Hijab and the Boston Bombers

April 24, 2013 By

This post was written by guest contributor Nicole J. Hunter Mostafa (@nicolejhm).

Ladies, let’s be honest: hijab is a tired topic for us Muslimahs. We still debate, discuss, and attempt to define it, but pretty much everything has been said at some point or another. But for some, it apparently never gets old. And now, with the narrative of radicalization of the suspected Boston bombers unfolding in the media, inevitably a focus has been placed on the women in their lives. Spoiler alert—they’re hijabis.

The world is scrambling for details about the story of the Tsarnaev brothers. Sensationalism sells, and any detail about the lives of these brothers is media gold. Anyone who had any connection to the family, however tenuous, now has a platform with worldwide reach. Salon recently published a piece entitled “The Tsarnaevs and Me,” written by a “writer and yoga teacher” from the Boston area who used to get facials from the Tsarnaevs’ mother. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail has a lengthy piece devoted to the widow of the elder Tsarnaev brother, which frames her conversion to Islam as a story of “good girl gone bad” with the oh-so-subtle tagline of, “How [a] doctor’s daughter became the Muslim convert widow of [the] Boston bomber.”

She had the world at her feet! She was a doctor’s daughter! According to the Daily Mail, “hers is a background steeped in the values of family and education”!

And she threw it all away to become a Muslim.

Ahem. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

A Clash of Principles: Examining the Niqab in Canadian Courts

April 9, 2013 By

This post was written by guest contributor Maria Salman.

In 1992, a young woman gathers the courage to pen a deeply personal journal entry for a teacher. She finally breaks the silence over an earth-shattering secret that she is the survivor of childhood sexual abuse committed against her by two male family members. Fast forward ten years, the police lays charges, and the trial begins, but when the young woman is called upon to testify, she is startled to find an unexpected barrier before her quest for justice – her niqab. In order for her to successfully take the stand, she is told that she must remove her niqab so it will not interfere with the accused’s right to a fair trial. She vehemently refuses. By doing so, the young woman, identified as N.S., unleashes a chain of events that leads to the highest court in Canada grappling with this unprecedented question: How should the state respond to a witness whose sincerely held religious belief requires her to wear a niqab that covers her face, except her eyes, while testifying in a criminal proceeding?

After taking an uncharacteristically long time, the seven judges in the Supreme of Court of Canada released their decision last December. MMW has followed N.S.’ journey through the courts (here, here and here) but what we haven’t analyzed is the final Supreme Court decision and the surrounding media coverage.

So let’s take a look at it.

First, the decision: In a rare split judgement with three different perspectives, the majority of the judges outlined a framework that allows judges to determine whether a witness should wear the niqab on a case-by-case basis. If the fair trial rights of the accused are seriously harmed, the niqab will not be allowed. There were not one but two different dissents, both in direct opposition to each other. One dissent, supported by two male judges, found that the niqab should not be allowed in the courtroom at all. The other dissent, written by a lone female judge, argued that the niqab should be allowed in all circumstances in a courtroom. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Rise of the Niqabi Criminal: Balaclavas, Burkas and Bank Robberies

March 4, 2013 By

On December 30 of last year, someone wearing a niqab threw acid in the face of 20 year old Victoria’s Secret shop assistant, Naomi Oni as she returned home after a late shift work one night. As Naomi Oni approached the flat she shared with her mother in Dagenham, East London, she caught a glimpse of the attacker before the acid was thrown at her.  Naomi Oni was almost blinded in the terrible, apparently random attack, although the Daily Mail guesses that this attack may have been motivated by Oni’s work at Victoria’s Secret – despite the considerable lack of information on the person who committed the crime, beyond the fact that they were dressed in a niqab when they did so.

Unsurprisingly, several of the best rated comments left at the Daily Mail report on the attack have focused on how necessary it is for niqabs to be banned, asking “Why are ALL face coverings not BANNED?” and “NOW can we ban the revolting face covering? All over the world women in the full black have been used as suicide bombers. It is a safety issue.”

Calling to ban the niqab, along with other face coverings, for the sake of safety is not new, although it’s questionable whether safety is ever really the main goal. Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum (who, as it happens, was also listed among FAIR’s “Dirty Dozen” Islamophobes in a 2008 report), has compiled an extensive list of a wide range of crimes and other illegal activities from a wide range of countries committed by people wearing niqab.  The list ranges from Kenyan sex workers in Mombasa who wear the niqab in order to hide their identities and avoid detection and arrest by the police in a country where prostitution is illegal, to a French businessman who wore the hijab to flee Dubai in order to escape charges of embezzling millions of dollars (a claim he denies). The list claims to show just how much of a security threat niqabs (and burqas too) are on a global scale.

Daniel Pipes has also named Philadelphia, a city in Pennsylvania, USA as “the capital of the Western world as regards female Islamic garb as an accessory to crime”. In Philadelphia, niqabs have apparently provided cover for bank robberies, murders, and a kidnapping and each of these cases lead to calls to ban the “burqa and niqab”. In response, Muslim organisations vocally condemned the use of niqab by criminals, while worrying that innocent Muslim women wearing niqab would be further ostracised.Considering the relative ease with which one can purchase a niqab, these “niqabi criminals” could easily have worn it for anonymity. That is, the perpetrators of these crimes may or may not have been Muslim, and if they had chosen to wear a mask or balaclava rather than a niqab, their religion might be deemed irrelevant.  Does that then mean that masks and balaclavas should be banned? There have certainly been various bans of the balaclava, as well as protests involving the wearing of balaclavas to protest burqas such as Wear A Balaclava Day in Australia, organised following an incident a woman allegedly using her niqab to avoid a jail sentence she faced for making a deliberate false statement to the police. Ski masks and balaclavas were also worn in the responding protest “Ban ‘Ban the Burqa’ Day”, to stand in solidarity with niqab wearing Australian citizens.

Of course it is true that there is a difference between balaclavas and niqabs: one is an article of religion clothing, the other is not. In places like Philadelphia or London where women walk around in various forms of head covering, wearing the niqab as disguise would protect the identity of would-be criminals while not drawing too much suspicion, whereas walking around in a balaclava, mask or motorcycle helmet might raise a few eyebrows – although this may be changing rapidly, with the rise of the niqabi criminal and the media coverage of this phenomenon.

I believe the difference when it comes to the niqab as opposed to ski masks or balaclavas, is the intensity of the misplaced reaction in much of the Western media, where the source of danger seems to be the niqab itself – an article of clothing – rather than the person wearing it, which is not so much the case when reporting an attack by a masked criminal.

Someone who could walk about carrying some acid that they wanted to throw on another person’s face and wanted to protect their identity could just have easily worn any type of mask – and just like banning the balaclava, banning the niqab would not necessarily spell the end to such crimes.

Further developments have come to light in Naomi Oni’s case after this post was written: two people have been arrested and then released on bail on suspicion of attacking Naomi Oni, and the police have also seized Oni’s computer in order to investigate suspicions that she may have poured the acid on herself, because apparently Oni searched the internet for websites relating to acid attacks, especially relating to the former model Katie Piper, shorting before being attacked herself. Detectives have reportedly been unable to find evidence of the attack on nearby CCTV cameras.  Naomi Oni vehemently denies these claims, and the investigation continues.

Filed Under: Culture/Society, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Malala and the Media: Not Black and White

February 27, 2013 By

This post was written by guest contributor Ossob.

Looking back at recent media attention on Muslim women, the story of Malala Yousafzai stands out because it simultaneously inspired and frustrated me. A young Muslim woman had captured the attention of the global media for, it would appear, all the right reasons. Malala Yousafzai, the bright 14-year-old activist brutally attacked by the Taliban, has not fit neatly into the dominant narrative of Muslim women as oppressed, feeble, and silent. Her triumphs and trials have inspired the world and elevated her to near sainthood.  But the ensuing media frenzy has buried the complexities and nuances of her story under mounds of simplification and speculation. Major Western news networks have taken the lead in conveniently glossing over contextual realities. In response, many have rejected the feel-good story to expose the hypocrisy of Western selective outrage and to bring a more critical perspective to the coverage.

Elements of the Western media took a particular liking to Malala’s story, which could be attributed to their weakness for headliners involving brown women of the global south overcoming adversity. Malala’s story was probably even more appealing because the adversity was none other than the Taliban, the west’s sworn enemy and the epitome of Islamic barbarity.  It was the perfect recipe for a story to go viral and soon enough, campaigns and funds, were dedicated to Malala’s heroism. Celebrities and renowned political figures were also paying homage. Former prime minister of the UK Gordon Brown has written several articles on her. His articles rarely (if at all) take into consideration the effects of the war on terror in which his country is still actively engaged. Madonna gave a shout out to Malala during a concert and then dedicated a striptease to her, which was alleged to be a “naked publicity stunt,” aside from also being glaringly inappropriate and narcissistic.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Politics Tagged With: , ,

The Media and the Headscarf: Kosovo Public Schools Edition (not the final episode)

February 21, 2013 By

This post was written by guest contributor Asifa Akbar.

In the last couple of weeks, reports have surfaced about Kosovo’s supposed ban on the wearing of the headscarf (hijab) by Muslim girls in its public schools. Such reports were reposted on social media and influential blogs; for example, already over 900 people have recommended an online Al Jazeera report entitled “Kosovo orders ban on headscarves in schools.”

The latest reports centre on the case of student Njomza Jashari, who was recently told she is not allowed to come to school wearing her headscarf. She may continue her studies by correspondence, but according to the above report, her school principal has allowed a compromise with respect to her writing exams while wearing the headscarf.

So what’s wrong with these reports? Well, for one, they generalize the most recent particular case in one school where authorities made a decision to uphold an administrative ban against wearing the headscarf in public schools in the particular Kosovo municipality of Ferizaj. The reality is that there is as yet no clear universal national legislation banning the wearing of the headscarf in public schools across all of Kosovo. So these reports are inaccurate. Administrative bans, such as the one adopted in Ferizaj and some other municipalities, are by no means universally or uniformly applied across the nation. The Ministry of Education has issued a set of guidelines to municipal education authorities with respect to school dress codes and uniforms, but there has been no explicit statement that headscarves are to be banned completely and to date, municipalities have taken varying approaches to the matter. [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Responding to Hijab “Costume”

February 14, 2013 By

Last week, several major news outlets in Minnesota reported St. Paul police officers dressed as Somali women wearing hijab (I’ve included links here from Minnesota Public Radio; the stories also received coverage in local newspapers The Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press). Pictures of the police officers were found on Twitter and initiated a strong response by local activists.

The first image reported by outlets showed an off-duty St. Paul officer wearing a hijab with a cell phone tucked under his ear. His red clothing and nametag identify him as a Target store employee (where he works when he’s off duty). A second image shows another officer wearing an orange hijab while in blackface; it was anonymously shared a mere few days later. The images were brought to attention by local activists on Twitter, and prompted a response from the St. Paul Police Department.

A group of local activists responded to the problematic images by deconstructing the racist implications of the so-called “costume.” The images were brought to attention almost entirely on Twitter, alongside a #culturenotcostume hashtag. Comments associated with the original image of the man have since been deleted. I didn’t find any additional insight to explain why the photographs were taken, or why the officers chose the costume they did, beyond that the men chose to dress in hijab as a Halloween costume.

The local activists’ tumblr post identifies why the actions are problematic, and identifies tangible next steps for the involved individuals and organizations to take to ensure such situations don’t happen again. Their explanation of why cultural clothing should never be used as costume was clearly articulated, as it reminds readers of the appropriation it constitutes:

“Wearing culturally specific and revered expressions of identity as a costume is an offensive act and an expression of white privilege. These “costumes” perpetuate racial and cultural stereotypes, reduce entire communities to a set of props and qualities, and result in cultural appropriation and misrepresentation. To suggest that such behavior “may be perceived as offensive” makes any reaction to these racist caricatures a question of sensitivity or feelings. We need to recognize that being upset about such costumes is not a reflection of a person’s hypersensitivity or lack of humor. Rather, it points to the very real power, consequences, and trauma that come with stereotypes and racism.”

The group goes on to ask the institutions involved—namely St. Paul Police and Target—reconsider their institutional attitudes towards Somalis and to strengthen ties with the community. The group reminds readers that the actions of the officers affects many other groups in addition to Somalis and could have further implications: “acts of racism also raise red flags with other communities of color and will undoubtedly fuel mistrust between law enforcement agencies and communities.”

What struck me, looking back at how the two examples were brought to attention on Twitter, was the strength and swiftness of the response both by local reporters and activists as the images were brought to light. The images were first discussed publicly on Twitter, and elicited responses from the police department directly—both on Twitter and in real life as the police chief and one of the men offered their apologies. It was fascinating to see how local, online engagement of bringing the images to attention on Twitter spilled over to its discussion in the news.

The interplay between the news stories,Twitter conversations, and response from activists raises several questions for me: Would this important dialogue been able to have taken place offline and outside the Twittersphere? How would a community response have differed (or even take place?) Without such a strong initial response entirely online, would it have received the amount of coverage it did by local media outlets?

And looking beyond how the stories were reported and the responses it elicited: Why exactly did the men choose to dress as Somali women? What was their intention behind choosing to wear a hijab? We know nothing about the commentary associated with the original images to glean if their intention was to mock Somali women, or if they had some other positive sort of intention. While the activist response was to take offense, with clearly articulated reasons for why it was offensive that elicited condolences from those responsible, would everyone consider the images or actions offensive?

The recent World Hijab Day, which asks non-Muslim women to wear hijab for a day to experience what it means to wear it (or maybe what it means to be Muslim–I haven’t quite been able to determine what purpose it serves) also came to my mind. What is it about a White man dressed in hijab that is so clearly offensive compared to non-Muslim women wearing hijab for a day? Yes, the intentions of those participating might be taken into account. But at the end of the day, will either the men or women wearing hijab really know what it’s like to be a Muslim woman?  Will they understand the cultural context fundamental to one’s identity or the myriad of spiritual beliefs and understanding that accompanies someone throughout their personal religious journey?

Filed Under: Culture/Society, News Tagged With: ,
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