In a case believed to be a Canadian first, a Superior Court judge will hear arguments next week about whether a Muslim woman can testify in a sexual-assault case while wearing a veil that leaves only her eyes visible. The case turns on two competing human-rights principles: religious freedom versus the right of defendants to…
A Muslim woman in Stockholm has filed a report and suit against an adult education college in Spanga, after being told that she could not wear an Islamic headscarf and face-covering in class. The woman, who covers not only her hair but wears a niqab which covers the entire face but the eyes, has reported…
A team of five mostly 20-something Americans, led by esteemed Muslim scholar Akbar Ahmed, are crisscrossing the nation on an anthropological mission to discuss American identity, Muslim identity, and find out how well the US upholds its ideals in a post-September 11 world. “As a social scientist … as a Muslim, it was almost my…
The decision by a Toronto judge to compel a Muslim woman to testify in court without wearing her niqab has raised the question of how freedom of religion fits into the legal system and other Canadian Charter rights. The ruling, stemming from the preliminary hearing into a sexual assault trial, could be the first time…
According to the Central Office of the Information of the Interior (DCRI), a growing number of women in Auxerre, France are wearing niqabs and are increasingly conservative in their religious beliefs and practices. They actively proselytize when they pick up their children from school. Bernard Godard, author of Musulmans de France (with Sylvie Taussig, 2007),…
