In some French cities, for example, failure to cover your face and protect against COVID-19 can land you a €135 fine.

Yet, officially at least, you could also be fined as much as €150 for covering your face in public places if the covering is a full-face veil.

In 2011, France became the first European country to ban the full-face veil in public. Other European countries have followed by introducing total or partial bans of the burqa, including Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Latvia and Norway.

Now, with many Europeans told they must wear face masks to combat the spread of COVID-19, some are highlighting the apparent contradiction.

"What's the difference when you cover your face for religious reasons or when you cover your face for health reasons?" said Moana Genevey, gender policy officer at Equinet. "And when is it acceptable?"

The new ‘living together'

In 2014, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) dismissed France's arguments to ban the wearing of the full-face veil in public on the grounds of public security and protection of gender equality.

However, it upheld the ban by accepting it constitutes an infringement of the French principle of "living together" ('le vivre ensemble').

Three years later, two Belgian women also took their case to the ECHR, arguing the so-called burqa ban was breaching human-rights law. Samia Belcacemi had stopped wearing the veil in public, fearing jail or a fine, while Yamina Oussar chose to stay at home.

Likewise, the ECHR ruled that Belgium did not violate any right to freedom of religion or discrimination law as it had the right to impose restrictions to ensure the principle of "living together".

In the French case, the violation of the concept of "le vivre ensemble" was defined as "a denial of fraternity, constituting the negation of contact with others".

However, the pre-COVID "living together" has little to do with the current coexistence in European countries based on safety distance.

"The discourse has completely changed and people are asked to cover their faces to be able to live together in a democratic society," said Dr Jone Elizondo Urrestarazu, legal and policy officer at Equinet. "Living together doesn't mean what it used to, so maybe it's time to rethink the volatility of this argument."

Genevey said COVID has raised the issue: "Some women were asking whether or not the ban would apply to them in the context of the pandemic. Now the question is: will we go back to normal afterwards?"

COVID-19 and public safety

Belgium is one of the European countries where covering one's face with a piece of cloth is banned, but wearing a face mask is now mandatory.

The so-called "burqa ban" was first implemented in Belgium in 2011, forbidding any face-covering clothing in public that could conceal someone's identity.

One of the main justifications was that "people in public spaces should be ‘recognisable' and ‘identifiable' on the grounds of public security". Exceptions are allowed for labour regulations or festivities, but not for health reasons.

But because of the health emergency, this public safety principle seems to have been put to one side.

"In the short term, we might experience an increase in common criminality, as they go unrecognised wearing face masks," said Professor Kenneth Lasoen, an intelligence and security expert.

"To offset the situation, municipalities are investing in CCTV cameras to monitor those wearing a face mask in the streets."

But, in the longer term, there are concerns the coronavirus pandemic has weakened the argument against banning full-face veils.

"We are very likely to face a constitutional challenge, as the current situation sets a precedent for people who want to wear any kind of face-covering in public," added Prof Lasoen. Continue reading

The Dutch parliament approved the ban by a majority of 132 out of the 150-seat house. Read more

Yuet Rappard, a farm worker, appeared in front of Justices of the Peace in the Dunedin District Court yesterday and was found guilty of offensive behaviour for telling a student to remove her burqa while she was shopping on May 17. Continue reading

A ban on Muslim face veils, such as the Arabic-style niqabs that leave the eyes uncovered and Afghan-style burqas that cover the face with a cloth grid, is less likely to go ahead after the government collapsed at the weekend.

The minority Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition's alliance with Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV) fell apart when they could not reach agreement on crucial budget cuts. An election has been called for September 12. Continue reading

One of the women pledged immediately to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn the ban, which President Nicolas Sarkozy says protects women and guarantees equality but opponents argue violates human rights and panders to xenophobia.

The Strasbourg-based European court can consider whether to overturn the French law now that a French court has enforced it. A ruling in Strasbourg could have an impact in other EU countries which are considering similar laws.

"(This) violates European laws. For us the question isn't the amount of the fine but the principle. We can't accept that women are sentenced because they are freely expressing their religious beliefs," Hind Ahmas told reporters outside the court, where she was fined 120 euros (104 pounds).

"We are going to launch the necessary appeals to bring this before the European Court and obtain the cancellation of this law, which is in any case an illegal law," she said.

A second woman, Najate Naitali, was fined 80 euros in absentia by the court in the town of Meaux, northeast of Paris.

In the five months since the ban came into force, several women were asked by police officers to remove veils and one paid a fine issued on the spot, but no court had enforced the law.

The law has been denounced by Muslims abroad as impinging on religious freedom, but has met only a limited backlash in France, a strictly secular country where fewer than 2,000 women out of a 5 million-strong Muslim community hide their faces.

"I still wear the niqab every day and my life has become hell. I am insulted every day," Ahmas said.

Full Article: Reuters Africa

Image: The Telegraph

These are the main outcomes from a survey of Australia's Muslim leaders and revealed by the Sun Herald newspaper.

Imam Yusuf Parker, from the Alhidayah Centre in Perth, said Islam forbade the charging or paying of interest "so finding interest-free loans will again help Muslims to practise their Islam better."

"Other than the two major issues mentioned, I don't see other sharia law that Muslims would seek to have legally recognised," he said.

Fellow West Australian imam Sheik Burhaan Mehtar said sharia law often was raised to scare non-Muslims, but a dialogue would lead to better understanding.

"Islamic banking and the non-slavery of humans is a classic example. Interest is slavery," he said.

The survey also revealed

• imams are sceptical that Osama bin Laden's death will benefit ordinary Muslims
• most Muslims are unhappy with the way the US disposed of bin Laden's body
• Muslims are condemnatory of MPs who criticise Muslim women for wearing the burqa / nijab and see these politicians as just playing political games
• concern that ordinary Muslims are still being linked to terrorism
• disgust that innocent people in Muslim countries are being killed in the "war on terror"

Victorian imam Sheik Ramy Najmeddine added that Muslims believe the link between ordinary Muslims and terrorism is being broken down by the good work that members of both the Muslim and non-Muslim community are doing.

Sources

• Australian Imams on Osama, tolerance and Sharia law
• News.com.au
• Images: Guardian

Dr Sameer Aljabri, the husband of one of the women, who works at the Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission in Auckland, said he would lodge an official complaint with the Human Rights Commission on behalf of his wife. The incident had affected his opinion of New Zealand, where he had lived for about seven months. "It feels like this country is at the end of the world and knows nothing about the rest of the world," he said.

A Human Rights Commission spokesman said the incidents appeared to amount to discrimination on religious grounds.

• Pope Benedict, in the course of an interview with German journalist Peter Seewald said "As far as the burqa is concerned, I do not see a reason for a general ban. Some women do not wear the burqa entirely voluntarily and it is correct to talk of a violation against that woman. Of course one can not agree with that. But if they want to wear it voluntarily, I don't know why one must ban them."
• Last year the French Catholic Church said that Islamic countries would not respect their Christian minorities if Nicolas Sarkozy's government banned full-face Muslim veils. Bishop Michel Santier, the senior French official for inter-faith relations, said very few women in France wore full veils and that Muslim leaders agreed it was not obligatory.
• New Zealand Christian Network National Director Glyn Carpenter defended the freedom of Muslim women to wear the full-veil burqa, when he appeared on TV1's Close Up programme on Tuesday, 5 July.
• New Zealand may not be perfect but Saudi Arabia's record on civil, political and religious rights is woeful. Though the latest reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch note some marginal improvements, such as more scope for women to work and study, Saudi Arabia remains one of the world's most repressive, autocratic and intolerant states, says the editorial in the DomionPost

Source

• TV3 News
• Image: TVNZ