Europe draws battle lines on head scarves
"When Nora Labrak arrived at a private employment agency last summer near the French city of Lyon, the first question she heard was not about her resume. 'I was asked to remove my head scarf at the lobby', Labrak recalled in a telephone interview. When the 29-year-old refused, she was hustled to the door.
"Long or short, sober black or brightly hued, the Muslim women's head covering is drawing growing objections, and in some places downright hostility, in Europe. It has been banned from public schools in France and Belgium, and its strictest, face-concealing variation, the niqab, has been outlawed in several European towns.
"Even in multicultural Britain, the niqab has sparked ferocious debate after the suspension of a Muslim teaching assistant and remarks by Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday that the garment was 'a mark of separation'."
San Francisco Chronicle, 22 October 2006
Two useful books on the recent attempts to suppress the hijab in Europe are Dominic McGoldrick's Human Rights and Religion: The Islamic Headscarf Debate in Europe and John R.Bowen's Why the French Don't Like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space.
Martin Sullivan