Ireland calls for headscarf ban

By Zainab Hemani

The two main opposition parties in Ireland recently demanded public schools in Ireland not to allow young Muslim girls to wear the religious headscarf. Labour�s Ruairi Quinn said immigrants who came to Ireland needed to fit into Ireland�s culture.
�If people want to come into a western society that is Christian and secular, they need to conform to the rules and regulations of that country. A manifestation of religious beliefs in such a way is unacceptable and draws attention to those involved. I believe in a public school situation they should not wear a headscarf,� the Labour spokesman on Education and Science said.
Brian Hayes, his Fine Gael counterpart backed this. He told The Muslim News, �I think it would be sensible if we had a uniform policy, in other words that the hijab would not be allowed in public schools because we don�t really allow religious symbols within public education. [However] it is to each individual religious school to decide themselves whether or not they want hijab to be allowed in those schools.�
When asked whether other religious symbols should be allowed in public schools, such as the Christian crucifix or the Jewish kippah, Hayes said that in public schools, we should have the same policy and no huge, overt religious symbols or cultural symbols.
�It should apply for everyone in public education. However, in individual religious schools, it is a matter for Catholics, Protestants and Muslims to decide. My argument is not to do with religious schools that under our constitution have a fundamental right to their own policy, their own ethos. My argument is in relation to public schools. I think we should have one uniform position over there,� he added.
Hayes also told The Muslim News that this issue needed to be debated before a decision was made. �I have no hard and fast position on this. If a position is arrived at the end of that debate which is nuanced and is including with the Irish tradition, then that�s fine with me. We cannot become subservient to different cultural and religious expressions. There are many young Muslim women who don�t wear hijab and they are fine,� he argued and added that public schools in Ireland made up only 20% and that the rest of 80% were religious schools.
When asked for his opinion on the matter, Hassan Mansour from Belfast Islamic Centre told The Muslim News in a statement that he disagreed with Quinn and considered his statements as religious discrimination. �I believe the enforcement of the removal of headscarves would create unrest within the communities. It may cause further disintegration and division, depending on the resources available to the Muslims. If they can, then more Muslim schools would be built to accommodate the students,� he said.
�The headscarf is a religious obligation and Muslim women should have the choice to wear them if they wish to do so and follow the Rules of God. Democracy, which is always waived in front of our faces calls for the freedom of speech and expression, however, we always see that it does not apply to Muslims as it does to others,� he added.
Integration Minister, Conor Lenihan, said he had no problem with students wearing the hijab. �For those that wear the hijab, it�s an issue of modesty. It�s not so long since Irish women wore headscarves to church, so we have to respect that,� he said adding that there have been no cases in Ireland of Muslim students being prevented from wearing the hijab in school. �If there was a school which banned the hijab I would like to know on what grounds,� he stated.
The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) stated that the headscarf had not been an issue until now. NCCRI Director, Philip Watt, said anyone advocating a ban on the hijab might or might not have fully considered the consequences of such a ban in respect of all religious symbols and obligations in schools. �The banning of obligations and symbols in schools which are widely accepted in other parts of Europe and the rest of the world will potentially damage Ireland�s image and interest abroad,� he said.
The Education Act states that school boards should respect diversity in people�s values, beliefs and traditions. However, individual school authorities are responsible for the drawing up of school rules, including school-uniform requirements.

The Muslim News

Intercultural adviser warns hijab ban may cause tensions

BANNING THE hijab or other religious symbols which are important to minorities is “likely to result in tension with those communities where no tension existed before”, according to the director of the State’s advisory body on intercultural affairs.

In a detailed intervention in the debate over whether Muslim pupils should be allowed wear the headscarf in State schools, Philip Watt of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism said most schools had already found their own “sensible and sensitive compromise” by allowing it to be worn provided the colour was consistent with the school uniform.

He argued that it made sense for boards of management to continue to decide on future policy, with some non-prescriptive guidance from the Department of Education, but stressed that allowing the hijab did not mean that all religious symbols and obligations should necessarily be allowed.

Among the issues that schools would have to consider were health and safety, and the need to maintain effective communication in classes.

Mr Watt suggested that those advocating a ban on the hijab “may, or may not, have fully considered the consequences of such a ban, for example in respect of all religious symbols and obligations in Irish schools”. While much of the focus had been on the Muslim headscarf, other religious symbols were worn in Irish schools, including the Sikh kara (a bangle), the Sikh patka (a scarf worn by boys and young men), the Jewish kippah or skullcap and Christian crucifixes. The pioneer badge, the sacred heart and crucifixes are worn by some teachers.

“The banning of religious symbols or obligations solely aimed at one religious community or indeed all religious faiths is potentially discriminatory and likely to be tested in Irish law,” Mr Watt said. “In 2004 the French government considered the issuing of a ban on the wearing of the hijab in French schools, but after legal considerations decided that the only way that such a ban would be legal would be to ban virtually all religious symbols and obligations, including large crucifixes.”

Fine Gael education spokesman Brian Hayes and his Labour counterpart Ruairí Quinn said separately last week that they opposed the wearing of the hijab in the country’s secondary schools, though Mr Hayes made a distinction between State-run VEC schools and those run by religious orders, which decide their own rules. “There is enough segregation in Ireland without adding this to it. Segregating in this way is not helpful to Muslims and not helpful to anybody,” Mr Hayes said.

In yesterday’s statement, Mr Watt also sought to correct the impression that all Muslims are recent immigrants. Just under a third of the 32,500 Muslims in the Republic are Irish.

An Irish Times / TNS mrbi poll conducted last week found that 48 per cent of people feel the wearing of hijabs should be allowed in State schools. Some 39 per cent disagree and 13 per cent have no opinion.

The Irish Times

Sunday May 25 2008

Of all the problems you’d least want to land on your desk when you’ve just been made Minister for Education, responsibility for deciding whether Muslim schoolgirls should be allowed to wear the hijab in Irish schools must be pretty near top of the list. The good news for Batt O’Keeffe is that it doesn’t take very long to say no.

He is going to say no, right?

The issue has arisen because the principal of one of the largest secondary schools in the country called on the Minister for Education to issue guidelines on the matter.

This isn’t the first time Gorey Community School has sought advice either. Principal Nicholas Sweetman wrote to then Education Minister Mary Hanafin last October, after a Muslim couple asked that their child be allowed to wear the hijab in class. Permission was given by the school, but in the meantime teachers wanted official guidance from the government. None was forthcoming, save for some typical buck-passing about it being the business of the board of governors, blah, blah.

Now the school has asked again for the issue to be cleared up, and O’Keeffe has passed the matter (with a sigh of relief, no doubt) to junior minister Conor Lenihan, who is in charge of integration.

Let’s not hold our breath either way. It’s another of those issues which governments would rather went away quietly. Heads down; with any luck, it’ll all blow over.

It won’t. This child’s parents have been given permission to send their daughter to school in a hijab, so there’s nothing to stop other Muslims parents demanding the same “rights” from other schools. And if they’re refused permission? The Department of Education can’t shunt this one off on to individual schools for ever.

“Suppose a child comes here wanting to wear the full veil,” asks Mr Sweetman. “Do I say yes or do I say no? And why do I say yes or no?”

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If Muslim men are so keen on seeing their headscarf introduced into Irish society, they should wear it as well as their women. Let them cover up, too.

Otherwise there must be no place for the hijab in civic life here. Not in banks, hospitals or libraries, not in the guards or civil service and most definitely not in schools.

You hear a constant stream of hooey about why we can’t ban the headscarf. But this is not about Islamophobia. It’s not about prejudice on race or religion grounds. It’s not about equating the Muslim scarf with terrorism. It’s not about denial of civil rights.

Here’s what banning the headscarf is about: the State demonstrating our belief in gender equality. It’s about removing a symbol of repression and submission. Showing we don’t condone marks of separation — either between men and women, Muslim and Christian, or native born and immigrant.

And it’s about refusing point blank to make allowances for anything which could lead to a creeping erosion of women’s rights.

Today the hijab which covers the hair and shoulders, tomorrow the niqab or full-face veil, the day after the burqa hiding everything from tip to toe — described as a mobile prison by women obliged to wear it.

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