There's been talk lately over whether to ban headscarves in Australian public schools.
A ban is a bad idea for a few reasons - mostly because
a) It is more likely to be totally ineffective and end up having girls wear the damn things out of defiance.
b) I'm a bit leery of the state dictating what you can and can't wear, as it tends to get to be a bit of a slippery slope.
(As the PM says: "If you ban a headscarf you might, for consistency's sake, have to ban a ... turban...."It does become rather difficult and rather impractical.")
On the other hand, Australian public schools do have set uniforms, and if said headscarf isn't part of the uniform - well, then I'm sorry, them's the breaks. Find a school that will let you wear it.
Of course that brings us to the question, "Should public schools add certain elements of religious/cultural significance to their school uniform policies?"
I'd say no, since the State Education system is supposed to be totally God-free, (Well, Except for the bizarre SRE classes I had that seemed to be mainly fundamentalist Christian propaganda rather than actual classes on Religion - but that's another topic.) and once you open the gates for this, you end up with things like young Muslim girls not being allowed to participate in school sport, or drama or other such thing....
Of course, there's also the question of just how "Islamic" headcoverings are, certainly, they're not specifically prescribed in the Koran, and it should be noted that the Bible has similar guidelines for women (which, curiously, isn't followed outside of old women wearing hats to church).
Then, according to this article from Amir Taheri, the hijab has as long and illustrious a history and as deep a religious significance as.....flared trousers.
As a final word, it's one thing to have your deity prescribing sexual behaviour, but once he starts making bizarrely inconsistent and seemingly random laws on everything from diet, clothing, tattoos, reading Harry Potter, whether you can boil a kid in its mother's milk or whether men with deformed genitals are allowed to go to worship....
....then it's time to give the old geezer the heave-ho.
Let's end the post with a quote from Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr first President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"...scientific research had shown that women's hair emitted rays that drove men insane"
I guess we should shave it all off, just to be sure....
UPDATE: Professor Bunyip has some more on the subject, including this delightful quote from this Age article by Iktimal Hage-ali, deputy chairwoman of the Youth Advisory Council.
It is not an element of culture, it is not an act of defiance nor is it a fashion statement to clash with the broader Australian community — it is a religious obligation that all Muslim women must follow.
Ok, fair enough....
....I guess she just forgot that one time...
Crazy old Mrs Barnes, who believed UFOs were demons and that Jesus had healed her knee.
Oh, and that "Young Earth" business. I wonder if she's made the leap to Intelligent Design?
Posted by: Flashman at August 30, 2005 08:24 PMI'm still scarred from her rendition of the tale of the destruction of Sodom....
Oh. My. Gawd.
Some of those videos were a cack, though. More blatant a character-assasination of Charles Darwin you have never seen...
Posted by: Aidan at August 30, 2005 08:46 PM