What Is Veiling?

5. Veiling in Western Europe Today

94 This law has made my life miserable. I’ve been spat at, honked at from cars and also beaten. I was assaulted while I was carrying my daughter in my arms. —Ms. Ahmas, Muslim woman wearing the niqab in France (2002) We’ve been very perturbed about the veil. To see those very young girls veiled. . . . Perhaps the veil once said something religious, but now it’s a sign of oppression. It isn’t God, it’s men who want it. —Anne Hidalgo, deputy mayor of the city of Paris (2004) C H A P T E R F I V E Veiling inWestern EuropeToday It is not easy being a veiled Muslim living in western Europe today. If you are a Muslim woman living in France, for example, and you wear any sort of veil, you have no chance of being employed in the public sphere or government sector. If you are a school girl in France and you decide to adopt hijab, you must basically forfeit your education. And if perchance you happen to be a Muslim who wears the burqa or the niqab, the face-covering veils, you are not allowed to circulate in public spaces and so must stay at home. The irony of the latter policy, of course, is that you do not need to wear any type of veil if you are inside your home with your close family. In 2004, a French law banned “all ostentatious religious signs” from French public schools. This means that since 2004 for Muslim girls the choice has been between removing their hijab and continuing school or holding onto the hijab and leaving school. This is a choice that many Muslim girls face as early as twelve or thirteen years of age. It is a decision that is agonizing to make. In 2010, France became the second European country, after Belgium, Veiling in Western Europe Today 95 to ban the burqa (the full-body and face covering that conceals the eyes behind a mesh) and the niqab (the full-body and face covering that leaves a narrow opening for the eyes) from all public spaces, including streets, shops, malls, parks, and sports arenas. Under the French law, women found wearing a burqa or a niqab are forced by police to uncover their faces, required to attend citizenship classes, and risk a $190 fine. Men who are charged with forcing a woman to wear a burqa or niqab are more heavily punished: one year in prison, as well as a fine up to $38,000. Both penalties are doubled if the victim is a minor. In addition, the law makes it possible to revoke the French citizenship of any person accused of wearing the face veil or forcing a woman to wear it. The precedent set by both Belgium and France to ban the burqa and niqab from public spaces has encouraged other European countries— including Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Italy, and most recently Switzerland—to consider whether they too ought to ban the Islamic face veil from government buildings, hospitals, and even public transportation . Just as there is no European consensus on how to deal with hijab, there is also no consensus within individual European countries on how to deal with the face veil. The divided views of British politicians on the topic offer an illuminating example. In 2006, the former British prime minister Tony Blair called the Muslim face veil a “mark of separation ” and explained that it “makes people from outside the community feel uncomfortable.”1 His views echoed those of Jack Straw, the former leader of the House of Commons, who refused to meet with women in niqab because their face veils, he said, prevented communication and set their wearers visibly apart. In contrast, the schools secretary Ed Balls issued a statement in 2010 stating that a law opposing the wearing of the niqab would be contrary to the British tradition of embracing cultural differences. Driving the debates among European policy makers on how and whether to legislate veiling is a general discomfort among the European population toward women who wear headscarves and face veils. In fact, the first study on Islamophobia published in France in 2012 revealed that 84.73 percent of all Islamophobic incidents in France are made against women who veil. Moreover, a Pew Global Project Attitudes poll, released in July 2010, showed that majorities in Germany (71%), 96...