Muslim Women Controversy in Europe - Coursework Example

Name Institution Course Tutor Date Muslim Women Controversy in Europe The complex relationship among Islam as well as women is actually defined by both Islamic texts and the culture and history of the Muslim world. The Islamic law known as Sharia provides for differences between the roles of women and men, obligations and the rights. The greatest number of Muslim countries gives women a varying degree of rights with regards to marriage, divorce, civil rights, dress code, and legal status together with the education. Even in a situation where all these differences are acknowledged, scholars together with other commentators differ as to whether they are just and whether they are right interpretation of religious imperatives. Conservatives argue that differences among women and men are due to different status as well as the responsibilities. However Muslim feminists, liberal Muslims and others argue in favor of more progressive interpretations. Islamic dressing, particularly the big range of headdresses that are normally worn by the Muslim women has really become a famous sign of the presence of Islam within the Western Europe. It is said that in so many countries this particular adherence to hijab has actually led to the political controversies as well as the proposals for a legal ban (Yvonne, 49). However, the government of Netherlands has decided to introduce a ban on the clothes that are covering the face which are recognized as burga ban even if it does not only apply to the Afghan model burga. In this same connection, several other countries are debating on the same legislation and they as well have more inadequate prohibitions. A good number of them apply only to face covering clothing for example the burga, boushiva, chador, or nigab. However, some apply to any type of dressing with an Islamic religious symbolism such as the khimar. Khimar is a kind of headscarf. This matter has dissimilar names in very different countries and the veil or hijab might be used as a general terms for any debate that is representing more than just the veil itself. Despite the fact that the Balkans as well as the Eastern Europe have indigenous Muslim populations, so many Muslims within the Western Europe are members of immigrant communities. The idea of the Islamic dressing is actually connected with the issues of immigration as well as the position of Islam in the Western society. The main reasons that are given concerning prohibition really differ. Legal bans on the clothing that cover the face are often reasonable on safety grounds as one of the anti terrorism measure. However, the communal controversy is very wide and it sometimes is indicative of polarization among Muslims as well as the European societies (Lynn 186). As far as other critics are concerned, Islamic dress is an issue of value conflicts as well as the Clash of Civilizations. Among these prominent critics is Avaan Hirsi Ali who sees Islam as incompatible with Western values in its very current form. They normally advocate the values of enlightenment liberalism together with the secularism as well as equality of women. As far as they are concerned, the chador or burqa are all a symbol of spiritual obscurantism as well as the domination of women. Western enlightenment values, in their own view, they need prohibition not considering of whether a woman has freely selected Islamic dress. A very tremendous connected view is that the freely chosen Islamic dress is an announcement of allegiance to radical Islamism and the wearers are actually not friends of western society, if not terrorists. The Islamic dress is as well regarded as a sign of the survival of parallel societies and the failure of integration. To some critics, it is regarded as a mark of separation. The symbols that can be seen of a person who is not coming from the western culture conflict with the national identity within the European states which actually assumes a shared culture. Proposals for a ban might be connected to other linked cultural prohibitions. It is said that the Netherlands politician namely Geert Wilders projected a forbid on the burqa on Islamic schools, non western immigration as well as the new mosques (Suad, 47). In Turkey and France, the emphasis is on the worldly natural history of the country, the symbolic nature of the Islamic dress, they proposed bans applied at state institutions and in state funded education. These particular bans all together they cover Islamic headscarves whereby in some countries are regarded as less controversial. The law court staff within the Netherlands is as well prohibited to wear Islamic headscarves on grounds of state impartiality. However, it seems that less politicized argument is that in particular professions such as teaching; a ban on veils is very much accepted in view of the fact that face to face communication and eye contact is needed. This particular argument has featured outstandingly in judgments in the Netherlands as well as the Britain, subsequent to students or teachers were prohibited from wearing face covering garments. Political together with the public response to such ban proposals is very difficult in view of the fact that by the definition they mean that the government decides on personal clothing. For those who are not Muslims and they might not be affected by such a restriction, they regard it as a matter of communal liberties and as a smooth slope leading to supplementary restrictions on confidential life (Suad, 89). A communal attitude poll in London showed that around 80 percent of Londoners support the right of all the individuals to dress in agreement with their spiritual beliefs. Another group within the United Kingdom around 18 percent accepted that the Muslim women are segregating themselves by putting on a veil nevertheless around 75 percent thought that they might have the right to be dressed in it. At the moment there is no any restriction concerning spiritual Islamic dress in Denmark. On the other hand, following an incident whereby a burqa clad journalist was at the position of passing unchecked through security at Copenhagen airport. The administration stressed to the airports the need for passengers to show their faces. The French law on secularity as well as conspicuous religious signs in schools prohibited all the clothing which constitutes an ostensible spiritual sigh from government operated schools. In one way or the other, the rule forbids the wearing of whichever ostensible spiritual articles, but does not refer to any particular item. Thus far, ministerial instructions materialize to target the Islamic covering, the Jewish kippa and big Christian crosses. Several instructions authorize the diplomatic symbols of faith, for example the small crosses, Stars of David along with hands of Fatima. The rule applies to parents, students and staff in a similar way. Without particular officially permitted prohibition, comparable policies are infrequently applied in other state organizations and buildings such as communal hospitals (Haideh, 21). The European controversy for the most part relates to Islamic dress as a representation of Islam itself, or of womanly subservience, and only secondarily to supplementary factors such as face-to-face contact or safekeeping risks. The latest law says that there is totally nothing concerning the wearing of Islamic dress in the open for example in the streets, nor about wearing spiritual symbols in advanced education or personal education establishments. The European immigration in the previous two decades has actually introduced Islam as a second major religion in Italy. This is a country in which the population was customarily Catholic. The Islamic covering has become a national political matter more especially in combination with some of Islam connected matters such as the latest mosques together with the teaching of the Quran in schools. In the year two thousand and six, the European introduced the legislation to prohibit face covering garments in the public. However, the government proposals were postponed because of the main concerns on the conflict with independence of religion. In the year two thousand and six, a total prohibit on the burqa as well as the ban on Islamic headscarves in the civil service together with the schools is part of the platform. However, all the parties rejected to incorporate it in a coalition. A collection of Muslim women planned a pro burqa demonstration at the recently chosen parliament. The demonstration actually attracted the attention of the national media even though it has a very few participants. So many Muslim women in Europe considered it a very great victory that will no longer enforce a law that the women can never wear anything on their heads including traditional Islamic headwear known as the hijab. They are not supposed to wear headscarves when they are taking official photos for the identification cards together with the passports. However, the idea of wearing of headscarves by the Islamic women in official photographs is accepted in some cases but is as well not permitted in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Despite the fact that there are so many different ethnic groups in Europe, the country is however regarded as a Muslim nation. Because of that same reason, an individual might in one way or the other expect that the regulations would accommodate issues concerning traditional Islamic dress. These dresses are things like head scarves for official photos such as passports and the identification cards together with other related official credentials. The controversy concerning the Islamic dressing known as the hijab sparked in the year 1989. It actually sparked when the female students were suspended for rejecting to remove their head scarves in the classrooms. The status of Islamic women in pre-Islamic Arabia was actually very poor, citing the practices of female infanticide, unlimited polygyny, patrilineal marriages and many more. However, many critics argue that the position of many women is more often than not influenced by the degree of urbanization, industrialization together with the political ploys of the state managers rather than culture or intrinsic properties of Islam. Islam changed the structure of the Arab community completely and to some degree it unified the individuals, reforming as well as standardizing the gender roles all through the state. Islam made the status of women better through instituting the rights of property ownership, education, inheritance as well as divorce. The European Muslim women had less legal restrictions under the Islamic regulations than they did under certain western legal systems until the 2oth century. Work Cited Haideh, M. (2005). Women and Islam: Critical Concepts in Sociology. Canada: Taylor & Francis Publishers. Lynn, A. ( 2004). Mapping of Women, Making Politics: Feminist Perspectives on Political Geography. New York: Routledge Publishers. William, A. (2007). Is There Still a West: The Future of the Atlantic Alliance. New York: University of Missouri Press Suad, J. (2003). Encyclopedia of women & Islamic cultures. New York: BRILL Publishers. Yvonne, Y. (2000). Muslims on the Americanization Path. Michigan: Oxford University Press. Read More