The government needs to take a stronger stance in stopping dress codes being imposed on Muslim women, a British think-tank has said.
Titled “The Symbolic Power of the Veil,” the publication claims that public fear of Islamophobia can lead to Islamist groups stifling open debate about religious attire in the UK, even though women in many Islamic countries, including Iran, are protesting against the hijab’s imposition as an oppressive garment.
The report recommends government should provide clearer guidance to schools regarding dress codes and religious attire, and provide examples.
It also urges the government to “resist” any definition of Islamophobia that restricts criticism of religious practices, including the dress code.
In one of several recommendations but forward to ministers, the group says events promoting or endorsing specific religious attire should not be publicly endorsed by the government.
Oppression
The report also refers to the recently bankrupt Birmingham City Council which funded the charity Legacy WM, which is building a sculpture of a woman in a hijab in Sandwell.Authors also refer to the “contestable view” it said had been normalised by some Islamic groups that Muslim women should be entirely covered except for the face and hands.
The report said: “The United Kingdom, contrary to the claim made by some Islamist activists that it is an Islamophobic country, has no blanket bans targeting the burqa or hijab, unlike some European countries, but there are some situations in which Islamic headdress may be restricted due to health and safety or identification purposes.”
The report’s key findings and recommendations in the report are backed by Labour MP Khalid Mahmood who said: “A certain proportion of Muslim women may wish to wear a hijab or a niqab to publicly demonstrate their Muslim identity.
“But the wearing of the hijab clearly does not represent all Muslim women. And it is grossly insensitive to those Muslim women in Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere who are compelled against their wishes to wear the hijab to declare that it does.”
The report’s author, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia and senior fellow at Policy Exchange, Sir John Jenkins, said: “Recent events in Iran have revealed once again not just the symbolic power of Islamic veiling and other vestimentary codes but also the way they can be—and are—deployed to discipline individuals, groups and indeed entire societies in the interests of authoritarian and unaccountable political and religious elites.”
The report’s co-author, human rights advocate Professor Elham Manea, freedom of opinion and speech is “not some kind of extra, to be used as a cheerful slogan whenever we see fit.”
“It has a purpose: to speak truth to power, to challenge hegemonic authoritarian and religious orders, and to push for reforms and for the protection of individual basic rights.
She added, “How are we going to criticise the harmful aspects of social and religious practices and customs if the immediate reaction is accusations of Islamophobia?”
The report said events recent in Iran have shown “not only that the Islamic veil may be used as an instrument for the oppression of women, but also that its symbolism is part of an ideology that undermines both diverse Islamic viewpoints and Western liberal democracy.”
