Darwin
18 januari 2004, 10:46
Hijab ban protests spread
Sunday 18 January 2004, 8:50 Makka Time, 5:50 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C/25185/6EFE981EA52546E3B78B9006B6FB82DE.jpg%20
Demonstrators say banning hijab is "a confusion of freedom"
Demonstrators have marched through the streets of cities in the Middle East and some European countries to protest against a looming ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools in France.
In Paris and other French cities, protesters marched against the law proposed by President Jacques Chirac that would ban Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from state schools.
The demonstrations in France took place under close police surveillance after the government warned on Friday of attempts to stir up radical opposition to the ban.
Protests began first in Jordan and London. Dozens of women protested outside the French embassy in Amman, holding up banners that read: "My veil is my freedom" and "Banning hijab is a confusion of freedom".
In London, an estimated 2000 people marched on the French embassy in central London to protest against plans by the French government to ban the Islamic headscarf from schools.
Demonstrators issued a statement saying: "The banning of the Islamic headscarf in France has opened up a new front in the war on Islam."
"The aim is to ban the public expression of Islam in Europe in the name of secularism," the text charged.
In Britain, the wearing of a Muslim headscarf or Sikh turban or Jewish kippa is not an issue and the proposed law to ban conspicuous religious insignia has provoked outrage in the Muslim community there.
Ban defended
On Friday, French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope defended the ban as an effort to uphold France's commitment to keep church and state separate, and hit out at what he said were attempts to stir up radical opposition to the measure.
Many French politicians and voters support the planned law as a bulwark against Islamist influence among Muslim immigrants.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C/25188/58A79C42E8C14A5C957BFC1DA42E4D46.jpg%20
Protesters say hijab ban questions
French ''liberty, equality & fraternity''
It has divided opinion among France's five million Muslims, and been criticised by Muslims abroad.
In Amman, Muna Abu Dabbus, an activist in Jordan's Islamic Action Front, who took part in the protest said Jordanian women were protesting in solidarity with their sisters in France.
"France is a democratic country and democratic countries give the citizens the right to practise their religion," she said. "My hijab is my right and my freedom. It gives me the freedom to do what I want."
Voters
Dalil Boubakeur, chairman of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), has described the march in Paris as a "very dangerous" measure that could frighten voters two months before regional elections are held across France.
Other Muslims feel unfairly targeted by Chirac's plan. A pro-headscarf march in Paris last month rallied more than 3000 people, many of them young women in hijab.
Chirac's centre-right government wants to rush the anti-headscarf law through parliament so debate starts before the regional elections and the ban is effective by September.
Kashmir demonstrations
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C/25189/7E9F54C6F347479DAE42B2847ACC06ED.jpg%20
Kashmiri women say the ban is a
ban on Islam's basic principles
In Indian-administered Kashmir, activists of a Muslim women's group on Saturday held a demonstration to protest plans by the French government to ban the Islamic headscarf from state schools.
Several dozen activists from the separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Milat or Daughters of the Faith held a noisy demonstration in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, despite a heavy downpour and Himalayan chill.
Donning the hijab, the activists of the staunchly pro-Pakistan group shouted slogans against the French government.
They carried banners reading: "Hijab is the identity of a Muslim woman so to ban it is actually to ban basic principles of Islam."
One huge banner decried the French government's decision.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C.htm
Pollsters say the anti-immigrant National Front party could score well in some regions with a scare campaign linked to the growing number of veiled Muslim women in French cities.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EC19170B-C19E-4BFF-88E2-30B646271824.htm
Als Aljazeera het al begint te zeggen dan zal het wel waar zijn zeker?
Belgium too planning hijab ban
Saturday 10 January 2004, 15:10 Makka Time, 12:10 GMT
Belgium is seeking to emulate France by planning to ban religious symbols from its own courts, schools and offices.
Backing the controversial French legislation that seeks to ban the Islamic hijab and other religious symbols from schools, Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Dawael on Saturday called for a similar law in Belgium.
Dawael's public backing comes amid growing criticism of the planned French legislation.
Decrying the move, an overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide have dubbed the law discriminatory.
Sikhs residing in France have also joined the chorus of protests, urging the French authorities to respect and protect their religious sentiments.
But undeterred by the growing protests, Dawael, who is also the interior minister and close to Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, argued that banning
"We should do the same thing about it in our country," Dawael said in a letter reprinted in Belgian newspapers.religious symbols was a necessity.
"The government should remain neutral in all circumstances and be represented as such," the deputy prime minister said.
"That means no distinctive religious symbols or veils for police officers, judges, clerks or teachers at public schools," he said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/20AF07F7-6AFE-4D19-BB0F-AD116F02A2F4.htm
Turkish sisters re-arrested over hijab
By Roshan Muhammed Salih
Tuesday 07 October 2003, 22:15 Makka Time, 19:15 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/A30164A1-0E41-4C43-B452-5F648D537680/12944/B9D73CB5982B4321A02BC47056DA0307.jpg%20
Turkish army is the self-styled guardian of secular constitution
Two Turkish sisters are being harassed by the country’s secular authorities for defending their right to wear the hijab, a human rights groups has said.
The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission said Nurilhak and Nurcihan Saatcioglu have been arrested several times in the past four years after they attended an anti-hijab ban rally in 1999.
The pair were taken back into custody on Saturday after the Turkish appeal court reimposed an extended sentence for their participation in the rally in Malatya.
They are currently being held indefinitely in the Bakirkoy Woman and Child Prison in Istanbul.
Education ban
The sisters' mother, Huda Kaya, has served three years in prison for the same offence as her daughters. A third sister, Intisar, is also due to be arrested for the same charges.
The four women were originally charged with attempting to overthrow the Turkish government, but the charges were changed to “violating the gathering and demonstration act”.
Turkish law upholds a ban on the hijab in universities, higher educational establishments and Islamic colleges.
Harassment of women workers who wear the headscarf is also common in public offices, hospitals and government buildings.
Harassment
The nation's secular custodians say adherence to the headscarf undermines the non-religious nature of the country, and incites religious differences and ethnic tensions.
However, Arzu Merali, director of research at the IHRC, called for the hijab ban to be lifted.
She said: “These women are being harassed for religious reasons. Since the 1997 Turkish army coup Muslims and Islamism have become public enemy number one.
"Forty thousand women have been excluded from university in Turkey because of the hijab ban and I think it is just really stupid."
Demonstrations
She added: "The Turkish people have demonstrated what they think about this issue - in 1998 and 1999 a million people demonstrated against the ban in the streets. But I think they may feel intimidated about doing that now."
And Ms Merali slammed Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government for doing nothing to improve the plight of Turkish Muslim women.
"This supposedly Islamist government has made it clear that reversing the hijab ban is not a priority," she said.
"I think this is somewhat surprising coming from a prime minister who was himself the victim of religious discrimination - he was put in jail for reciting a religious poem."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A30164A1-0E41-4C43-B452-5F648D537680.htm
Sunday 18 January 2004, 8:50 Makka Time, 5:50 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C/25185/6EFE981EA52546E3B78B9006B6FB82DE.jpg%20
Demonstrators say banning hijab is "a confusion of freedom"
Demonstrators have marched through the streets of cities in the Middle East and some European countries to protest against a looming ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools in France.
In Paris and other French cities, protesters marched against the law proposed by President Jacques Chirac that would ban Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses from state schools.
The demonstrations in France took place under close police surveillance after the government warned on Friday of attempts to stir up radical opposition to the ban.
Protests began first in Jordan and London. Dozens of women protested outside the French embassy in Amman, holding up banners that read: "My veil is my freedom" and "Banning hijab is a confusion of freedom".
In London, an estimated 2000 people marched on the French embassy in central London to protest against plans by the French government to ban the Islamic headscarf from schools.
Demonstrators issued a statement saying: "The banning of the Islamic headscarf in France has opened up a new front in the war on Islam."
"The aim is to ban the public expression of Islam in Europe in the name of secularism," the text charged.
In Britain, the wearing of a Muslim headscarf or Sikh turban or Jewish kippa is not an issue and the proposed law to ban conspicuous religious insignia has provoked outrage in the Muslim community there.
Ban defended
On Friday, French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope defended the ban as an effort to uphold France's commitment to keep church and state separate, and hit out at what he said were attempts to stir up radical opposition to the measure.
Many French politicians and voters support the planned law as a bulwark against Islamist influence among Muslim immigrants.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C/25188/58A79C42E8C14A5C957BFC1DA42E4D46.jpg%20
Protesters say hijab ban questions
French ''liberty, equality & fraternity''
It has divided opinion among France's five million Muslims, and been criticised by Muslims abroad.
In Amman, Muna Abu Dabbus, an activist in Jordan's Islamic Action Front, who took part in the protest said Jordanian women were protesting in solidarity with their sisters in France.
"France is a democratic country and democratic countries give the citizens the right to practise their religion," she said. "My hijab is my right and my freedom. It gives me the freedom to do what I want."
Voters
Dalil Boubakeur, chairman of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), has described the march in Paris as a "very dangerous" measure that could frighten voters two months before regional elections are held across France.
Other Muslims feel unfairly targeted by Chirac's plan. A pro-headscarf march in Paris last month rallied more than 3000 people, many of them young women in hijab.
Chirac's centre-right government wants to rush the anti-headscarf law through parliament so debate starts before the regional elections and the ban is effective by September.
Kashmir demonstrations
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C/25189/7E9F54C6F347479DAE42B2847ACC06ED.jpg%20
Kashmiri women say the ban is a
ban on Islam's basic principles
In Indian-administered Kashmir, activists of a Muslim women's group on Saturday held a demonstration to protest plans by the French government to ban the Islamic headscarf from state schools.
Several dozen activists from the separatist group Dukhtaran-e-Milat or Daughters of the Faith held a noisy demonstration in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, despite a heavy downpour and Himalayan chill.
Donning the hijab, the activists of the staunchly pro-Pakistan group shouted slogans against the French government.
They carried banners reading: "Hijab is the identity of a Muslim woman so to ban it is actually to ban basic principles of Islam."
One huge banner decried the French government's decision.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/15AE39CD-0B45-44B4-A89A-5E953FB44B2C.htm
Pollsters say the anti-immigrant National Front party could score well in some regions with a scare campaign linked to the growing number of veiled Muslim women in French cities.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EC19170B-C19E-4BFF-88E2-30B646271824.htm
Als Aljazeera het al begint te zeggen dan zal het wel waar zijn zeker?
Belgium too planning hijab ban
Saturday 10 January 2004, 15:10 Makka Time, 12:10 GMT
Belgium is seeking to emulate France by planning to ban religious symbols from its own courts, schools and offices.
Backing the controversial French legislation that seeks to ban the Islamic hijab and other religious symbols from schools, Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Dawael on Saturday called for a similar law in Belgium.
Dawael's public backing comes amid growing criticism of the planned French legislation.
Decrying the move, an overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide have dubbed the law discriminatory.
Sikhs residing in France have also joined the chorus of protests, urging the French authorities to respect and protect their religious sentiments.
But undeterred by the growing protests, Dawael, who is also the interior minister and close to Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, argued that banning
"We should do the same thing about it in our country," Dawael said in a letter reprinted in Belgian newspapers.religious symbols was a necessity.
"The government should remain neutral in all circumstances and be represented as such," the deputy prime minister said.
"That means no distinctive religious symbols or veils for police officers, judges, clerks or teachers at public schools," he said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/20AF07F7-6AFE-4D19-BB0F-AD116F02A2F4.htm
Turkish sisters re-arrested over hijab
By Roshan Muhammed Salih
Tuesday 07 October 2003, 22:15 Makka Time, 19:15 GMT
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/A30164A1-0E41-4C43-B452-5F648D537680/12944/B9D73CB5982B4321A02BC47056DA0307.jpg%20
Turkish army is the self-styled guardian of secular constitution
Two Turkish sisters are being harassed by the country’s secular authorities for defending their right to wear the hijab, a human rights groups has said.
The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission said Nurilhak and Nurcihan Saatcioglu have been arrested several times in the past four years after they attended an anti-hijab ban rally in 1999.
The pair were taken back into custody on Saturday after the Turkish appeal court reimposed an extended sentence for their participation in the rally in Malatya.
They are currently being held indefinitely in the Bakirkoy Woman and Child Prison in Istanbul.
Education ban
The sisters' mother, Huda Kaya, has served three years in prison for the same offence as her daughters. A third sister, Intisar, is also due to be arrested for the same charges.
The four women were originally charged with attempting to overthrow the Turkish government, but the charges were changed to “violating the gathering and demonstration act”.
Turkish law upholds a ban on the hijab in universities, higher educational establishments and Islamic colleges.
Harassment of women workers who wear the headscarf is also common in public offices, hospitals and government buildings.
Harassment
The nation's secular custodians say adherence to the headscarf undermines the non-religious nature of the country, and incites religious differences and ethnic tensions.
However, Arzu Merali, director of research at the IHRC, called for the hijab ban to be lifted.
She said: “These women are being harassed for religious reasons. Since the 1997 Turkish army coup Muslims and Islamism have become public enemy number one.
"Forty thousand women have been excluded from university in Turkey because of the hijab ban and I think it is just really stupid."
Demonstrations
She added: "The Turkish people have demonstrated what they think about this issue - in 1998 and 1999 a million people demonstrated against the ban in the streets. But I think they may feel intimidated about doing that now."
And Ms Merali slammed Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government for doing nothing to improve the plight of Turkish Muslim women.
"This supposedly Islamist government has made it clear that reversing the hijab ban is not a priority," she said.
"I think this is somewhat surprising coming from a prime minister who was himself the victim of religious discrimination - he was put in jail for reciting a religious poem."
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A30164A1-0E41-4C43-B452-5F648D537680.htm