Richard Persaud
Contributor
“Allowing a group to hide their faces while they are becoming members of our community is counter to Canada’s commitment to openness, equality, and social cohesion,” announced Immigration Minster Jason Kenney last month in Montréal. “Starting today, any individual will have to show his or her face when taking the oath of citizenship.”
For those of us who are not Muslim, we find ourselves going about our regular business after the announcement, but for Muslim women who wear the niqab or burqa regularly, they
find themselves with a dilemma.
While some, myself included, find traditional Muslim headgear to be fashioned for repression, it does not give one the right to dictate what another should wear.
To do this would be in direct violation of section two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which allows for freedom of religion, freedom of belief, and freedom of expression. These constitutional freedoms are the definition of what it is to be Canadian, not the recitation of an oath. To deny Muslim women these rights is to treat them as second-rate citizens, excluding them from society.
One cannot help but feel that the banning of traditional Muslim headgear represents a greater issue within our government. The reality is the Conservative party have found themselves using Rovian tactics, turning the burqa and niqab into a wedge issue, a tool to divide the opposition’s stance.
Many who identify themselves with the political right in Canada oppose traditional Muslim headgear for various reasons, from those who feel it is not part of the Canadian identity to those who are Islamophobes. On the left, things are a bit confusing, as there are those who agree with the right, stating that the burqa and niqab are repressive to women, but there is also a large population within the left which defends these traditional items.
By exploiting the debate of traditional Muslim headgear over the oath of citizenship, the Conservative government hopes to gain support from those who would not normally endorse the political right of Canada. This comes at the price of assimilating the Muslim minority, not only denying them their constitutional rights and freedoms, but making them feel unwelcome.
