Ban women!

First, I feel a tad bit bad that I haven't used this blog to talk about knitting... at all. Not even once. I will!... Once I unpack my life (I just moved on Friday!)

Anyway, it's time to talk about the niqab. If you are not aware, the niqab is a type of veil worn over the face (leaving space for the eyes) of women (it is usually associated with Islam). The province of Quebec has decided that this shouldn't be allowed because they feel it would make identification difficult. Furthermore, this would lead to identity theft/other crimes that are too ill defined to discuss here. I believe (/know), however, that this is thinly veiled (pun intented) racism/sexism. Although there are more roots to "reasonable accommodation"/racism in Quebec, I believe a lot of this started when a woman wearing a niqab refused to remove her veil in French class and was later expelled from TWO schools [link to a blog post on the issue].

For reference, I'm a woman of colour and an atheist. I, admittedly, know very little about Islam. I also do not know, nor have I ever seen in person, a single woman wearing a niqab (which makes me wonder why it's so important to have this ban when a person who has been living in Quebec for over 3 years has never even SEEN a woman wearing a niqab!) That said, there is this thing called empathy which makes me able to try to understand something without having to experience it personally. I'm also a feminist and I believe that allowing several white men to determine what women (of colour) can and cannot wear is absolutely NOT ACCEPTABLE.

If, as the Quebec government has been saying, this bill was drafted in order to end (or lessen) female oppression, why didn't they ask women wearing the niqab how they felt about it (it's possible that they weren't able to find one, since there really are so few of them!)? How could they think that preventing a few dozen women from accessing government and/or public services would be lessening oppression? How is telling women what to do with their bodies lessening oppression? Did they think, for a minute, about women who may be forced, by their families or partners, to wear the niqab? Those women will now be more oppressed than they were when they could at least leave the house if they wore a niqab. If they truly felt that women wearing the niqab were oppressed, their actions are counter-intuitive and are really the best way to ensure that these women stay oppressed.

So, obviously, the issue has nothing to do with women's rights. Let's see if it has anything to do with security/the ability to identify people. I think it's important to mention that, to date there have been no identity crimes committed by people wearing a niqab. That doesn't mean that it can't happen, but it raises suspicion as to why so much attention has to be placed on preventing these two dozen women from potentially committing crimes? It's also important to note that, as far as I know, women wearing the niqab are willing to show their faces to female employees. I do not believe this is unreasonable. I do, however, believe that it is unreasonable to ban these women from accessing public services (including healthcare and education, among others) because of their religious expression.

It's likely that this ban has little (if anything) to do with women's rights and/or security and everything to do with racism/islamophobia/sexism. That, on its own, should be enough to make reasonable people quite angry... yet it's not. People are either applauding the ban or shrugging their shoulders, essentially dismissing the rights of these women. I think what really gets scary is when you think about what could happen next, if we let this ban happen. Honestly, I really don't know what could happen next in the name of "women's rights" but I'm positive that if we don't fight this life may very well become much more oppressive for women (especially women of colour).