A Canadian Muslim organization urged the Canadian government on Thursday to ban traditional Muslim garments designed to cover a woman’s face, saying they were medieval and misogynist symbols of extremism with no basis in Islam.
The Muslim Canadian Congress has called on the federal government to prohibit the burqa and the niqab because it said the practice of covering one’s face had no place in a society that supports gender equality.
“Muslims around the world know that this attire is misogynistic dress for women that is being promoted by the Taliban and al-Qaeda,” said Tarek Fatah, founder of the group. “It is a means of holding women back in society.”
The burqa is a head-to-toe gown with a mesh-like panel over the face that allows a woman to see and breathe. The niqab is a veil that leaves only the eyes exposed. Fatah said the ban should not extend to the hijab, a traditional headscarf that does not cover the face.
Fatah said there was nothing in any of the primary Islamic religious texts, including the Koran, that requires women to cover their faces, not even in the ultraconservative tenets of Shariah law, which is Islamic religious law.
“We feel it is the duty of progressive Muslims to stand up for Muslim society and gender equality in our society,” Fatah said.
Fatah said the issue of the Muslim attire was also a security issue, saying that banks have been robbed in North Carolina, Toronto and the UK by men dressed in burqas posing as women.
The proposed ban comes on the same day Egypt’s top Islamic cleric said that students and teachers would not be allowed to wear niqabs in classrooms and dormitories of Sunni Islam’s premier institute of learning, al-Azhar.
The decision announced by Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi came days after he said the niqab “has nothing to do with Islam.”
He said the goal was to “spread trust, harmony ... and the correct understanding of religion among girls.”
Mohamed Elmasry, former president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, agreed. Elmasry said the traditional garb had its roots in cultural customs rather than religious teachings, but he said he believed women should have the freedom to decide whether they wished to cover their faces.
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