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Down Under
Australian MP calls for head scarf ban
2005-08-28
LIBERAL MPs Bronwyn Bishop and Sophie Panopolous have continued to the Federal Government's clamp down on Islamic practices, with Bronwyn Bishop today adding her voice to Sophie Panopolous' call for head scarves to be banned.

Ms Bishop backed the view of outspoken Liberal MP Sophie Panopoulos, who last week said she was concerned about Muslim women not showing their faces when they posed for photographic identification. Ms Bishop today said the issue had been forced upon Australia, which was experiencing a clash of cultures.

"In an ideal society you don't ban anything," she told the Seven Network. "But this has really been forced on us because what we're really seeing in our country is a clash of cultures and indeed, the headscarf is being used as a sort of iconic item of defiance," she told Channel Seven.

"I'm talking about in state schools. If people are in Islamic schools and that's their uniform, that's fine. In private life, that's fine."

But Muslim Women's Association president Maha Krayem Abdo said such a ban was dangerous, and that girls should be free to follow their religious beliefs at any Australian school. She agreed that in an ideal society nothing would be banned and said Australia had a leadership role to play on such issues. "I think it's so dangerous to go down that path if we think ... that in an ideal society we would not ban anything," she said.

"And I think Australia takes on a leadership role in the world, that it is a fair-go society.

"I don't see anything contravening that fair go and equality that Australia strives for – so the hijab, no way would it in any shape or form, contravene that."
Everyone's tap-dancing around the point, of course: Muslim girls who refuse to wear the hajib are 'sluts' and can be harrassed, molested, beaten and/or murdered by good Muslim boys without fear of reprisal. Even the French finally figured that out. The Aussies are too polite and blind to make the point, and the Muslim defenders are too cynical.
Ms Krayem Abdo said she found it difficult to comprehend the government's stated support for the freedom of Iraq, yet Ms Bishop's proposition was to prevent Australian Muslims from exercising freedom of religious rights.

Education Minister Brendan Nelson said last week that he did not support a ban on headscarves.
Posted by:Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World

#4  Oops.

"Then a HEADscarf isn't the problem...."

It was late, I was tired. Yeah, that's the ticket....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-08-28 10:24  

#3  I saw Sophie Panopolous for the first time last week on morning TV when she was all over Peter Garret (Midnight Oil front man and the blue eyed boy of the Australian Party - I actually felt sorry and embarassed for him). Definitely someone to watch. Could be a future Australian Prime Minister. Seems to have good political instincts.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-08-28 08:29  

#2  Jesse James, Cole Younger, et al wore masks hijabs. It was a tenet of their "religion", too. Who'da guessed?
Posted by: .com   2005-08-28 01:54  

#1  
concerned about Muslim women not showing their faces when they posed for photographic identification
They a HEADscarf isn't the problem, is it?

Nobody cares if a woman - of whatever religion - wears a scarf on her HEAD. Lots of women all over the world wear scarves in the rain, wind, snow, etc., or because they're just having a bad hair day. A HEADscarf isn't the real issue.

Why don't they have the guts to come out and say they're against a FACE-covering VEIL?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-08-28 00:50  

00:00