The ban of burqa runs smoothly in Europe, unlike any possible similar restriction on hijab.
The debate over a burqa (niqab) ban in Europe is only overshadowed by the debate over accusations of sexual abuse targeting some priests from the Catholic Church in Europe and other parts of the world. These debates soon replaced the financial crisis that took over the media scene in Europe.
Some lawmakers in Germany look forward to following the example of Belgium which officially banned the burqa last week, and France whose President Nicolas Sarkozy is planning to impose a one-year prison penalty or a €15,000 fine on those who make others wear them, suing thus the motivators on the assumption that women who wear burqa do so only because they are obliged to, by men from their families.
What makes women put on the veil in Europe? The answer came out with these results:
Burqa is the Jihad of women (Bonn)
Calling herself Marwa (a German from Moroccan origin who lives in Germany since 2000), she refused to give her name and was reluctant to make an interview, repudiating openly speaking to the microphone. When faced with the possibility of punishment for wearing burqa in the future if legislations went on at the present pace, she said “this means a better stand in front of Allah, and it is part of women’s roll in Jihad.”
Asked whether she considered herself a Jihadi, she answered “Jihad is the duty of every Muslim everywhere,” emphasizing that wearing burqa was absolutely her own choice and she had it before marriage. She went her way pushing her Quinny modern style child’s pram without a word of goodbye.
Burqa is part of tradition not religion (Brussels)
Khadija A. a twenty one year old Algerian living in Brussels said on the telephone “burqa is a must in the village” where she was born and had lived unti she came to Belgium to marry her cousin Middah (35) who fled Algeria during the civil war in the nineties. She thinks that wearing burqa has nothing to do with religion.
Khadija expressed her concern over the last legislation that banned burqa in public places, saying that she has discussed this with her husband who told her they will move to another neighbourhood soon and she can replace the burqa with hijab as long as nobody knows them there.
Khadija told us through her laughter that wearing burqa or wearing hijab or not wearing them makes no difference to the Europeans who never look at women, but it makes all the difference in her country where men tend to flirt even with women wearing hijab.
Burqa is not part of Shia traditions (Malmo)
Zaineb lives in Malmo, south Sweden together with a big Iraqi community of immigrants. During a telephone interview, she said that she used to wear Hijab in Iraq before coming to Sweden in 1998 where she met some Syrian immigrants in Stockholm who convinced her to wear niqab (burqa).
In 2003 she met her husband (Ahmed); she laughs remembering how he made her drop the burqa telling her that it has nothing to do with Islam and it is not part of Shia traditions. Nevertheless, Zaineb went back to her old hijab before marrying Ahmed. She thinks Sweden will never ban burqa because immigrants are not part of the Swedish society as they do not belong to it. On the other level, Swedish community cannot contain or integrate the immigrants.
This means totally different communities living separate lives (reporting that her community is about 10,000 in Malmo alone, a number which could not be confirmed by any authentic statistic. This community, according to Zaineb, managed to maintain its religious traditions and practise its rituals away from any interference from the Swedish people or authorities).
–Agencies–