Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Lifting the Ban on Islamic Headscarf

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Lifting the Ban on Islamic Headscarf

“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty,” stated in Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 2).

Based on this Declaration, freedom of religion is the basic right of man. One can practice religious rituals without political barriers. A discriminative approach towards a certain class on the basis of its belief will contradicts Human Rights Law and therefore should be deprecated. Moreover, libeling a class fatuously due to its creed, on the grounds of fundamental practices of a sanctimonious coterie, will add insult to injury. The negative vestige of discrimination and cruel acts will not fade away. A sense of pique will be palliated but it is really hard to heal the wounded hearts and outraged conscience of victims.

According to reports, Germany’s top court said Friday that Muslim teachers can wear the Islamic headscarf in class as long as it doesn’t disrupt school activities, in a ruling likely to revive emotional debate.

The Constitutional Court said Muslim teachers in state schools could no longer face a blanket ban on the headscarf, effectively revising its 2003 decision that left the door open to it being barred.

Since 2003 several of Germany’s 16 regional states, which are responsible for education, have banned teachers wearing the Muslim headscarf following the top court’s initial ruling.

The two plaintiffs, a teacher and a school social worker, from western NRW state had lodged the complaint against the ban.

Nurhan Soykan, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, welcomed the ruling, saying that even if it did not amount to a “general permit” for the headscarf, it sent a “positive message”.

The country, home to the biggest Turkish community outside of Turkey, has heatedly debated the headscarf issue since neighboring France passed a law in 2004 banning the wearing of headscarves or any other “conspicuous” religious symbols in state schools.

Lifting the ban on wearing Islamic veil in school by Germany court is extended a warm welcome but what about the women who were hurt emotionally since banning headscarf in state school? Most probably, a number of Muslim women have either gave up or lost their jobs for practicing their religious rituals in public. Undeniably, religion is the idol of pious individuals and curtailing the freedom of religion will be highly hurtful to them. In other words, since religious symbols, especially headscarf for Muslim women, is the epitome of modesty, banning veil is tantamount to besmirching their character.

Headscarf is a religious value in Muslims’ culture. A woman wears veil to shield her beauty and charming hairs from the licentious looks of evil characters. For instance, a flower needs to be kept out of passersby’s touch by strong fence and jewelry needs to be protected in safe place and woman’s character needs to be safeguarded against potential harms by observing hijab. Muslim women love their headscarves and wear of their own volition – it also gives them peace of mind. Nothing is negative with this tenable clothing.

The diversity between moderate and fundamental Muslims should have been clarified earlier. In another item, the mistrust between Islam and West has passed historical ups and downs and Muslims indiscriminately fell prey to injustice. As a result, the US President Barack Obama said in his speech in Cairo few years back, “The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.”

To amend this condition and bridge the gap between Islam and West, a thorough study in religion and cultural values is needed. After all based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all citizens are supposed to be treated equally irrespective of their sex, color, religion, belief, etc. Curtailing freedom of religion will put the justice of a country under question. To put it succinctly, a government should approve the law to accommodate to citizens’ beliefs and cultural values without any discriminations. All the countries are urged to abide by international law and treat the citizens equally.

Hujjatullah Zia is the permanent writer of the Daily Outlook Afghanistan. He can be reached at zia_hujjat@yahoo.com

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