Veils Revisited

Further to the Jack Straw business – and Norm’s post…

I mentioned in my earlier post that the number of women walking around with a veil in my part of London had noticeably increased in the past couple of years. I don’t think that’s because of an increase in the number of Muslims round here – there’s been a sizeable Muslim presence here for years – and it would be naive to assume that all of a sudden more and more young women are deciding to assert their increased spirituality. This is part of a regrettable dynamic within a section of the Muslim community (to use an unfortunate but necessary phrase) whereby the ratchet has been turning one way only – away from integration into British society, and towards an increasingly inflexible and extreme interpretation of Islam.

There are parallels here with the case of Shabina Begum, the Luton schoolgirl who appealed against her school’s decision to stop her wearing a jilbab, a more extreme version of the dress which the school had agreed was suitable for Muslim girls. On the surface this might have seemed to be simply a case of a restriction on the girl’s freedom, but in fact the girl – a 15-year-old orphan – was clearly being used by people with political axes to grind, in particular her elder brother, a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir. By winning the case, the school managed to put a stop to attempts to increase division and create a tension within the school and community, whereby young girls would feel pressured to show the extent of their Islamic devotion by adopting increasingly strict clothing.

Similarly the issue of the wearing of veils is not simply one of freedom of choice. Wearing a veil – or feeling compelled to wear a veil – has a political dimension at a time when the relations between Muslims and the rest of us has become a major concern. Now Jack Straw has used his position as a senior politician, representing a constituency with a large Muslim population, to open up some space for debate and to lend some support to the concerns of the more moderate Muslims who’ve been shouted down by the extremists for too long.

There’s this letter, for instance, in today’s Times, from Hesham El-Essawy, Chairman of the Islamic Society for the Promotion of Religious Tolerance:

Jack Straw is absolutely right. The veil that covers the entire face is not at all an Islamic tradition that can be supported by the Koran or the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. It is only a cultural phenomenon indicating excessive piety.
It must be remembered that the Prophet warned his followers not to become excessive in their practice and their conduct.

At last the ratchet may be starting to turn the other way – and, who knows, a few more women may find arguments as to why they shouldn’t have to dress up in medieval clothing to walk the streets of 21st century Britain.