Hijabophobia Explained

Hijabophobia is a type of religious and cultural discrimination against Muslim women who wear the hijab. The discrimination has had manifestations in public, working and educational places.

Analysis

Hijabophobia is a term referring to discrimination against women wearing Islamic veils, including the hijab, chador, niqāb and burqa. It is considered a gender-specific type of Islamophobia,[1] [2] [3] or simply "hostility towards the hijab".[4] The term is applied to discourse based in colonial representations of Muslim women as victims oppressed by misogynistic cultures in academic circles.[3]

According to The Gazette, hijabophobia began as a French national phenomenon, citing the 1989 headscarf affair (French: l'affaire du foulard).[5] In France, according to Ayhan Kaya, Islamophobia is mixed with hijabophobia.[6] In a 2012 paper, Hamzeh posits that 'hijabophobia' encapsulates the sexist aspects of Islamophobia, in which Muslim women bear the brunt of anti-Muslim attacks.Other studies referred to the way that the Islamophobia is laced with hijabophobia, creating a scapegoating system in which Muslim women are stimatized for using a hypervisible Islamic symbol.[7] [8] The practice of Hijab is also viewed as a submission to the patriarchal discourse that the US media and Western communities stoke it as a part of the Islam religion. In a nutshell, Muslim women veils interfere with the culture of Western communities as being a symbol of extremism, backwardness, and oppression.[9] [10]

Political scientist Vincent Geisser argues that hijabophobia became more widespread after the September 11 attacks, as evidenced by the number of laws regulating and restricting the hijab in public places and governmental offices.[11] A study found that Muslim girls in London perceived discrimination when wearing the hijab outside their immediate communities, and felt social pressure to not wear the hijab.[12] In addition, according to the ACLU, 69% of women who wore the hijab reported at least one incident of discrimination, compared to 29% of women who did not wear the hijab.[13]

Manifestations

Working places

European Court of Justice

A ruling by European Union's top law court, European Court of Justice, on 14 March 2017 allowed the employers "to ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols"[14] such as the hijab. The decision was criticized for disguising what Muslims described as "a direct attack on women wearing hijabs at work". As a result, by 2017, two women from France and Belgium were dismissed from work since they refused to remove their hijabs. Samira Achbita, a woman from Belgium, was dismissed from working in her company (G4S) as a result of the court ruling.[14] OpenDemocracy argued that the ruling was ostensibly based on the employer's wish "to portray a position of neutrality", and hence the court ruling was a normalization of hijabophobia.[15]

Public places

There are instances where Muslim dress have been banned in public spaces. The Muslim burqa was banned by local laws in Spain in 2010, though these laws began to be overturned by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2013.[16] Similarly, in 2016, France's Council of State began to overrule a ban on the burkini by over thirty French municipalities as Islamophobic.[17] FIFA's ban of the head cover in 2011–2014 is an example of hijabophobia.[1] In 2018, Austria banned full-face coverings in order to limit the visibility of orthodox Islam. This was criticized by police who were put in the position of charging people for wearing smog and ski masks. France and Belgium have enacted a similar ban since 2011. In 2015, a partial ban was introduced in the Netherlands and the German parliament banned face coverings while driving in September 2017.[18] Hijabophobia also influences the hospitality industry in Malaysia. Hotels believe employees that wear the headdress appear less professional; therefore causing islamophobic policies to be implemented.[19] On February 16, 2021, The National Assembly of France voted in favor of an “anti-separatism” bill that aims to reinforce the secular system in France by banning the wearing of hijabs for women under 18 while in public. In response, #handsoffmyhijab has been spreading across social media platforms. [20]

Schools

See also: Karnataka hijab controversy. In 1994, the French Ministry for Education sent out recommendations to teachers and headmasters to ban Islamic veil in educational institutions. According to a 2019 study by the Institute of Labor Economics, more girls with a Muslim background born after 1980 graduated from high school after the ban was introduced.[21]

In October 2018, Austria banned headscarves for children in kindergarten. The ban was motivated by protecting children from family pressure to wear the headscarf.[22] According to an Austrian teacher's union, a ban for pupils aged up to 14 years should be considered, as that is the religious legal age (German: religionsmündig).[22]

In Quebec, public servants, including teachers, are banned from wearing religious garments, such as a kippa, hijab or turban at work.[23]

In January 2022, a number of colleges in South-Indian state of Karnataka stopped female students wearing a hijab from entering the campus. The issue has since then snow-balled into a major political controversy in India.[24] On 15 March 2022, through a highly controversial verdict, the Karnataka High Court upheld the hijab ban in educational institutions as a reasonable restriction of fundamental rights.[25] [26]

Brands

In 2019, Decathlon, a French sportswear brand, made the decision to not sell hijab sportswear in France, following opposition to the clothing line from figures such as health minister Agnes Buzyn, who voiced her distaste for the garment on a radio show.[27]

Sports

Hijabophobia has led female athletes to be ineligible in sporting events due to wearing a hijab. One example is FIFA's 'hijab ban' crisis. The Iranian women's national soccer team was disqualified from the 2012 Olympics because the players wore hijabs.[28] Another example is unravelling in the French soccer league, as it is the only international body to exclude hijab-wearing women from practising the sport.[29]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Manal . Hamzaeh . FIFA's double hijabophobia: A colonialist and Islamist alliance racializing Muslim women soccer players . Women's Studies International Forum . 1 July 2017 . 63 . 11–16 . 0277-5395. 10.1016/j.wsif.2017.06.003 .
  2. MOHAMED-SALIH . Veronica . Stereotypes regarding Muslim men and Muslim women on the Romanian Internet: a qualitative comparative analysis for 2004-2009 and 2010-2015 . Journal of Gender and Feminist Studies . 4 . 4 September 2018 . 22 April 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180422051511/http://www.analize-journal.ro/library/files/numarul_4/4_6_veronica_mohamed-salih.pdf . live .
  3. Book: Hamzeh . Manal . Pedagogies of Deveiling: Muslim Girls and the Hijab Discourse . 2012 . IAP . 9781617357244 . 4 September 2018 . 11 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200211201847/https://books.google.com/books?id=EQIoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 . live .
  4. Web site: The European Court Has Normalized Hijabophobia. Shebaya. Halim. 15 March 2017. Huffington Post. 4 September 2018. 4 September 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170904135037/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-european-court-has-normalized-hijabophobia_us_58c85d82e4b05675ee9c5b29. live.
  5. Book: Proceedings of the Fourth and Fifth Annual Symposia of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America . 1999 . IIASA . 9781569230220 . 5 September 2018 . 23 June 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220623131022/https://books.google.com/books?id=z_2OAAAAMAAJ&q=discrimination+against+hijab+Hijabophobia . live .
  6. Book: Kaya . Ayhan . Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization . 2012 . Palgrave Macmillan . 9781137030221 . 5 September 2018 . 15 December 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20191215192343/https://books.google.com/books?id=UpfgqOtcVmEC&q=Hijabophobia . live .
  7. Alimahomed-Wilson . Sabrina . 2017-04-01 . Invisible Violence: Gender, Islamophobia, and the Hidden Assault on U.S. Muslim Women . Women, Gender, and Families of Color . 5 . 1 . 73–97 . 10.5406/womgenfamcol.5.1.0073 . 157235368 . 2326-0939.
  8. Keddie . Amanda . 2018-07-04 . Disrupting (gendered) Islamophobia: the practice of feminist ijtihad to support the agency of young Muslim women . Journal of Gender Studies . en . 27 . 5 . 522–533 . 10.1080/09589236.2016.1243047 . 152069404 . 0958-9236.
  9. Joosub . Noorjehan . Ebrahim . Sumayya . August 2020 . Decolonizing the hijab: An interpretive exploration by two Muslim psychotherapists . Feminism & Psychology . en . 30 . 3 . 363–380 . 10.1177/0959353520912978 . 218810235 . 0959-3535.
  10. Dankook University . Eum . IkRan . 2017-10-10 . Korea's response to Islam and Islamophobia: Focusing on veiled Muslim women's experiences . Korea Observer - Institute of Korean Studies . 48 . 4 . 825–849 . 10.29152/KOIKS.2017.48.4.825. free .
  11. Book: Cesari, Jocelyne. The Oxford Handbook of European Islam. 2014. Oxford University Press. 9780199607976. 4 September 2018. 11 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200211201852/https://books.google.com/books?id=NW7DBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA46. live.
  12. Book: Keddie . Amanda . Supporting and Educating Young Muslim Women: Stories from Australia and the UK . 2017 . Taylor & Francis . 9781317308539 . 4 September 2018 . 11 February 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200211201853/https://books.google.com/books?id=DC0lDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 . live .
  13. Web site: ACLU. 12 September 2019. 3 February 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220203150241/https://www.aclu.org/other/discrimination-against-muslim-women-fact-sheet. live.
  14. Web site: Employers allowed to ban the hijab: EU court. www.aljazeera.com. 12 October 2018. "Employers are entitled to ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols, the European Union's top law court ruled on Tuesday, a decision Muslims said was a direct attack on women wearing hijabs at work.". 12 September 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190912092922/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/employers-allowed-ban-headscarves-eu-court-170314092627483.html. live.
  15. Web site: The European Court has normalized 'Hijabophobia'. openDemocracy. 2020-01-29. 29 January 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200129065012/https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/european-court-has-normalized-hijabophobia/. live.
  16. Web site: Case Watch: Spanish Supreme Court Repeals City Burqa Ban. 22 March 2013. 13 October 2018. Ferschtman. Maxim. de la Serna. Cristina. Open Society Foundations. Case Watch. 1 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190401083415/https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/case-watch-spanish-supreme-court-repeals-city-burqa-ban. live.
  17. News: French court suspends burkini ban. CNN. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.. Bittermann. Jim. McKenzie. sheena. Shoichet. Catherine E.. 26 August 2016. 13 October 2018. 12 April 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190412064432/https://www.cnn.com/2016/08/26/europe/france-burkini-ban-court-ruling/index.html. live.
  18. News: Oltermann . Philip . Austrian full-face veil ban condemned as a failure by police . 10 September 2018 . The Guardian . 27 March 2018 . 17 May 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190517040847/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/austrian-full-face-veil-ban-condemned-failure-police-integration-smog-marks-animal-costumes . live .
  19. Finieli. Salsabilla Terra. Hasan. Rusni. Zain. Nor Razinah Mohd. 2018-12-20. Hijabophobia: A Closed Eye Challenge towards Muslim Friendly Hospitality Services in Malaysia. Malaysian Journal of Syariah and Law. 6. 3. 1–9. 10.33102/mjsl.vol6no3.87 . 2590-4396. 12 September 2019. 4 September 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190904183750/http://mjsl.usim.edu.my/index.php/jurnalmjsl/article/view/87. live. free.
  20. Web site: 'Law against Islam': French vote in favour of hijab ban condemned . Aljazeera . April 19, 2021 . 20 April 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210420040133/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/9/a-law-against-islam . live .
  21. Web site: Effects of banning the Islamic veil in public schools. newsroom.iza.org. 2019-12-27. 27 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191227130642/https://newsroom.iza.org/en/archive/research/effects-of-banning-the-islamic-veil-in-public-schools/. live.
  22. Web site: Kopftuchverbot für Volksschüler: "Prüfen derzeit". krone.at. 25 October 2018 . de. 2018-10-28. 2 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190502234023/https://www.krone.at/1796239. live.
  23. News: Teachers turned away over religious symbols ban as school year begins. 9 September 2019. CBC. 21 September 2019. 23 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220623131025/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/secularism-law-csdm-1.5276855. live.
  24. News: Karnataka's hijab row: A fragile regime's latest assault on right to choice. The News Minute. 11 February 2022. 23 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220623131029/https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/karnatakas-hijab-row-fragile-regimes-latest-assault-right-choice-160646. live.
  25. News: Karnataka High Court hijab verdict lacks reason, makes up baseless new rules for fundamental rights. The Quint. 18 March 2022. 18 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220318133235/https://www.thequint.com/voices/opinion/karnataka-hc-hijab-verdict-no-reasons-makes-up-rules-fundamental-rights-constitutional-law. live.
  26. News: Hijab verdict: a grave constitutional wrong. Deccan Herald. 23 March 2022. 23 March 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220323180421/https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/comment/hijab-row-verdict-a-grave-constitutional-wrong-1092595.html. live.
  27. Web site: Decathlon capitulates to French hijabophobia. Seale. Alexander. 2019-02-28. trtworld.com. 12 September 2019. 25 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200725040915/https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/decathlon-capitulates-to-french-hijabophobia-24563. live.
  28. Hamzeh. Manal. July 2017. FIFA's double hijabophobia: A colonialist and Islamist alliance racializing Muslim women soccer players. Women's Studies International Forum. 63. 11–16. 10.1016/j.wsif.2017.06.003.
  29. News: OLOW . FADUMO . France's hijab ban threatens to strip sport of its ability to empower . The Telegraph . 9 April 2021 . April 19, 2021 . 23 June 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220623131041/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/womens-sport/2021/04/09/frances-hijab-ban-threatens-strip-sport-ability-empower/ . live .

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