By IB Times Staff Reporter: Subscribe to IB's RSS feed
October 2, 2010 12:23 PM EDT
People's sartorial choices are increasingly coming into conflict with nation states and big global corporates.
The French Senate passed a bill last month making it illegal for Muslim women to wear full face veils in public. Unless the constitutional judges do not repeal the law, Muslim women in France will be liable to punishment if they wear the veil in public.
In Netherlands, the issue of Islamic veil has returned to the political center stage as parties are in talks to stitch together the next ruling coalition.
According to media reports, the far right, anti-immigration Freedom Party has offered support for the VVD-CDA coalition on condition that the government goes ahead with the ban which was first proposed as early as in 2006. As far as political exigencies go it looks like Netherlands will be the second European country after France to impose a ban on full face veil.
"We want to stop the Islamisation [of the Netherlands]" Geert Wilders, the Freedom party leader, said.
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On Monday, U.S. theme park giant Disneyland resolved a rising crisis by letting a Muslim staffer wear a specially deigned headgear that would function like an Islamic hijab.
The 22-year-old emplopyee, Noor Abdallah, sought the legal assistance of an attorney when she was proscribed from wearing hijab at work because the Disney dress code prevented employees from using religious apparel of any kind. She also declined to take up another role at work which lessened her interface with the people.
Disney then proposed that Abdallah wear a head covering to match her costume and meet her religious needs, said Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown.
"Walt Disney Parks and Resorts has a long history of accommodating a variety of religious requests from cast members of all faiths — with more than 200 accommodations made over the last three years and this instance was no different," Brown said.
In Turkey things are a bit more complex.
While western European nations are racing to clamp down on the niqab, Turkey is on an altogether different course.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern secular Turkey, had rejected headscarves saying they were from a backward-looking period. Headscarves are officially banned in civic spaces and official buildings, but the tide is slowly turning in favour of the more orthodox view on the subject.
Turkish Prime Minister said earlier this week the ban on headscarves in colleges and universities was against religious beliefs, suggesting the ruling AK party will try again to lift the ban on headscarves.
Turkey amended its constitution in 2008, easing a strict ban in colleges and universities, allowing students to wear headscarves that were tied loosely under the chin. Headscarves covering the neck and all-enveloping veils were still banned.
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