Gender Issues and the Hijab/Burqa
Bosnia: Gay festival closes after clashes with hardline Muslims
Bosnia’s first gay pride festival has been forced underground after 10 people were injured when protestors attacked visitors on the festival’s opening night. Dozens of people chanting “kill the gays” punched, kicked, and threw stones at people leaving the event. Islamic leaders were angry that the festival of pride, which includes art, films, and workshops…
French Court Announces that Lie About Virginity Should Not Annul Marriage
French state prosecutors argued on Monday that a court decision to annul a Muslim couple’s marriage because the woman lied about her virginity is discriminatory against women and should be overturned. A court in Douai annulled the 2006 marriage in April 2008 because the husband discovered on their wedding night that the wife had lied…
Dutch mayors want to ban polygamists
The mayors of four Dutch cities – Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Rotterdam, plan to ask the government not to grant citizenship to foreign nationals who have more than one wife. Even though polygamy is banned in the Netherlands, Dutch towns currently register such marriages, and do not ask whether or not an applicant is…
Ireland: Schools to allow hijab but not burqa under new rules
Under new policy rules for uniforms in Irish schools, the hijab has been deemed allowed in schools, but the burka or other face coverings will be banned. Integration minister Conor Lenihan and education minister Batt O’Keeffe issued the joint recommendation after consulting and reviewing the legal positions in Ireland. A 1988 Education Act obliges schools…
Saudi women preaching hate in the British mosque that promised to clean up its act 18 months ago
Hardline female ‘preachers of hate’ are radicalising Muslim women at one of Britain’s top mosques. The Saudi Arabian preachers were secretly filmed ordering women to murder gays and ex-Muslims. Undercover reporters from Channel 4’s Dispatches recorded the lectures in the women’s section of Regent’s Park Mosque in London. An unnamed Saudi woman is seen mocking…