Calgary Herald Editorial – Published: Sunday, September 30, 2007

Suggestions by the Quebec Council on the Status of Women that hijabs, yarmulkas and other visible religious symbols be banned in the public sector are offensive, racist and run counter to the tenets of religious freedom Canadians cherish, and which the Charter of Rights supports.

The council wants teachers, doctors and other public-sector workers to be prohibited from wearing anything more overt than necklaces with crosses or Stars of David.

This is the road France travelled a year ago, and it is one down which Canada should not follow.

The hijab is a head scarf and a symbol of religious devotion. It does not obscure the wearer’s face. And Jewish men who wear yarmulkas as they go about their daily business, do so because keeping their heads covered represents their constant devotion to God.

Just as it is the right of Sikh men to wear turbans — a right which has been championed all the way up through the ranks of the RCMP — so too it is the right of Muslims and Jews to wear garments that represent their respective faiths.

It is ironic that a group professing to be dedicated to equality for women wants to stomp on the equality of Muslim women and take away their choice to wear religious attire.

The council claims it is pushing for equality and tolerance in insisting that Muslim women doff their hijabs and niqabs, but all it is really doing is disrespecting their freedom to choose.

The council focused especially on female teachers sending negative messages of submission to secular students by wearing niqabs — veils — in class.

They insist these teachers are poor role models.

On the contrary, what better way for students in a multicultural country such as Canada to learn respect for other cultures as well as for freedom of religion, than to be exposed to such concepts on an informal basis every day in the classroom?

A teacher who has no qualms about demonstrating the convictions she holds regarding the values of her faith is an excellent role model in a society where too often the only values accorded respect are those an individual makes up on the spot because they feel good at the moment.

This by no means implies that dress trumps everything all the time or that anyone claiming a certain type of apparel represents his or her religious beliefs must always prevail.

A woman showing up in the corporate suite of offices dressed in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops will rightly be told in no uncertain terms that her clothing is inappropriate for the business world.

Private industry has every right to set out dress codes for employees, and business owners, for example, who feel that someone whose face is veiled is not the best person to deal with customers in a particular type of retail environment, needs to have the leeway to make decisions on who will get the job.

That is a completely different situation from the sort of state-sanctioned blanket ban on attire that the Quebec group is advocating.

It is patronizing and demeaning for the council to decide on behalf of Muslim women what is oppressive and what is not. Muslim women are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, thank you.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL EDITORIAL….

Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/y8t87ym