Why the burka is part of Britain Modern moderate Muslims feel banning such religious clothing would prove counter-productive. Cassandra Jardine reports.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/5627346/Why-the-burka-is-part-of-Britain.htmlImagine this scene at the next State Opening of Parliament. The Queen is standing in front of the assembled Lords and Commons, reading from the speech prepared for her by the Prime Minister. "My Government," she says in that familiar high-pitched but colourless voice, "will ban the burka. It is not welcome in Britain. In our country we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen."
The sound of jaws dropping would be audible at the Channel ports. And yet, only two hours' train journey away, it is possible for President Sarkozy to make such an announcement (for Britain, of course, read France). And these weren't off-the-cuff comments. He picked the first time both the National Assembly and Senate have met in one place for nearly 150 years – at the Palace of Versailles, no less – to launch his attack on this form of Muslim dress.
If the Queen were to follow suit, it would arouse fury among many of those who feel they should be allowed to practise their religion in whatever way they choose. But it would also raise cheers, not least from some members of the Muslim community. "The French president should be applauded for initiating this debate," Dr Taj Hargey of the Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford told me yesterday. Dr Hargey describes the growing belief that Muslim women should cover their head, face and hands as "doctrinaire brain-washing". Dr Usama Hasan, a reformist London Imam, also has "some sympathy" with Sarkozy: he too does not think it is necessary for women to wear the burka.
These sentiments will reassure those, including the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, who feel uncomfortable in the presence of women dressed from top to toe in black, with only their eyes visible. Douglas Murray, director of the think tank The Centre for Social Cohesion, is one of them. "People shouldn't have the right to hide themselves away in society," he says. "Cutting yourself off from society is threatening when we have known terrorists to try to escape wearing a burka. Men who said they had to wear balaclavas would be very unlikely to be allowed into banks or to travel on most public transport. Ask yourself this: can you imagine asking the time or for directions from a woman in a burka?"
To Murray, Sarkozy is showing "moral leadership", unlike the "spineless" British politicians who would never dare to reflect the majority view. To do so would risk accusations of committing an offence against religious belief. As he, as well as many Muslims, have pointed out, the Koran says nothing about how women should dress, apart from calling for modesty. The call to cover up comes from the hadith – interpretations of the Koran written many years after the death of the Prophet, and largely dictated by prevailing Middle Eastern custom.
"The Koran," says Dr Hasan," says that Muslims should respect local customs." In Britain or France that doesn't have to mean wearing bikinis. A Muslim waitress was last week awarded £3,000 for being asked to wear a revealing dress. Those who do cover their faces should be subject to regulation. "A naturist is free to walk around naked at home, but not down Oxford Street," says Murray. "The same should go for the veil."
Of course, an exception might be made for Saudi visitors shopping in Harrods, but not for people living and working in this country. But that is not the way the law has been moving over the past 20 years. Equality and human rights have been the buzzwords. School and police uniforms now feature matching headscarves (khimar) for those who wish to wear them. In a series of landmark judgments, the right of individuals to follow their own principles of modesty have been gradually established. In Shabina Begum, a 15-year-old schoolgirl won the right to wear the jilbab, (a long, loose-fitting garment) leaving only her hands and face exposed. The following year a judge pronounced that a lawyer could cover her face in court, so long as she was audible. In 2007, a teacher lost her appeal against dismissal for covering her face in the classroom; when interviewed for the job, she had not done so.
Meanwhile, on the other side of La Manche, the law has been moving in a different direction. The French constitution is based on the separation of Church and State, allowing for the banning of the headscarf in schools and universities in 2004. Now President Sarkozy, under pressure from both the Left and the Right, wants to go further. "In France," says writer Bonnie Greer, a member of the Franco/British Council, "the revolutionary tradition is all about being a citizen. In Britain and America we believe in individual expression in a very profound way."
Individual expression ceases to have much meaning if women are being forced into wearing cover-up tents by male relatives or mullahs, but many Muslim women deny this is the case. "I wear the scarf and the abbaya (long coat)," says Rahana Ali, a 23-year-old LSE graduate. "In the last two or three years several graduate friends of mine have chosen to wear the full burka, even though their mothers don't. If they need an ID card for work they will be photographed, but they don't want to display themselves all the time."
And if Douglas Murray were to ask one of them the time: "I can understand why some people find it off-putting, but if a man were to ask them for the time or directions in the street it would not be a problem. People should not judge by appearances."
Other British Muslims are equally outraged by the idea of a government telling them what to do. "I thought it was only the Left who used to ban things," says a journalist, Urmee Khan. Many of them wonder whether Sarkozy has spoken to any of France's four million Muslims. Bonnie Greer doubts it: "Many of my friends who wear the veil are independent, even feminist."
And they are mystified as to why Sarkozy is attacking the burka when it is worn by a tiny proportion of Muslim women – well under five per cent. "The only logical reason why he made those remarks is that he had just been to Afghanistan where women are oppressed," says Ahmed Versi, editor of the Muslim News, published in Britain. Others claim it is a tactic to secure the feminist vote in France.
Versi fears any attempt to ban clothing will backfire. "Three years ago, when Jack Straw wrote about not feeling comfortable with someone whose face he couldn't see, many more women started doing so in defiance. At our next awards ceremony an artist came to collect an award. Normally she wears a scarf and abbaya but she came onto the stage wearing a nikkab – a veil over her face. 'Can you hear me?' she called out. 'It makes no difference to my art if I am covered.' "
Versi believes the way forward is through tolerance and understanding, not legislation – and is glad he lives in Britain for that reason. "Britain is the best country in Europe for Muslims. We complain, but we are freer here, and we have more dialogue with government. In France, Muslim organisations are not representative; here they are independent. In France, Muslims live in ghettos and have double the unemployment rate of the rest of the population. Many French women come to university in the UK because they want to study and wear the headscarf which in France they cannot."
Versi goes on to detail the remarkable level of integration he finds in this country, and the growing understanding among Muslims that they should not test people's patience by applying for jobs that they cannot do – a police chef required to cook bacon is going through the courts. "In fact," he concludes, "the UK is heaven compared to France."
If it takes a foreign politician to prompt a Muslim to articulate that view, there is something to be said for an attack on the burka. At least it gets Muslims and non-Muslims talking, not just among themselves, but maybe even to one another.
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