Your 'Liberation,' My Oppression: European Violation of Muslim Women's Human Rights

• Author: Afnan Akram
• Position: SMU Dedman School of Law
• Pages: 427-472

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2018 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

Your “liBEration,” MY opprEssion

EuropEan Violations of MusliM WoMEn’s HuMan

rigHts

Afnan Akram

SMU Dedman School of Law

E-mail: aakram@mail.smu.edu

e freedom of religion and the right to individual autonomy are cornerstones of

any democratic society. However, many countries violate these values under the

guise of human dignity, equal rights, and cultural integration. I argue that these

violations began with the face-veil ban in France and expanded to other coun-

tries, including Belgium and Austria. rough surveys and personal experience,

I maintain that these bans have a disproportionate impact on Muslim women

who choose to cover their faces as a part of their religious beliefs and personal

identity. is essay introduces the importance of the veil in Islam, discusses how

the face-veil bans facially violate several Articles of the European Convention on

Human Rights, the issues with the European Court of Human Rights’ reasoning

for upholding the bans, the bans’ consequences on Muslim women who live in

countries which have implemented them, and future complications that may

arise from the holdings of case law on these bans.

Keywords: Islam, Human Rights, European Convention on Human Rights, Law and

Religion, Regionalism, Freedom of Comparative Law.

V Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law 427-472 (July 2018)

428

Akram

e ultimate decision [of the hijab] must be that of the individual.

Western opinions on the hijab or burqas are rather irrelevant. We

don’t get to decide for Muslim women what does and does not

oppress them, no matter how highly we think of ourselves.

Roxane Gay

I. INTRODUCTION

Some of the most essential values embodied in the Western world are

the freedom of religion and the right to individual autonomy. Unfor-

tunately, many so-called modern countries still lag far behind with re-

ligiously restrictive and ethnically selective policies, one of which are

the blanket “burqa bans.” In countries such as France, Belgium, and

Austria, these rights are restricted forselect individuals, leaving one

wondering whether these rights extend only to certain people and be-

liefs. While the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has largely

prohibited discriminatory behavior through various Articles dedicated

to the protection of each individual’s private life and religious freedom,

the burqa ban still exists. ese bans prevent people from covering their

faces in public for any reason, with exceptions provided specically for

occupational, health, sports, or artistic or traditional festivals. is has

a disproportionate impact on veiling Muslim women.

e burqa bans prohibit these women from practicing a central

tenet of their faith, one that is essential to their spirituality, a part of

their core identity, and most importantly, entirely unrelated to their

interactions with anyone else. In depriving only certain women of

the right to practice their faith in public based on fallacious beliefs of

oppression, gender inequality, and assimilation, countries with burqa

bans cut veiling Muslim women from the fabric of society. ese

bans send a clear-cut Islamophobic message to Muslim communities,

announcing that they are unwelcome unless they accommodate their

beliefs to the socially accepted customs of today’s society.

I have personally experienced the impact of the bans on Muslim

women around the world. rough the help of surveys, I have compiled

evidence which disproves the essential theories on which the burqa bans

429

Your Liberation, My Oppression: European Violation of Muslim Women’s Human Righs

Akram

are based. In upholding these facially neutral but disproportionately

discriminatory laws, the European Court of Human Rights has shown

Europe’s blatant disregard to the Western oppression of veiling Muslim

women. is paper presents evidence which discusses the importance

of the veil to Islamic culture, the ECHR’s Articles which are violated by

the burqa bans, the burqa ban legislations and the case law surrounding

them, and the detrimental impact these bans have had and may have

on Muslim women in the future.

II. RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF THE

VEIL

e commandment for Muslim women to cover themselves comes from

the Quran, the Islamic sacred text. In the Quran, God commands, “O

Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the be-

lievers to bring down over themselves [part] of their outer garments.”1

In another chapter, God orders,

And tell the believing women to restrict their vision and guard

their private parts and not expose their adornment except that

which [necessarily] appears thereof, and to wrap [a portion

of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their

adornment except to their husbands, their fathers, their [father-

in-laws], their sons, their brothers, [their nephews], their

women . . .2

us, Muslim women were and are instructed to cover themselves

in a modest fashion in front of men to whom they are not closely related.

ere are three main types of clothing worn by Muslim women. e

rst, and the most common, is the hijab, which covers the hair, neck,

and entire body, exposing only the face, hands, and feet. en there is

the niqab, which is similar to the hijab, except that it also covers the face,

leaving only the eyes visible. Lastly, there is the burqa, which covers the

entire body, including the eyes; it includes a mesh panel across the eyes,

1. Quran 33:59.

2. Id. at 24:31.