In the midst of all the hullabaloo about the niqab we are witnessing the formation of an unlikely alliance. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Egyptian Sheikh al-Azhar Muhammad Tantawi both stirred controversy after expressing anti-niqab sentiments, and many of the reactions have been quite predictable. But certain opinions – the opinions of two groups in particular – strike me as somewhat self-contradictory: the Muslims who are for the niqab-ban because they see the niqab as an imposition on Islam, and the liberals who are for the ban because they see the niqab as oppressive to women. Responding to the former group requires delving into issues of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) which may be appropriate for another post. But in this post I will address the latter group: the self-proclaimed feminist freedom-of-choice-gender-equality-empowerment-of-women-espousing liberals. This opinion is one that I just don’t understand. Personally, I have more respect for a secularist ideologue that hates all religious symbols than I do for a liberal who cries freedom of choice and calls for banning the niqab in the same breath. At least the secularists are consistent. But this particular group has taken on the cause of liberating women from the shackles of backwardness – these shackles being according to their own personal definition, and the women themselves get no say in the matter. Mona el-Tahawy, Egyptian journalist, writes for the New York Times saying: “Soad Saleh, a professor of Islamic law and former dean of the women’s faculty of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar University — hardly a liberal, said the burqa [niqab] had nothing to do with Islam. It was but an old Bedouin tradition. It is sad to see a strange ambivalence toward the burqa [niqab] from many of my fellow Muslims and others who claim to support us. They will take on everything — the right wing, Islamophobia, Mr. Straw, Mr. Sarkozy — rather than come out and plainly state that the burqa [niqab] is an affront to Muslim women.†However, this group of anti-niqab advocates misses one crucial point: whether or not the niqab is mandated by Islam has nothing to do with Sarkozy’s (or anybody else’s) right to ban it. People’s reasons for dressing a certain way are personal, private, and completely irrelevant to the debate, which is a debate about RIGHTS. The point here is: Citizens have the right to wear whatever they want in public. Governments simply should not have the right to interfere in how people dress. Whether or not we agree with, or even understand, their reasons for wearing what they do should be of no significance in any free country. Those women who freely choose to wear the niqab are dismissed as extremists, people who surrendered rather than fought for their rights and thus are unworthy of our support for their rights to dress as they choose, or brainwashed oppressed souls who need to be saved by those who have been enlightened. Egyptian journalist Manar Ammar writes for news website BikyaMasr: “Many people believe that wearing the niqab is forced on women, but they miss out on a very important piece of information: some women wear it because they want to. If people don’t believe me, let us have a public debate where women can list the true reasons behind their clothing choices and then we can talk.” Sarkozy’s comments render the supposedly democratic French government no different than the Saudi Arabian or Iranian governments in proclaiming that the government has the right to interfere in what people wear. Similarly, many of these self-proclaimed feminist liberals are strong advocates for democracy in Egypt, and yet they support government interference in the way people dress. Many within this group of anti-niqab advocates are using the well-worn argument “if a woman wears skimpy clothing in Saudi Arabia or Iran they get punished for itâ€. It seems like they believe that if Iran and Saudi Arabia do it, they should do it too! How can we in good conscience argue so vehemently against Saudi Arabia’s and Iran’s strict dress codes and then call for a ban of the niqab just because we don’t like it? This type of blatant double-standard panders to racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and extremism. Feminism has nothing to do with it. **portions of this article were published in CSN. BM The beliefs and statements of all Bikya Masr blogumnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect our editorial views.
