

    Women can already wear the Islamic headscarf — known as the hejab — in universities. The wives of most AKP ministers wear the hijab, as does Erdogan’s wife Emine.

    The founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, based the post-Ottoman republic on a strict separation between religion and state.

    Critics accuse Erdogan, who last month moved to the post of president after over a decade as prime minister, of seeking to undermine Ataturk’s legacy, charges he denies.

    Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/09/139845/turkey-lifts-ban-on-headscarves-at-high-schools/