The Telegrapgh
Former Archbishop of Canterbury says ‘panic’ about the niqab is ‘largely misplaced’ even if young children cannot see their teacher’s face
There is no need to “panic” about Muslim primary school teachers wearing the full-face veil in class, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Williams, has insisted.
He said concerns that young children would struggle to learn from a woman whose face was covered were “largely misplaced” and that there are other ways to “read” what people are saying.
The former Archbishop’s remarks, in an interview for the Christian think-tank Theos, reopen the debate about the place of the niqab in British public life.
It follows a political storm last year after the then Home Office minster Jeremy Browne called for a national discussion about restrictions in some settings such as schools to prevent young women from having the veil “imposed” on them.
David Cameron rejected the idea of a ban but said he would “back up” schools and courts that ask women to remove veils.
Categories: Europe and Australia, Women, Women Rights
Why should women hide their face from primary school children?
I think the honorable Archbishop is saying this with tongue in cheek.
1) There is no “niqab” in the Quran. Covering the face is not the Islamic concept of modest dress.
2) Islam does not prohibit women participating in public life. Wives of the Prophet used to tend to the wounded men in the battles. This means they talked to them, touched them, fed them and physically helped them to walk or move.
3) Ayesha, wife of the Prophet narrated more than 1200 ahadith. She told them to men.
4) She also participated in the politics of Madina and led a war. She must have been talking to other warriors who were men.
5) She accompanied the Prophet to watch the variety show which included gymnastics and other tricks by men. She stood close to the Prophet in public, on her toes to watch this show.
6) Prophet’s first and most beloved wife was a business woman, who employed the Prophet (a man) and proposed to him (no negative connotations) and Prophet accepted the proposition. (what else is a love marriage?)
7) All those Muslims, who are protesting in the West should know that Turkey, a Muslim majority country with the best economy and military in the Islamic world, banned niqab for women. Turkish parliament officially abandoned sharia law in 1926.