The new CBC weeknight show Connect with Mark Kelley<\/em><\/a> recently aired a segment on niqab as part of its \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d<\/a> series, in which members of the public are given the chance to ask questions about the experiences and perspectives of a designated person.\u00a0 Previous \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d conversations have included a nurse who had swine flu<\/a> and a Canadian soldier<\/a> who recently returned from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n Last Thursday\u2019s segment<\/a> featured Rabia Khan, a university student and part-time teacher, and the theme of the show was her decision to wear niqab<\/em> (covering her face), which she has worn for the past three years.\u00a0 Khan was seated at a table in the middle of a busy shopping mall, across from an empty chair, where people could sit and ask her whatever they wanted about the niqab.\u00a0 The five-minute clip, showing snippets from a few of the conversations that she had, is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n My first reaction was to feel really nervous for Khan.\u00a0 Although she appears clearly comfortable and enthusiastic with the project, I was worried about what she was being set up for.\u00a0 What kinds of things were people going to say to her, given that they had free reign to ask her \u201canything\u201d?\u00a0 The edited segment that was aired doesn\u2019t show any overt hostility, although it\u2019s hard to know what kinds of things may have been asked and then edited out.\u00a0 It\u2019s certainly far from a safe space, and I\u2019m not sure exactly how fair it is to put someone (who\u2019s already in a minority position) in such a vulnerable context. However, Khan at least seemed aware of what she was getting herself into.<\/p>\n As it was, Khan and the questioners shown in the clip all show a genuine willingness to have a conversation in a friendly way, even despite disagreements. Khan is friendly and personable, and the questioners also seem friendly.\u00a0 Considering the way that the media can sometimes build up the niqab as fundamentally antithetical to any other Canadian experience, it was refreshing to see people move beyond these polarizations and actually having a genuine discussion.<\/p>\n Khan spoke to a number of fellow Canadians: she explains to an older couple that she covers for her own protection, and for the protection of others.\u00a0 She explains that she loves wearing it.\u00a0 She also tells them that when she started university four years ago, she found herself with \u201ctoo much independence for [her] own good,\u201d and \u201cwanted to keep [her]self intact with God, and to commit to [her] religion.\u201d\u00a0 It would have been interesting to see further questions about to what degree the niqab affords her the protection she wants, or about other possibilities for maintaining a relationship with God in the face of newfound independence; however, it was also a very short clip, and the issue in question was Khan\u2019s own experience, in which she clearly feels that the niqab has had a positive impact.<\/p>\n Later, another woman asks Khan if she is married (she is), and if her husband is Muslim.\u00a0 Khan responds that \u201cMuslim women only marry Muslim men,\u201d a response that bothered me, because it sounds like a descriptive statement \u2013 does that mean that the Muslim women who marry non-Muslim men are no longer Muslim?\u00a0 She later clarifies that \u201cin Islam you\u2019re not allowed to marry outside [the religion],\u201d which is definitely the mainstream position on the issue (and not a debate we\u2019ll have here), and I\u2019m guessing that\u2019s what she meant in her original statement, but her initial response sounded uncomfortably exclusive.\u00a0 Interestingly, the woman asking her the question called her on it, by referring to a Muslim woman she knew who had married a Jewish man, showing that not all Muslim women marry Muslim men (again, whether or not they should<\/em> is a different discussion.)<\/p>\n The same woman told Khan that she was born in Toronto to parents who came to Canada in the 1920s because of their family\u2019s persecution in Europe.\u00a0 The woman spoke about how happy she was to be living in Canada, where there is \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201cdemocracy\u201d (her tone was especially emphatic on those two words).\u00a0 She related her experience of growing up, where her family had to change their names to fit into Canadian society, and that now \u201cit\u2019s nice to see that you (Khan) can dress the way you want, and carry out your religious beliefs the way you want.\u201d\u00a0 I found this to be one of the most interesting parts of the whole clip; instead of the usual \u201cyou\u2019re in a free country, so take off that veil\u201d tropes we hear so often, the woman asking the questions was glad that Canadian society created a climate where Khan could wear what she wanted, even if the vast majority of Canadians don\u2019t wear the same thing.<\/p>\n But the end of that particular conversation changed the tone entirely.\u00a0 As the woman was leaving, she told Khan, \u201cOnce again, you\u2019re very lucky (to live in a country where she can dress as she wants).\u00a0 Don\u2019t abuse it!\u201d\u00a0 Although she spoke the words cheerfully, almost jokingly, it almost felt that there was some kind of underlying threat, and a clear sign that she did not fully trust Khan.\u00a0 Niqabs will be tolerated, but only ever with suspicion (and with the power to revoke such tolerance at any time.)\u00a0 Nothing that Khan said at any point in the clip suggested in any way that she would be \u201cabusing\u201d her right to dress and practice her religion as she pleases, and I find it hard to believe that any of what was cut out of the interview would change this fact.\u00a0 The woman\u2019s celebration of Canadian society as open to diverse manifestations of religious expression still leaves space for \u201cbad\u201d religious expressions to be questioned and held as suspect, and therefore never seen as fully part of the imagined national identity.<\/p>\n In some ways, the entire show was framed in that context: in his introduction, Kelley talks about niqab being seen as un-Canadian, and immediately afterwards says that \u201cwe gave you the chance to ask [Khan] whatever you want.\u201d\u00a0 In such proximity to the discussion about whether the niqab is inherently un-Canadian, Kelley designates \u201cyou\u201d (the audience) as judges of this Canadian-ness, and suggests that this \u201cyou\u201d does not include people who themselves wear niqab.*<\/p>\n My biggest worry about the show is that it might imply that all women in niqab should be called on to answer questions, to open up about personal decision to random strangers in a mall, or to justify wearing it to outside communities.\u00a0 The onus shouldn\u2019t be on women in niqab (or on women in hijab, or on Muslims in general, etc.) to justify themselves to anyone or to prove that they are not oppressed (or scary, or terrorists, and so on.)\u00a0 After all, how do you prove something like that, aside from just going about your non-oppressed, non-scary life, which apparently isn\u2019t convincing enough for everyone?<\/p>\n Having said that, Khan\u2019s openness to discussing her own personal experiences and opinions seems to have had a positive impact; I just hope that it doesn\u2019t imply that the responsibility to fight misconceptions and discrimination lies solely within those targeted by the discrimination, rather than within those who hold and perpetuate discriminatory opinions that are often unfounded.<\/p>\n * Kelley\u2019s pronunciation of \u201cniqab\u201d sounds a lot like \u201ckneecap,\u201d which made me giggle.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The new CBC weeknight show Connect with Mark Kelley recently aired a segment on niqab as part of its \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d series, in which members of the public are given the chance to ask questions about the experiences and perspectives of a designated person.\u00a0 Previous \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d conversations have included a nurse who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[253,264,811,928,989],"class_list":["post-5150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culturesociety","category-news","tag-canadian-muslims","tag-cbc","tag-mark-kelley","tag-muslim-women","tag-niqab"],"yoast_head":"\n