As the Niqab debate rumbles on, Channel 4 undertook a poll on the ‘Niqab’ and the shocking findings are listed here. It suggested that nearly half of the British public wanted the Niqab to be banned in public places. This coming on the back of recent debates once again on the Niqab and with politicians throwing their lot into the debate.
We thought that we would do a quick review of Niqab related cases that we have had into TELL MAMA since the launch of the project in early 2012. This bar chart shows the number of cases that have been reported in relating to women who chose to wear the Niqab.
NB: months in which one person reported several events (which occasionally dated back to before the initial report date.) Pale blue indicates the number of unique reports in these cases relating to Niqab wearing women.
The following table shows the kinds of abuse targeted at women who wear the Niqab.
The longer media pundits, politicians and news agencies use the Niqab as a cheap means of generating more viewers, listeners or supporters, the more such women will, unfortunately, be on the brunt end of these comments and aggression. What is also worrying is that such is the hysterical discussions taking place on the Niqab, that the sane and liberal voices are simply being drowned out. How long can we continue to call ourselves a liberal society when the space for women to wear what they want on their bodies is simply being closed down. What next, Orthodox Jewish women since we don’t like the hair coverings they wear?