Swiss voters have narrowly approved a proposal to ban face coverings, both niqabs and burkas worn by a few Muslim women in the country and the ski masks and bandannas used by protesters.

The measure will outlaw covering one’s face in public places such as restaurants, sports stadiums, public transport or simply walking in the street.

It foresees exceptions at religious sites and for security or health reasons, such as face masks people are wearing now to protect against Covid-19, as well as for traditional carnival celebrations. Authorities have two years to draw up detailed legislation.

Two Swiss cantons, or states, Ticino and St Gallen, already have similar legislation that foresees fines for transgressions. National legislation will put Switzerland in line with countries such as Belgium and France that have already enacted similar measures.

The Swiss government had opposed the measure as excessive, arguing that full-face coverings are a “marginal phenomenon”. It argued that the ban could harm tourism – most Muslim women who wear such veils in Switzerland are visitors from Persian Gulf states, who are often drawn to Swiss lakeside cities.

Experts estimate that at most a few dozen Muslim women wear full-face coverings in the country of 8.5 million people.

Supporters of the proposal, which came to a vote five years after it was launched, argued that the full-face coverings symbolise the repression of women and said the measure is needed to uphold a basic principle that faces should be shown in a free society such as Switzerland’s.

In the end, 51.2% of voters supported the plan. There were majorities against it in six of Switzerland’s 26 cantons – among them those that include the country’s three biggest cities, Zurich, Geneva and Basel, and the capital, Bern. SRF public television reported that voters in several popular tourist destinations including Interlaken, Lucerne and Zermatt rejected it.

Backers included the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, which is the strongest in parliament. The committee that launched the proposal is led by a politician from the party, Walter Wobmann, and also initiated a ban on the construction of new minarets that voters approved in 2009.

A coalition of left-leaning parties that opposes the proposal put up signs ahead of the referendum that read: “Absurd. Useless. Islamophobic.”

Mr Wobmann told SRF that the initiative addressed both “a symbol of a completely different system of values… extremely radical Islam” and security against “hooligans”. He said that “this has nothing to do with symbolic politics”.

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Prime Minister Theresa May has scolded her former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, for saying that Muslim women who wear burqas look like letter boxes or bank robbers.

Johnson, who resigned last month over the way May is negotiating Brexit, wrote in The Daily Telegraph this week that Denmark was wrong to ban the burqa, a head-to-toe cloak which conceals the face with a mesh or is worn in conjunction with the niqab – a face veil that leaves only the eyes exposed.

But Johnson also said the robe was oppressive, ridiculous and made women look like letter boxes and bank robbers, prompting an outcry from other politicians and British Muslim groups.

“I think Boris Johnson used language in describing people’s appearance that has obviously caused offence. It was the wrong language to use. He should not have used it,” May said.

She added that women should be free to wear the burqa if they chose to do so.

Full-face coverings such as niqabs and burqas are a polarising issue across Europe, with some arguing that they symbolise discrimination against women and should be outlawed. The clothing has already been banned in France.

Politicians across Europe are calling for a ban on the Islamic veil but Bosnian Muslim Indira Sinanovic is defying the trend as well as widespread prejudice in her own country, becoming the first fully-veiled woman here to run for public office.

Sinanovic, 37, wears the niqab – a garment that covers the hair and all the face apart from the eyes – and her aim if elected to the council in her central Bosnian hometown of Zavidovici is to battle prejudice and social exclusion.

Bosnia has no laws against the public wearing of the niqab and the burqa, clothes that have come to be associated with a fundamentalist reading of Islam, but a ban on court officials wearing headscarves has made Sinanovic and other activists wary.

“It’s the basic right of every citizen,” said the outspoken mother of two, speaking ahead of Sunday’s election in the office of IML (Islam My Life) Television in the town of Zenica, where she works as a journalist.

“(If elected) I would try to turn attention to the people who live in poverty, to be their voice in the municipal council and push for projects to improve their social status,” she said.

Bosnia has one of Europe’s largest indigenous Muslim populations, a legacy of its centuries-long history as part of the Ottoman Empire, but prejudice against overt displays of religion is widespread and Sinanovic has borne her share of it.

Sinanovic, who wears a long black robe and hides her eyes behind glasses, says she herself has been called names in the street such as “Ninja” or “Terrorist” or has been told “Go to Afghanistan” and “Go to Syria”.

Islam has traditionally been very liberal in multi-ethnic Bosnia, which for nearly 50 years was part of officially atheist Yugoslavia, but attitudes have shifted since the three-year Bosnian war, when Catholic Croats and Orthodox Christian Serbs fought a war of “ethnic cleansing” that cost 100,000 lives.

Poverty is still widespread 20 years later and Bosnia remains deeply divided between Serbs, Croats and the Muslim Bosniaks.

Arab mujahideen fighters who came to help their Bosniak co-religionists during the war brought more conservative habits with them, as did an influx of Saudi money after the war, much of which financed the building of traditionalist mosques.

The following video – posted by a Muslim female named Umm Aqsa, once again shows a male questioning why a female chooses to wear the abaya and the Niqab (face veil). The video highlights how a simple trip for shopping turns into a tirade about the identity and clothing of the Muslim female.

We have said before that anti-Muslim bigotry crosses race and religions. In this instance, the perpetrator is a black male and can be seen in the video. We have also listed the comments of Umm Aqsa underneath the video to highlight her thoughts, but we must also add that she subsequently has received lots of positive messages from the public supporting her and this needs to be highlighted. When we highlight such issues, it is important to remember that there are lots of people who reject such bigotry and lots who believe that Muslims are fellow citizens. This is always important to remember.

Comments from the Facebook Page of Umm Aqsa

I can not believe what I had to endure today. Honestly couldn’t believe it. Thank you to the uncle and brother who came in and had a go at the man.

I was minding my own business so I had to pop into the shop down in Shepherds Bush to grab something. As I entered, this guy who I’ve seen around the area decided to call me ‘ batman’ he even sang the theme tune to his little girls and told them to guess if I’m a man or a women. He told his girls that people like me don’t speak English etc.
I tried to hold it all in but I couldn’t after everything he was saying. I told him he is ignorant and that his kids will be ignorant also if he doesn’t change his way and attitude . He kept going on so i decided to record him and he was aware of this. How ironic he called me ISIS
Please keep in mind his daughters are scared and crying! !

The post Video Shows the Bigotry That Women Who Wear The NIqab Have to Face appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Since Jack Straw’s comments exactly a decade ago, the Niqab has been in political debate which at times have become heightened. Currently, there are reports that the Prime Minister is considering a ban on the veil in schools, courts and other public institutions. No doubt, the Niqab will become the subject of much debate over the coming months.

In light of this, very rarely do women who wear the veil have the chance to speak about the impacts of people’s prejudices against them. How many newspaper reports, when reporting on political developments about the Niqab, have then interviewed women who choose to wear the veil. Very few have and in fact, we can’t recollect seeing a Niqab wearer being approached by news outlets when discussing the topic recently.

We want to highlight the other side of the coin – the fact that women who wear the Niqab are subject to prejudice, aggression and open hatred at points. It is also important to note that over the last 4 years of work within Tell MAMA, it is clear that women who wear the Niqab suffer more incidents of anti-Muslim hatred and more aggressive incidents of anti-Muslim hatred, including assault.

These are the words of a Muslim woman who wears the Niqab and who recounted her experiences for us.

“I’m worried about the day my 7 year old daughter suddenly tunes into the daily abuse, realises it’s her mother that these respectable-looking strangers – maybe parents of her schoolfriends during pick-up or drop-off, maybe the people behind us in the supermarket queue – are talking about / to.

“And what do I tell her? I’ve brought her up to believe people of all faiths are equally worthy of respect; the majority of her schoolfriends are Hindu or Christian. How can I explain to her that these people hate me because of the visible clues to my faith – particularly my outfit? Me, who taught my little girl that she should never care what other people thought about her appearance, to be proud of her mixed-race looks and unique dress sense (we’re talking Cinderella ball gown with trackie bottoms, or Batman cape over Hello Kitty dress).

“What if she’s ashamed to be seen with her mother? What if she’s angry with these strangers for hating on her mother, starts believing non-Muslims are abusive bad people who hate Muslims? What if she develops a fear of white strangers instead of her beautiful trademark confidence and friendliness? What if she’s present when the trolley-shoving, the jostling, the swearing, escalates into a more vicious kind of physical violence? There’s only so much verbal abuse and sly jostling/ shoving I can take passively before I turn round and tell them to have some manners.

“I’ve had women my mum’s age making explosion sounds at me and calling me ISIS, men my age telling me I’m disgusting, women younger than me telling me to f*** off back to Saudi. I’ve been called terrorist, dirty scum, f***** freak, Islamic whore, brown c********, Arab f****, Jihadi b*****…… All in front of my 7-year-old daughter. I had a trolley rammed into my belly when I was pregnant; it was after a bunch of skinheads made knife gestures at me that I stopped going out by myself until I gave birth and no longer felt like a walking target as a pregnant niqabi. I’m pretty confident that I could defend myself but I couldn’t risk the life of my unborn baby.

“If I’m out with my husband I get dirty looks and hissed insults at most; people only become audibly abusive or openly confrontational when I’m out without my husband – unfortunately the presence of my little girl doesn’t seem to silence them in the same way.”

The post With the Niqab Being a Political Football, Let’s Listen to the Voice of One Who Wears It appeared first on TELL MAMA.

We received a report today about an assault on a Niqab wearing female which took place yesterday at around 7 pm on the 2nd of December 2015.

The witness to the assault was on the 333 bus from Tooting and she was travelling towards Elephant and Castle when a white male aged between 50-60 years old made his way towards the exit of the bus and where a woman who was wearing a Niqab was standing. Overweight and scruffily dressed, the white male suddenly assaulted the female and punched her twice in the back as the bus doors opened and he calmly walked off the bus and muttered something to the victim. Individuals on the bus witnessed the assault, yet no-one helped the victim.

Seeing this violence, the witness who reported in this incident asked if the Niqab wearing female was ‘ok’ to which she nodded and she later got off at her stop and walked off into the distance.

Time and time again, women who wear the Niqab have told us that they suffer numerous anti-Muslim hate incidents and crimes against them, many of which involve assaults.

Rightfully, as a society, we abhor violence against women, yet, why do some males in our society think that it is appropriate to target, humiliate and harm a female who covers her face and body? Such actions are unacceptable and deserve nothing but our contempt as a society. No individual should be targeted for their identity though assaults against females should rouse us into action since it touches on the core of our values, the protection of women’s rights. The non-action of members of the public on the bus yesterday may well have given the green light to this woman beater that it is acceptable to target Niqab wearing women. It is not acceptable and we need to make that clear to thugs like him.

The post Assault on Niqab Wearing Women Shows the Male Violence Many Suffer appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Two Glasgow based young female Muslims contacted Tell MAMA today. The young women are aged 16 and 21 years old and with the younger female wearing a Hijab and the older one, a Hijab and a Niqab.

On Saturday the 17th of October at 11 pm, the girls were waiting to enjoy some desserts in a restaurant and noticed a group of two white males and females. As they walked past the table of the sisters, one of the men was overheard saying, “why has she got that on her face,” at the Niqab wearing female. The sisters decided to ignore the comment and carried on looking through the menus.

A little while later the Niqab wearing female headed to the toilets and as she did, she noticed loud shouting coming from her table. She turned round and headed back to find the group harassing her elder sister and they stated, “get that f***** piece of s*** of your head you b****“. The group were swearing at the seated Muslim female and as the young sister approach the table, the group started abusing her. They stated, “and why has she got her f***** face covered.“

The women stated to Tell MAMA that none of the staff who heard the anti-Muslim abuse intervened. Both sisters did not react as the abuse continued in the restaurant with no bystander helping in any way.

The perpetrators it seems, decided to continue conversations with staff in the restaurant and as one of the females got up to order some food from the till, she was informed that the staff could not serve them. Hungry, angry and humiliated the young women left the restaurant and felt that the staff had acted in a manner which supported the actions of the perpetrators.

This case has been passed to Police Scotland for action.

The post Glasgow Based Hate Incident Shows Aggression Levels That are Concerning appeared first on TELL MAMA.

This is a case that came into Tell MAMA a few days go. Nazleen (the identity has been altered), wears a Niqab and an Abaya, (the black body over-garment) worn by more socially conservative Muslim women. Nazleen is 22 years old and she was travelling on a bus when a white female, aged around 40 plus years of age, started to look at Nazleen in an aggressive manner. She then started to say something to Nazleen, who took off her headphones, and the female perpetrator stated, “you wearing that Niqab is going back to the traditions of the Victorian era. We women fought hard for women’s rights, so why would you do this?” The perpetrator also went onto state, “you could be hiding a gun under your garment.” The abuse continued with the perpetrator stating that she felt scared by Nazleen and that she felt intimidated by her. She also stated that Nazleen looked like she was a ‘ghost’.

The intimidation and abuse of young Nazleen continued as the female perpetrator then said that Nazleen probably could not read or write and that she was being manipulated by men.

As Nazleen went to get off her stop, in a moment of empathy a passenger asked her if she was ok and Nazleen alighted from the bus.

In contacting Tell MAMA Nazleen stated, “I’m not hurt or upset by this incident. I’m used to it to be honest but with the rise in Islamophobic attacks I thought to report it so more awareness is created of incidents like this.”

The post “You Wearing That Niqab is Going Back to Traditions of the Victorian Era,” Says Perpetrator appeared first on TELL MAMA.