“National security” is the most absurdly-commonly-used pretext to fight and negate Niqab. Islamic Niqab (religiously related head and face-covering dress-manner worn in public) is a very controversial matter nowadays. People everywhere are taking stands against Muslim women wearing Niqab. More interestingly; each has his own conviction, agenda, and reasoning for refusing and negating Niqab.
Among all those reasons, I think, “national security” is the most absurd and yet the most dangerous. Why? Because it gives implicit justification for aggression and hostility against that “Niqab-wearing Muslim woman”. This is due to a “supposedly” legitimate reason. Yet, that “supposedly legitimate reason” is completely false. Let me give you my reasoning for falsifying it in a sort of bullet points;
Reason number one:
First of all, Niqab is a personal choice. It is a religious wear for Muslim women that they chose to wear for the sake of pleasing God. So, I find it very oppressing to deprive a group of people from making a personal choice of their own to follow teachings of their religion. It is not harming to others in any way or form.
Reason number two:
Furthermore, how dangerous is Niqab truly to national security of any country? We brag about our modern age scientific and technological leaps and advancements. We have finger prints, eye prints, identification documents of all kinds and sorts and moreover, can easily appoint women to personally check Niqabi women if necessary. How hard can that be?
Reason number three:
Moreover, Niqab is not only Islamic. You can find remnants of it in all religions and civilizations. Christian women wore it and, even still, royals wear some sort of it in weddings and funerals as a sign of modesty and dignity. Jewish women wore it and still some (women of some sects; Haredi Jews)* wear it to this day. Is their Niqab banned as well? Furthermore, you can find statues, portraits, and tomb statues with women warring head and face veils referring to Greek and Latin civilizations. Moreover, civilizations of the Far East have some form of head and face veil in their history and modern lives as well. Are all those banned as well?
Reason number four:
In addition, Muslims should not be penalized for adhering to their religious heritage while others are not. While most Jewish and Christian women still wear headscarf inside temples and churches then taking it off outside, Muslim women are punished for adhering to the teachings of their religion.
Reason number five:
Further, Niqab-ban is a part of Islamophobia. It is a freedom restricting legislation and, an act of aggression and prejudice against Islam in general and Muslim women in specific. Sadly, prejudice against Niqab has been exported even into Muslim countries and societies that are not so “religious”.
Niqab-ban is part of a huge constellation of ideas, acts, and legislation along with media propaganda that anti-Islamist use to attack, defame and distort Islam. No one can give an accurate count of ‘Niqab wearing women’ causing a ‘national security crisis’, let alone, their “true percentage” in all actual security compromising incidents.
To sum up,
Niqab is not a national security compromising thing. Actually, there are numerous ways to solve the security problem if only it were “the issue” here. In fact, Muslim women freely choose to wear it seeking to please God, as did women of several religions and cultures. Certainty, Niqab-ban is viewed as a part of anti-Islamism and a freedom restricting legislation.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haredi_burqa_sect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_headcovering
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24118241
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24118241
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Orthodox_Old-Rite_Church
Image source: ilkha.com
