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Islamic Human Rights Commission - Red Sea Diver - 08-05-2003
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2nd August 2003
NEW CAMPAIGN – EUROPE WIDE HIJAB PROJECT
Please find details below of a new project IHRC will be working on and details
on how interested campaigners can take part.
Introduction
Sisters facing discrimination due to their wearing of hijab, or indeed any
type of Islamic dress is not a new phenomenon. As you are aware IHRC has
campaigned in the past for sisters in Turkey who have been faced with this type of
discrimination. Common scenarios have seen sisters being refused entry into higher
education, entry into employment and even refused medical assistance. In one
extreme case a family was even sentenced to the death penalty. Alhumdullillah
this was averted, see report titled “Report of IHRC Observer into the Legal
Proceedings against Huda Kaya and the Malatya 75”
http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=54).
Since the events of September 11 2001, the subsequent
“War on Terror” and the current “War in Iraq”, attacks on sisters in hijab have
increased dramatically. IHRC documented attacks on Muslims after September 11 in
the UK in two reports titled “UK Today: The Anti – Muslim Backlash in the Wake of
11th September 2001” published in October 2001
(http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=64) and a year later in “The Hidden Victims of
September 11: The Backlash Against Muslims in the UK”
(http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=385), published in September 2002. The
findings showed that the sisters in hijab, i.e. those most easily identified as
Muslim bore most of the attacks, ranging from verbal, psychological and even
physical.
Similar findings were also published in the February 2000 report titled Anti
– Muslim Hostility and Discrimination in the UK, 2000
(http://www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=52), which indicates that hostility towards
many Muslim women is a long-standing phenomenon.
Although IHRC’s reports focused on attacks occurring in the UK, we also
received reports of numerous cases in Europe, Australia and the USA.
It has recently emerged that in France new legislation is being proposed,
designed to curb the wearing of all religious symbols in public places. This
would have a huge impact on the many sisters in France who choose to wear the
hijab.
Hijab Project
The problems outlined above are just a fraction of the cases we hear about.
In light of the above, IHRC will be working on a Europe wide project on collecting
information about hijab discrimination.
The aims and objectives of this project are summarised below:
1. To collate Europe wide data on discrimination faced by Muslim women with
regard to their way of dress.
2. To use such data to inform policy makers of extant discrimination.
3. To use such data to map the needs of Muslim women across Europe and lobby
for local, national and regional provision for such needs as are identified.
We have prepared a questionnaire that will be used to collect cases of
discrimination and then used in a final report, to be used in parts 2 and 3 above.
IHRC are asking anyone who wishes to participate in this project to email us
at hijab@ihrc.org. We will then forward you a copy of the questionnaire, which
when filled in can be returned to us at the above email or faxed at (+44) 20 8904
5183. Alternatively if you are a member of a group and have your own list, you
may wish to forward the questionnaire and ask the group to return it to
hijab@ihrc.org.
Please be assured all information given will remain strictly private and
confidential. If there are any queries please do not hesitate to contact us at
hijab@ihrc.org, or by telephoning us on (+44) 20 8902 0888 or (+44) 20 8904 4222.
Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom
Telephone (+44) 20 8902 0888 or (+