This week’s attempts to ban women from wearing the ‘burqa’ in Parliament — or rather a niqab as Mariam Veiszadeh has pointed out on using the correct terminology — became a concerning discussion for everyone, especially as it entrenched an element of distrust and rejection on a segment of women.
We prides ourselves on being an inclusive and egalitarian nation. But any moves to ban religious dress are steps to the contrary.
To celebrate our diversity and shared experiences it is beholden on us to accept our differences. We need to provide space for tolerance at work, at home and in broader society.
There is great misunderstanding of challenges that face Islamic women, and the choice for women to wear any form of face covering is not demeaning. It is an act of religious engagement.
Australia should be trusting of women and men who wear any religious dress, not jumping to currently unjustified radical extremes.
It was strange that Federal Parliament, as the creators of legislation, should consider banning the wearing of such religious dress within its own walls. Not only is this intolerant, it reverses the onus of proof – whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
It is imperative that people be free to practice their faith. Tim Wilson, Human Rights Commissioner, has come out strongly against the ban, saying; “a blanket ban on a burqa is illiberal and inconsistent with religious tolerance and freedom. Measures to ensure security must be measured and respectful of religious freedom”.
Wilson, a former member of the Liberal Party who was appointed by the Abbott Government, supports what Muslim women’s organisations advocate for: asking women who wear burqas at check-points to undertake a security scan.
You know, like the rest of us.
It is important that we all consider what even the suggestion of such a ban would mean in our everyday lives. Few of us work on Capitol Hill, but we can all consider what this intolerance means in our workplaces and communities.
“Banning the burqa, no matter what the rhetoric is, goes against everything we stand for as a nation”, said mechanical engineer Yassmin Abdel-Magied. “How are we a socially cohesive society when we explicitly, physically and metaphorically put members of our society, equal members of our society behind a wall and say no matter how much you think you can contribute, your diversity isn’t welcome until you leave behind what you value.”
Abdel-Magied is right. We are supposed to be living in an enlightened and accepting time. There are consistent conversations about our diversity, but there is failure to live these in practice.
To have the most productive and engaged workplace and community we can have, we must allow people to be themselves. Of course we have norms and values, but one of those should be acceptance.
Valuing our differences and diversity is what makes a more innovative and involved society.
With few Islamic women in positions of prominence and power we need to tread carefully in the future. There should be a collective effort to raise the voices of Islamic women in all discussions. And it’s something that should be considered by women and men at work, it’s about what we expect and accept women to wear.
I firmly believe in the choice of the individual. Disenfranchising minority groups is not a step we should be entertaining