Ban on Muslim fashion: EU is violating human rights!
3/4/17
European
companies may forbid staff from wearing Islamic headscarves and other visible
religious symbols under certain conditions, the European Union's top court has
ruled, setting off a storm of complaints from rights groups and religious
leaders.
Such a ban does
not constitute what Europe's high court calls "direct
discrimination".
The ruling made
by the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the 28-nation EU, was in
response to two cases brought by a Belgian and a French woman, both fired for
refusing to remove their headscarves.
It clarified a
long-standing question about whether partial bans by some countries on
religious symbols could include the workplace.
The ruling came
on the eve of a Dutch election in which Muslim immigration is a key issue.
The court's
response also fed right into the French presidential campaign, bolstering the
platforms of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, a leading contender in the spring
election who wants to do away with all "ostentatious" religious
symbols in the name of secularism, and conservative Francois Fillon, who hailed
the court's decisions.
Islamic clothing
has also prompted similar debate within Australia, with One Nation's Pauline
Hanson openly opposing the burka on multiple occasions.
'People need
more protection against prejudice, not less'
In response to
the EU court's ruling, critics quickly voiced fears that the decision risks
becoming a setback to all working Muslim women.
"Today's
disappointing rulings … give greater leeway to employers to discriminate
against women — and men — on the grounds of religious belief," said a
statement by Amnesty International.
"At a time
when identity and appearance has become a political battleground, people need
more protection against prejudice, not less."
The Open Society
Justice Initiative, which submitted a brief supporting the women, expressed
disappointment.
The group's
policy officer, Maryam Hmadoum, contended that the decision "weakens the
guarantee of equality that is at the heart of the EU's antidiscrimination
directive," which the Court of Justice cited in weighing the cases.
The European
Court of Justice made separate decisions on the cases, but linked them.
In the Belgian
case, Samira Achbita, a receptionist at a security firm, was fired in June 2006
for wearing an Islamic headscarf, banned in a new set of internal rules by her
company that prohibited visible signs of their political, religious or
philosophical beliefs.
Belgium's Court
of Cassation sought guidance from the Luxembourg-based European court which
rules on cases involving EU law, which applies to all EU members.
While the cases
were linked by the European court, the French case differs and offers Asma
Bougnaoui a reason for optimism because the reasons for her dismissal as a
design engineer were based, not on internal rules, but on the complaint of a
customer unhappy with her Islamic headscarf.
The court said
that an employer's readiness to take into account the wishes of a customer, not
internal policy, don't qualify for the measure set out by the European Union: a
"genuine and determining occupational requirement".
Critics called
the ban a thinly veiled measure targeting Muslims.
"A ban on
religious and political symbols feels to me as a disguised ban on the hijab. I
cannot think of another symbol that will affect hundreds of thousands of people
in Europe ," Warda el-Kaddouri told Al Jazeera from
Brussels.
"By stating
that veiled women can simply take off their hijab, you imply that the
empowerment of women to be in control of their own body and to make individual
decisions is reserved for white women only."
Kim Lecoyer,
president of Belgium-based Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, told Al
Jazeera the ruling legitimised discrimination on the grounds of religion.
"The court
could and should have seized the opportunity to put a halt to the multiple
discriminations faced by Muslim women and protect their fundamental rights, but
they chose not to," said Lecoyer.
Anti-Muslim nationalism
The
wearing of religious symbols, especially the hijab, has become a hot button
issue with the rise of nationalist and sometimes overtly anti-Muslim parties
across Europe.
Some
countries such as Austria are
mulling a complete ban on the full-face veil in public, while in France last
year local authorities barred women wearing the burkini, the full-body
swimsuit, fining those who did.
Manfred
Weber, head of the centre-right European People's Party, the biggest in the
European Parliament, welcomed the ECJ's ruling as a victory for European
values.
"Important
ruling by the European Court of Justice: employers have the right to ban the Islamic
veil at work. European values must apply in public life," Weber said in a
tweet.
Al
Jazeera's Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, said Tuesday's ruling is
complex.
"The
idea behind it is that companies have the freedom to choose whether or not they
want to present a so-called neutral image and what they want to do to benefit
their business."
Butler
said the court ruled businesses should have the freedom to choose how they
operate, and that included choosing whether people would be allowed to wear items
such as hijabs or crosses on chains.
"It's going to
be very complicated to rule on such cases within each country, because it will
come under the jurisdiction of each separate nation in the EU, because there
are so many shades of grey what constitutes discrimination against somebody’s
religious freedom or not," she said./.
All comments [ 1 ]
Now, even fashion has been targeted. What on earth does the West claim them as land of human rights and democracy?!
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