I came across this article some days ago; it is about a mother who was refused entry to her child’s school during parent’s evening because her niqab was considered a security threat. She was understandably upset and indignant about the school excluding her when she was happy to lift her veil and be identified by female members of staff, and she refused to leave the premises so the school took the step of calling the police!
These kind of stories make me feel uncomfortable, because it’s complex and I’m in two minds about the whole thing.
Firstly I feel angry that she was treated that way. There are some children whose parent’s do not care enough to attend parent’s evenings and don’t have a clue nor an interest in their child’s progress, for any concerned parent who has come to the school wanting to speak to teachers about their child’s education to be treated like that is terrible. Schools are meant to have a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere that models good behaviour to children, what does the rude and humiliating treatment this mother suffered teach children about how to treat others? There was no need to escalate the situation to the point of reducing her to tears and calling the police, that is absurd and shows a really bad attitude on the part of the school. They clearly knew exactly who she was, whose mother she was and why she was there, they could have dealt with her in a friendly and positive manner that de-escalated the situation. But the fact that things transpired as they did really makes them seem unreasonable and just plain horrible. I can imagine how angry and upset the mother must have felt and how dehumanising and alienating the experience must be. It’s not right for a parent who simply wants to attend parent’s evening to be treated as some kind of criminal trespasser or troublemaker simply because she covers her face in front of men due to her religious beliefs.
However, the school’s argument is that they have a policy that visitors must show their faces at all times for security purposes so that they can be identified. They say that they were willing to compromise such that the mother can speak to teachers in a designated separate room from other parents after having been properly identified, but that they cannot allow her in the main hall and so on because if there were more women in veils wandering freely about the school in that way it would be impossible for them to identify people and thus is a risk to the children’s security.
As much as it makes me want to roll my eyes and sigh, I have to concede that they have a point. But again this is something I can see being argued both ways, it’s not black and white, there’s not clearly one party in the right or wrong.
I personally know of cases where people have used the niqab to hide their identity whilst committing a crime. Only a month or so ago a woman I know, who happens to wear hijab herself, went to the bank to withdraw some money and a few places ahead of her in the queue was a woman (?) wearing niqab who demanded all the money from the cashier’s desk. Thousands of pounds were taken but thankfully no one was hurt. I don’t think the robber was caught though and since (s)he could not be identified there’s little chance (s)he will be. I also know of a Muslim owned jeweller in our city that been targeted by robbers wearing face veils. They got into the shop posing as harmless niqab-clad women, then pulled out weapons, and cleared the shop out of tens of thousands of pounds worth of gold before making a getaway.
So to me this isn’t just some myth perpetuated as an excuse by niqab-hating Islamophobes. I know of real instances of criminals hiding their identities whilst committing a crime by wearing a veil.
Would I blame those Muslim jewellers for not allowing women wearing niqab in their shop again? No, I wouldn’t. Not at all. How can you? At the end of the day, it’s their livelihood and safety being risked if they put themselves in a position of vulnerability by just trusting complete strangers to be who they are trying to pass off as. They have to be alert, cautious and protect themselves.
Having said that I have friends who wear the niqab, one of my teachers wears the niqab, many of the scholars I admire and learn from recommend the niqab. How would I feel about my teacher or friend being barred from a shop because her face was covered, or indeed forbidden entry to her child’s school because of it? I’d hate for them to be put in that position and made to feel rejected, excluded and alienated simply for living in a way that represents their personal beliefs about their religion and modesty.
I feel a bit torn about it.
By covering their faces, aren’t they choosing to be alienated in a sense? Well, in a way that is on their own terms, meaning that they don’t want a certain level of interaction with, in particular men, but in reality everyone in the public domain. Their problem is that others are then redefining what level of interaction they want with them if they cannot see their faces.
Can a woman who veils her face really complain then if she is telling the outside world, “You cannot see my face,” and they are replying, “Well then you cannot enter my shop/bank!”? I’m not so sure.
It’s one of those situations where you want to sort of say, “Can’t we all work this out nicely?”
In the case of the school, if their security is such an issue of importance for them, then surely all visitors must have to enter through the main reception, and if niqab-clad women are identified as parents and legitimate visitors and issued visitors badges when they enter the school, then surely having many veiled women wandering about the school hall would not be a security issue since all visitors would be properly accounted for. But maybe the headteacher is an Islamophobe, or maybe they don’t feel they can deal with the hassle of keeping track of all veiled visitors, or maybe they just don’t want exceptions to their rules; I don’t know.
Similarly, with shops and other places where the owners of the building feel they need to identify people for their security, I think it’s only reasonable that women who wear face veils lift them momentarily, allowing themselves to be identified and seen by security cameras and then let their veils back down again later. Classical interpretations of Islamic law are not so rigid and inflexible as to make things difficult for people, but some Muslims can be rigid and inflexible. To this day I don’t understand why the despairingly inarticulate Aishah Azmi would go to an interview without niqab at a Church of England school, and then turn up to work wearing it for a job as an ESL (English as a second language) teacher assistant and go on to cause a media circus around the issue of her subsequent suspension. I do feel that seeing her face would have been important if she was an ESL assistant, especially working with younger children and especially if she was that inarticulate.
Even many Muslims would wonder, why work in a classroom setting where you’d have to be in close proximity with men if you are so concerned about them seeing your face, why not work in Muslim girls school, or find some other job where working with men would not be a contentious issue.
Yet, at the time I had a friend who wore niqab and worked as a teacher’s assistant and she worked in a female teacher’s classroom so the children saw her face, and the male teachers at her school had no problem with her. The pupils were so accustomed to her they would warn her to lower her veil if they saw a male teacher was about to come into the classroom! Hearing her experiences made me think that it was possible then to work in that environment and wear niqab, but I never did ask her what she would have done had the school required her to work in a classroom where a man was the teacher. Would covering in front of the children have been entirely fair? What if there was a hearing impaired child she had to work with who needed to see her lips? What if the children did find it problematic?
It gets complicated… and when it does get complicated I do begin to think just don’t put yourself in that kind of situation, and don’t escalate things to the point it effects the whole community at large.
But then I’m not pretending to have all the answers or that I’m single-mindedly convinced of any one-way argument; as I said it’s something that makes me feel in two minds.
However, I do think Muslims have to be reasonable and sensible about things, and tactful as well as considerate in dealing with other people.
And so do non-Muslims.
It’s a shame that when it comes to dealing with each other, sometimes both groups are none of the above.
