A veiled person should lift the veil before entering a plane

If Muslim women are stupid enough to wear a niqab/burqa (fully veiled, including the face) in a westernized country, that is their problem. But wearing the niqab/burqa when entering a plane, a bank, a jewelery store, taking an exam, applying for social assistance, applying for a driver’s licence, etc., is society’s problem.

In Iran, Yeman and Saudia Arabia; three really backward countries, many women are expected to wear the niqab/burqa the moment they leave their homes but in westernized countries, they are not obligated to wear the niqab and yet some of these foolish women do it anyway.

Why do they feel compelled to wear the naqab/burqa when they are in a country that doesn’t insist that they don’t have wear it?

The answer is quite simple. It is the menfolk in their lives that compel these women to wear the naqab/burqa. Why? It certainly isn’t a religious issue since neither the Koran or the Old Testament gives instructions that women’s faces should be completely covered other than their eyes and hands. They do it because it is the custom.

Most Islamic scholars say the face veil is not required but is merely a custom that dates back to tribal, nomadic societies living in the Arabian desert before Islam began. There is no uniform religious opinion across the Muslim world about whether a head scarf, much less a face veil, is required. No organized or recognized religion specifically orders women to fully cover their entire face and body from head to toe in black.

I don’t really believe that the majority of these totally veiled women really want to rear the naqab but do so anyway because of the pressure put on them by the menfolk in their lives.

Why do these thoughtless men force their womenfolk to wear the naqab? I think there are two reasons. The first is that they don’t want other men looking at their wives. Perhaps it is because they believe that their wives may leave them and subsequently choose to live with another man. The second reason is that they want their wives to have smooth skin. Let’s face it. It is the sun that matures our skin and finally brings us the creases and folds in our skin at an early age. By covering their faces, their faces will remain smoother for a much longer time.

But it is the women who wear the niqabs/burqas that suffer because wearing a black niqab on a particularily hot day must really cause them to overheat. In hot climates the reason women give for wearing black instead of white is that the light shines through white fabric revealing the woman's undergarments or legs. The problem is white fabric reflects heat, and black fabric absorbs heat. I can’t help but wonder if these veiled women look at westernized women with envy especially when they see scenes of women enjoying a day at the beach.

I believe that as the years go by, many Muslim women will refuse to wear the naqab because they will recognize that the wearing of it is an outdated custom. I also believe that Muslim women in westernized countries will make it very clear to Muslim men that if they want to marry them, they have to understand that will not wear the naqab/burqa. Until that time comes, these unfortunate women will continue to suffer the consequences of living with men who want that custom to continue forever.

If these women put a barrier to the showing of their faces, then they can’t integrate with other members of society, I can hardly see how friendships can be made, how social life can go on with someone whose appearance we don’t know.

The concern that I have (as do a great many others) that terrorists, robbers and cheats will wear the naqab/burqa for the purpose of disguising themselves. A terrorist women wore her naqab while disguising the fact that she wore an explosive vest.

How many times have we seen the naqab/burka being used to hide bombs, cover fleeing Muslim terrorists, commit jihad, kill infidels, etc.? Many times. Last May, police officer Stephen Liczbinski was shot in cold blood by burqa-wearing robbers.
Do we want applicants for driver’s licences to disguise their faces when applying for licences? Can we really be sure that the person who passed the qritten exam is the same person who is being given the licence?

In Ontario, citizens are entitled to free medical care. Can we be really sure that the woman wearing the naqab/burqa in the hospital is the same women who is actually entitled to that care and not simply a visitor from another country?

And now, the act of stupitiy has raised itself like a boil on one’s backside. Two veiled Muslims passed unchecked through an airport boarding gate in Montreal. When this became public, a prominent Islamic group dismissed our concerns as part of "a nasty campaign going on against the niqab."

Faced with unverified reports that niqab-clad travellers are routinely allowed to board airplanes without having their photo identification double-checked, Transport Canada has vowed to examine whether a security gap exists.

Transport Minister John Baird said "A serious concern has been brought to our attention. We're taking it very seriously and we're immediately going to look into it." Calling the reports "deeply disturbing," Mr. Baird said the probe will cover both the circumstances of the alleged breaches and potential issues with relevant security policies. He also said, "I've asked my departmental officials to conduct a full investigation to ensure that we have one law that applies to all."

The Montreal video comes amid mounting criticism of the niqab in Quebec, where the provincial government this spring introduced legislation that would require citizens to have their faces uncovered when receiving or dispensing public services.

While one moderate Muslim association points to the video as further evidence of why the niqab should be banned from public spaces, Farooq Khan, executive director of the North American Muslim Foundation, calls the latest furor absolute nonsense.

He also said, "There's a consistent effort going on by certain quarters just to discredit the niqab," he said, noting niqab-clad Muslims typically undergo thorough airport-security checks. Generally, these take place privately with the assistance of a female security agent, Mr. Khan said. He added, "Wearing a niqab does not mean one does not have to go through a security check."

That’s true however, the people at the airline counter have to compare the faces of the passengers with their passports and they cannot do this if the passenger’s faces are covered.

Another passenger video-tape the incident at the airport when the twoburqa-wearing women passed through the security gate. The handheld footage shows a man providing a stack of passports to airline staff, but neither of the veiled women accompanying him are immediately requested to lift the cloth to confirm their faces match those on the identification documents.

Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur declined to comment on the specifics of the Montreal incident, but said the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority which is governed by Transport Canada is responsible for security screening, and passengers undergo multiple checks before arriving at the boarding gate.

Passengers are required to show government-issued photo identification to airline staff before boarding, Ms. Arthur said. She confirmed there are "special procedures" to verify photo identification in a private area away from other passengers "as required for religious or medical reasons," but could not say whether such a procedure was followed in the case of flight 864 last month.

Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, questions the legitimacy of the video, noting it fails to show what transpired before or after the 46-second sequence of events. In general, Mr. Gardee said, Muslim women who wear the veil are "more than willing" to remove it for legitimate security and identification purposes.

Under federal identity screening regulations, airlines must be able to verify the identity of all passengers before they board a flight and have procedures in place to check anyone whose face is covered; a rule that must apply equally to all cultures and religions.

Meanwhile, a report from the QMI news agency suggests the video filmed at Trudeau is evidence of a broader-reaching security gap that has repeatedly allowed individuals clad in the niqab to board planes unchecked.

All of which has incensed external observers, such as Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress, whose group has called on Ottawa to ban the niqab in all public spaces.

"We could easily have a wanted terror suspect escape," Mr. Fatah said, suggesting individuals wearing full veils should be barred from accessing airports and train and bus depots. He added, "Staff are being bullied into compromising standards, and this could one day lead to other distractions and a lapse in judgment. This 'racism' blackmail must be put to an end."

What better way can a wanted person slip out of Canada or any other country than have him or her wearing a naqab/burqa when boarding a plane?

Several Muslim groups in Canada have expressed fears that the uproar around the incident is moving from one of lax airport security to one coloured by racism and Islamophobia. That is absolutely rubbish. That’s no different than saying that a murder by a Muslim causes everyone to hate Muslims.

“It’s all become an anti-Muslim thing, or Muslims have special privileges or this is politically correct,” says Alia Hogben, executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. “It’s obviously become a racial kind of issue, when in fact, from what I could gather, it seems to be a lapse by security personnel.”

Samer Majzoub, president of the Montreal-based Canadian Muslim Forum agrees, adding that Canadian Muslim leaders have expressed that the right to wear a religious covering such as the niqab should never trump security concerns. He also said, “We share the security concern of every citizen. We said if there was an issue of those women passing through, it is not their fault. It is the fault of whoever was there, the security people. It has been repeated by every Muslim leader, when it comes to a security issue, no one is against it (taking off the niqab). Who would be ready to compromise security for any citizen? No one.”

Baird, the Transport minister said that an airline employee at the boarding gate must confirm a passenger’s identity, and do a visual check of the person’s face with the person’s photo ID. Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesperson for Air Canada, says that as a result of the video, the airline has sent a reminder to employees to ensure that they are following the proper procedures. He said, “Our agents are trained to verify photo ID in a private area, away from other passengers. That can be for religious, or sometimes medical reasons.”

Despite this policy, a veteran airline worker at Canada's busiest airport said that few veiled Muslim women are forced to reveal their faces before boarding flights. The long-time frontline worker at Toronto's Pearson International Airport said there is no clear-cut policy given to airline workers on how to deal with this and other sensitive issues. He said, "It may be in the archives, but it is not presented to the workers."

Air Canada has disputed that, but employees working with various airlines in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa said checks often occur at the luggage check counter, if at all, and women who refuse to show their faces are simply allowed to board anyway.

The veteran Pearson worker said there are many factors that have led to what he deems a security risk: The lack of a clear policy from airline management, worries about political correctness, and often aggressive behaviour from men traveling with veiled women. He added; "In general, what happens is the woman stands at the back, the man comes up with the documents. He's quite aggressive and leaves little room for airline workers to challenge him.”

I for one, would not have permitted the veiled women to go on the plane no matter how angry the man accompanying them was. The decision to enter a plane rests with the airline people and their decisions should not be made for them by Muslims who feel that it is their God-given right to be processed in an airport in the manner that they choose.

Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress agrees that many airline workers would be too intimidated to ask veiled women to show their faces. He said, "Mainstream airline staff are scared they might get sued by the likes of the Five Flying Imams, so they avoid any hassles.”.

Transport Canada says there should be no confusion: “The airline must be able to verify the identity of all passengers before they are allowed to board,” the department said in a written statement.

Egypt's top Islamic cleric is planning to bar students wearing the face veil from entering the schools of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's premier institute of learning, according to an independent daily.

A security official also told The Associated Press on Monday that police have standing verbal orders to prohibit girls covered from head to toe from entering al-Azhar's institutions, including middle and high schools, as well as the dormitories of several universities in Cairo.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak to the press, said the ban was for security reasons. The moves appear to be part of a government crackdown on increasingly overt manifestations of ultraconservative Islam in Egypt.

While a vast majority of Egyptian women wear the head scarf, only a few wear the niqab, which covers the face and is common in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which practices the more conservative form of Wahhabi Islam. The trend seems to be gaining ground in the Arab world's most populous country.

Sheik of al-Azhar Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi's plans came to light when he told a middle school student in a class he was visiting earlier this week to take off her niqab.

Tantawi was inspecting al-Azhar's schools at the start of the academic year to check on measures in place to stem the spread of swine flu, according to details of the visit published Monday by the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Tantawi angrily told the girl that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and is only a custom and made her take it off. He then announced he would soon issue an order prohibiting girls wearing the niqab from entering al-Azhar schools. He said, "Niqab has nothing to do with Islam. ... I know about religion better than you and your parents," the cleric was quoted as telling the student.

Abdel Moati Bayoumi, a scholar in an al-Azhar affiliated research center, said al-Azhar's scholars would back Tantawi if he issues the order. He also said, "We all agree that niqab is not a religious requirement. Taliban forces women to wear the niqab. ... The phenomena is spreading and it has to be confronted. The time has come."

Critics of the move, however, say the ban has little chance of being implemented. A previous directive by the minister of religious endowment to ban women preachers wearing the niqab from mosques was hotly contested. A ban on nurses wearing full veil was announced last year, but not enforced.

A researcher wearing the niqab who was prevented from using the library at the American University in Cairo in 2001 took her case to Egypt's supreme court and eventually won. The court ruled a total ban on the niqab to be unconstitutional. The court did recommend that women wearing the niqab be made to uncover their faces before female security guards to verify their identity.

On Saturday, scores of female university students protested outside al-Azhar university dormitory calling for the repeal of the decision barring fully veiled women from entering. There were similar demonstrations at Cairo University.

Sheik Safwat Hijazi, a scholar and preacher, said he would sue anyone who prevented his daughter or wife wearing full niqab from going about her daily life, including entering government offices. "Preventing a woman from wearing what she wants is a crime," Hijazi said. "Whoever says the niqab is a custom is not respectable". More unadulterated garbage.

Hossam Bahgat, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said the series of government decisions against the niqab are arbitrary and, while designed to combat extremism, only end up being discriminatory against women.

"The veiled female students are barred from government subsidized housing and nutrition because they are considered extremists.” I think that is going too far.
A law banning students and staff from wearing veils and any other religious symbols in state schools was passed in France in 2004.

There are a few women on USA campuses in full veils, and no one notices until it comes time to take an exam where it's necessary to be photographed or to verify ID. Should fingerprints be substituted for face photos? That’s a good idea.

What are the attitudes towards USA women that appear in public, for example, on campuses, in transit, or in business wearing a full veil?

What's the difference between a full veil and a surgical mask worn by nurses and doctors? Nobody has ever asked a woman or man entering a bank or supermarket to remove a surgical mask, especially in the flu season or if the person has a health issue. Nobody would dare ask a person to remove his or her surgical mask in public, on a bus, or in a classroom. Your first thought is the person is protecting an immune system issue. However, there is a difference between wearing a surgical mask and having your entire body veiled.

One example regarding the attitude toward covered faces at shopping malls in Sacramento is that for the Arden Fair shopping center, hooded windbreaker jackets that cover the face are not welcome because of the males wearing hooded jackets in the past that had committed crimes in the shopping center or in some stores and banks. But no mention of rules regarding veiled women in shopping centers has been announced in the media. You see people in every type of traditional ethnic garments at shopping malls and college campuses across the USA. I see them shopping in our malls and stores and am not concerned. I don’t see them as a threat. However, if one terrorist wearing a naqab/burqa and an explosive device blows himself or herself up in a shopping area, I will be deeply concerned.

When it comes to businesses and public transit, is it live and let live? Or remove your hat, hooded jackets that cover the face, and sunglasses before entering any banks, credit unions, or federal buildings? Let's look at France, for example. Today France decided to take the first step towards barring Muslim women from wearing the full veil when using public services, but will stop short of calling for an outright ban in the streets after critics argued that such a move would be socially divisive and hard to enforce.

They banned the full veil in public transit, schools, and in businesses. You can still wear the veil in the street or in a private car. But can you see well enough to drive with a veil when the wind is blowing the veil over your eyes?

Imagine someone with a veil on a bike or motorcycle. The problem is vision and safety. And don't get too near public transit or traffic. A veil could be caught onto a snare or hook on a train, car, or bus, or even on rides at a theme park. Same goes for veils in the USA while on vacation.

In France, the problem of burkas and niqabs led to recommending to ¬parliament that Muslim women should be allowed to continue covering their faces in the street. Last year, women in veils moved freely at theme parks such as Sea World or Disneyland in California.

Nobody noticed, but the veils proved a problem for the women moving through the crowd and on the rides. And how do you eat sandwiches or ice cream at amusement parks wearing the veil where only your eyes are showing to the public?

As for France, its final report recommends that anyone covering their face be barred from entering public sector property, including hospitals and schools, or using public transport. It's a safety issue.

You have countries like France and the USA, catering to the secular crowd. How do you accommodate women in veils in public, business, and in schools? And you'd be surprised how many secular men in the USA say they want equal rights to wear veils, too. The topic of secular men asking for equal rights to wear full veils has nothing to do with women's modesty or women's rights to wear a full veil. As a journalist, you could ask the men why they would consider wearing full veils in public. Is it respectful to all equally to even discuss the subject in public?

Another reason why the full veil is not wanted in countries such as France, is that in Western countries, any man can don a veil, pretend to be a woman, and rob a bank or commit another crime without revealing his face or wearing a suspicious-looking ski mask.

If Europe bans the veil as a way to get rid of fundamentalism, then it's not going to work. Did you ever see a man donning a full-cover veil over his face and body to side with women in their protest to have the freedom to dress as modestly as they please in public? If the veil is about modesty, it can be misused in Western society by men or women to hide behind black cloth, concealing all identity as a male or female.

The view is can the veil be used to protect women from being bothered by men whistling at them as is frequently found in Western society? For example, when a young woman passes a group of construction workers, they can whistle or yell suggestive words at her, thereby disrespecting her or intimidating her in a public street or in transit on a bus or train.

On the other hand, in the USA, many banks have a sign, "please remove hats and sunglasses before entering bank." Now if you are covering for religious regions in the USA and don't remove your hijab and sunglasses, will you be thrown out of the bank? That depends upon the bank.

Most banks will not toss out women wearing head scarfs. But what if they enter a bank in a veil that covers their face and body so only their eyes show? Will they be ignored? Will only their eye makeup be stared at? Or will they be told to leave or remove the face covering? There's no way in the USA or Canada you can walk into a bank wearing a face mask, such as a Halloween mask, but what about a veil?

In some cases, women who refused to remove their face veil were denied driver's licenses in the USA unless they allowed themselves to be photographed from the neck up without a hat. In 2003, a Florida woman sued for the right to wear her veil for her driver's license photo and lost on appeal. The woman became Muslim five years previous to that date and applied for a driver's license in order to take her children to and from school. The ACLU says she has a right in the USA to wear her veil due to her religious beliefs. Where does church and state separate?

Should Florida make a separate law for each faith? Is it a public safety matter? Photographing a woman with her face covered and only the eyes showing on a driver's license makes it easy for anyone else to use the license or photo, unless the state uses fingerprints on drivers' licenses for identification, not photos.
If she drives with the veil, it would get in the way of her line of sight at times.

Is it safe to drive with a full-face veil. In the USA, the Education Testing Service, which administers several national exams, requires photographic identification, such as a driver's license or school ID, in order to take the SAT. For the GRE graduate-school exam, a photo must be taken at the actual test site. In both cases, ETS asks people taking the test who may be wearing a veil to remove their face covering in order to be identified and prevent any fraud.

In most US colleges, there are only a few female students who wear a full veil. Most women who cover wear the hijab, which covers their hair and neck. They wear either ankle-length dresses with long sleeves over blue jeans and comfortable walking shoes. There's another issue in the USA, women that are not Muslim, but want to wear the veil for reasons other than religion.

For example, some women who enjoy wearing a snood to cover the hair and long dresses on campuses may do so for reasons of modesty rather than religion, or to conceal leg braces. Some women may wear a face veil to conceal anything from a cold sore to facial disfigurement. It's an individual dress preference. Some Hasidic women cover their hair with a snood or wig and wear long dresses, but they don't cover their neck. Same goes for some Mormon, Amish, or Mennonite women who enjoy wearing long dresses.

You even have students on campus wearing dresses in the style of 1803 because of comfort and to celebrate the era of Jane Austin novels in neo-classic fashion. And that's not related to religious reasons for a certain dress style. But generally, if a woman on campus wears a full-veil, she's does not attract unwanted attention in the classroom.

In the USA, you dress the way you want. Schools will send you away if you show up without clothes. They won't look twice if you show up in a veil. The problem comes when you have to be photographed to take a standard school exam.

Europe is another picture. In France, under the proposals, a woman who fails to remove her veil inside when using any realm of the state would not face a fine for breaking the law, but would be refused access to the service. She would not, for instance, be allowed to collect her child benefit payments or take the bus.

President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has repeatedly said that the full veil "is not welcome" on French soil, is believed to favor this partial legislation, rather than more radical suggestions from recalcitrant members of his rightwing UMP party. France has agreed to ban the full veil in all public places other than the street. A woman in a full veil still can walk in the street in France.

Some people will argue that no one should feel stigmatized for wearing full-body covering. After all, people who are blind aren't stigmatized because they can't see. So why should a woman be turned away because only her eyes show to the public? She shouldn’t unless she enters a bank etc.

France will let women in veils walk in the street, but not ride the bus or do business, such as walking into banks. I think the concern about fully-veiled women in buses raises the specter or terrorism and in banks, robberies.

France wants to make clear by laws the garment's practical incompatibility with French values of sexual equality and freedom, according to reports. Banning the full veil either outright or partially in France serves to reinforce the isolation of women already partially alienated from mainstream society in Northern Europe.

Some westerners look at the total veil as a walking prison. Others see it as a halo of protection that honors women's right to take back the night. The complete veil in France is worn only by a small minority of Muslim women. According to police figures, no more than 2,000 women with most of them young and a quarter of them being converts who wear a face-covering veil.

France highly values laïcité – secularism – and which in 2004 banned headscarves in schools, it is unsurprising that such an overt display of religion has raised eyebrows. Despite wide-ranging opposition to the garment and polls showing that most French citizens favour a ban, opinions have differed on how to go about discouraging women from covering their faces. But in the USA, you can wear a veil if you want to, and you don't have to have any religious reason for doing so. Just don't go into a bank with your face covered. The cameras in the bank want to make sure you don't hide behind a veil for a criminal act.

After all, in the USA, any man can put on a veil, walk into a bank, and rob it, and no one will know if the person is male or female. That's why there are signs in so many US banks saying "remove your sunglasses and hats before you enter." And when you go for a driver's license or an identity card for non-drivers in the USA, you're going to be asked to have a full-face photo and fingerprinting for ID.

The question is, what happens to women or even men who decide in the USA or anywhere else to wear full body veils with only their eyes showing just because they want to dress that way for comfort or concealment of any disfigurement or just for warmth on a cold day?

They can't plead that they are practicing their religion. Can they say, it's for modesty or simply because they prefer to dress that way for comfort in areas where the weather creates problems such as high winds, sandstorms in Arizona? Yes, they can say that.

As I said earlier in this article, if Muslim women want to wear body-covering veils on our streets, them let them do so. However, they should forfeit their rights to go into banks or board planes wearing them and they shouldn’t be wearing them when they are driving vehicles or taking exams. If however, a suicide bomber wearing a body-covering veil kills innocent people on our streets or in our shopping stores or in our buses and trains, then we will seriously have to consider bringing in a law that would prohibit them from wearing these garbs at any time in public.