Comment & Debate
Sara Malkani. “Burka: the other view.” Dawn.com. February 16th, 2010: “I am a Muslim woman and I do not wear the burka or the headscarf. The constant reference in liberal media to those women who choose to wear it has made it increasingly difficult for countless Muslim women such as myself to express our discomfort with it.
The reality is that many women have reason to dislike the garment even when they do not harbour any Islamophobic sentiments. The fact is that the burka is often imposed on women by hardliners — in parts of the Middle East, state authorities force women to wear it in all public places.
[…] France’s secretary of state for urban affairs, Fadela Amara, a Muslim woman of Algerian descent, has strongly supported the ban in France.
Amara, a prominent women’s rights activist in France is the former leader of a feminist organisation that defends rights of women living in low-income urban communities in France, many of whom are Muslim immigrants becoming increasingly vulnerable to the pressures of Islamic fundamentalism in their communities.
A Canadian-based grassroots organisation, the Muslim Canadian Congress, has also approved of the initiative in France against the veil.
The body argues that the garment ‘has no place either in Canada, France or any other place in the 21st century.’ The positive reaction of many Muslims to the proposed burka ban in France is evidence of conflicting Muslim attitudes towards it.”