Australia Caves On Niqab Segregation In Parliament

Looks like Australia caved on a plan to segregate visiting Muslim women- donning burqas and niqabs- at Parliament House. It was proposed, citing obvious security concerns, but too many people balked, and so, boom, it's gone.  They were to be seated in glassed enclosures where rambunctious school kids usually sit during parliament visits.

One would think the women would be happy to be separated from potential contact with males, after all, they are segregated in their mosques, why should they care. This really isn't very different from the segregation they already encounter, but human rights and race discrimination activists thought differently.

Race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane told Fairfax Media the original ruling meant Muslim women were being treated differently to non-Muslim women.

"No-one should be treated like a second-class citizen, not least in the parliament,” he said.

“I have yet to see any expert opinion or analysis to date which indicates that the burqa or the niqab represents an additional or special security threat.”

What?  They want to be treated differently than non-Muslim women, that's why they wear burqas and niqabs in a Western society in the first place. And if they're wearing burqas, they're already being treated as second-class citizens, so what's the difference.  And burqas and niqabs are most definitely a security threat. Lot's of space under that garb to hide any manner of explosives or weapons.

But it wasn't just activists who were opposed.

..Labor opposition frontbencher Tony Burke welcomed the backdown but said the initial decision should never have been made.

“What possessed them to think that segregation was a good idea?” he said.

“Segregation was previously introduced, apparently, with no security advice attached to it and no security reason attached to it.”

Apparently, they have now changed the rules.

The Department of Parliamentary Services said in a statement that the rules had been changed and all visitors must now “temporarily remove any coverings” that prevent the recognition of facial features.

“This will enable security staff to identify anyone who may have been banned from entering the building or who may be known to be a security risk,” it said.

“Once this process has taken place visitors are free to move about the public spaces of the building, including all chamber galleries, with facial coverings in place”.

Fools.

Source: Al Arabiya

Chicago ATM Robber Wears Burqa To Hide Dectection

Gildardo Lopez Jr. was afraid he was about to lose his job with Garda Cash Logistics, so the Chicago ATM tech decided he would rob a Chase bank, wearing a burqa, take the money and run off to the Dominican Republic. Trouble is, he asked an employee at the bank for a key that would disable the alarm system.  The worker then told the FBI, and Lopez was arrested.

As FBI agents watched in the early morning hours Thursday, ATM technician Gildardo Lopez Jr. walked up to the Chase bank branch at 14 S. LaGrange Rd. disguised as a woman with a black burqa over his face, a walkie-talkie connected to ear buds and carrying a black suitcase, authorities said.

Lopez slipped on a pair of latex gloves and went inside the bank’s ATM vestibule. When he emerged 15 minutes later, authorities said, the suitcase was stuffed with $168,174 in cash.

“There’s a lot of money in there,” the complaint quoted Lopez as telling FBI agents who took him into custody. Later, while under arrest at the LaGrange police station, he called his older brother and was overheard by an agent saying, “Call Leo, I f****d up,” the charges alleged.

The rest here.

This is one of many reasons why burqas should be banned.

The Ugliest Islamic Face Veil Of All- The Burghu

The burghu, not to be mixed up with the wheat product bulgur, is probably one of the ugliest forms of Islamic face coverings you will ever encounter. There's very little information out there other than references to it in an article in Gulf News regarding a recently published book by Dr. Reem El Mutwalli titled 'Sultani, Changes in Women's Traditional Dress in the UAE during the reign of Shaikh Zayid Bi Sultan Al Nahyan 1966-2004.'

The burqa, and niqab are ugly enough:

Afghan Blue Burqa

Niqab

But the burghu looks like a cross between something out of some  fetishist/S and M catalogue and some kind of muzzle you'd use on a vicious pet. It also disturbingly resembles a mustache, at least in the photos below, which are published in Mutwalli's book.

Mutwalli  actually has an uber cool website, and a Pinterest board where you can see other photos of traditional outfits worn during the period of time she writes about, some of which are actually quite beautiful. But this burghu... it's  just another symbol of the "muzzling" of Arab Muslim womenfolk. According to some info on one of the photos on her Pinterest board (although that one is called a Bandari costume), the younger generation no longer wears them, and it's usually married older women and rural dwellers in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Arabs of southern Iran and southeastern Turkey who still do.

Source: Gulf News

UK Judge Tells Woman To Remove Burqa

Bravo to UK Judge Peter Murphy who told a burqa-clad woman that she must remove her burqa before submitting her plea. She was accused of intimidating a witness.

The judge said:

“While I obviously respect the right to dress in any way she wishes, certainly while outside the court, the interests of justice are paramount.

“I can’t, as a circuit judge, accept a plea from a person whose identity I am unable to ascertain."

“There is the principle of open justice and it can’t be subject to the religion of the defendant whether the principle is observed or not.” 

“I am not saying this because of the particular form of dress by this defendant I apply that to any form of dress that had the same issues.”

More details on Al Arabiya.

Video- Students Wear Burqas At Syrian Rebel School

Shariah comes to rebel held regions of Syria.

Apparently, you would never have seen a girl wearing a burqa in Syria, until now. The video shows school girls in a classroom somewhere near Aleppo wearing burqas, not hijabs (headscarves) but burqas.

Very sad.

Local Afghan Burqa Industry In A Slump

Apparently, the local Afghan burqa industry isn't doing as well as it used to during the Taliban heyday. There's fierce competition from China (which makes them cheaper), and younger women are choosing to not cover their faces.  Of course, most women still wear those ugly blue sacks, and it has actually increased outside of Kabul, since U.S. troop withdrawal.

Chinese Burqas $10.00 - $20.00
Afghanistan Burqas: $20.00 - $60.00

China making burqas? Who would have thought.

Burqa Blue Band- Video of the week

Burqa Blue Band has been around for at least a decade, but I only just discovered this. The all-female, underground band based in Afghanistan has traveled as far as Germany, and even has an album. No-one knows who they are, and I'm not sure if they still exist.

Here's another tune "No Burka".

What a hoot.

- Of course it was a joke to sing in the burkas, but it was also necessary to wear them. If people in Afghanistan knew who the members of the Burka Band were, we could be attacked or killed because there are still a lot of religious fanatics here, says Nargiz, who hasn't told any of her friends that she has played in the Burka Band.

My mother wears a burka
My father does it too
I have to wear a burqa
The burqa it is blue

The sky over Kabul
is also very blue
The blue is from the burqa
Burka burka blue

Blue Blue Burka Blue

My grandma wears a burka
And My grandpa does it too
I will wear this burqa
But only just for you

We all now wear a burqa
you don't know who is who
If you want to meet your sister
It can be your uncle too

You give me all your love
You give me all your kisses
And then you touch my burqa
and do not know who is it

Blue Blue Burka Blue

My mother wears blue jeans now
and I am so surprised
The things are changing faster
I don't know if it's right

Burqa joke of the day- Burqa Line Up

Burqa joke of the day: School Photo

Burqa Hussy- Burqa joke of the day

Burqa and The Penguin- Burqa Joke Of The Day

Have a series of these I will be posting.

H/T Iran SFR Facebook

Photo of the day- Afghanistan Burqa-Clad Women In Trunk Of Car

Exactly how women are viewed (or not viewed) in Afghanistan. Sad. Probably wives number 2 and 3. Number 1 is inside the car with the brood of kids and the goats.

Saudi Car For Women- Joke of the day

This is actually an Afghan burqa and Saudi women wear niqabs. It's still sad, but funny.

Joke of the day: Taliban Singles Online

Brussells University Debate Heckled By Muslim Fundamentalists

There is no civil discourse when it comes to Islamic fundamentalists. They allow no room for debate, no freedom of speech, and civility is a word that does not seem to exist in their lexicon. We often witness their uncivilized behaviour at University lectures and debates.  Back in 2010, on the UC Irvine Campus, Muslim students heckled a lecture on American/Israeli relations given by Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Michael B Oren.  The video shows just how disrespectful the students were.

This time their boorish behaviour was captured on tape at a Brussels University (ULB) where French journalist Caroline Fourest (a secularist) was set to debate Hervé Hasquin on the subject: "Has the extreme right become socially acceptable or not?" Fourest, a feminist, anti-racist, anti-Islamic Totalitarianism  received death threats (along with 11 others) in 2006 for signing: Manifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism, a response to the violence that erupted after the Danish Jyllands-Posten Mohammed Cartoons. 

The debate had yet to begin when some rabble-rousers (including some niqab-clad women) started heckling the participants accusing Fourest of Islamophobia.  At about 4:36 on the video below, they start getting rowdy and chanting "Burqa!!"  bla-bla.

At one point, after being goaded by the debate moderator Guy Haarscher into coming on stage to speak, the instigator of the protest, Souhail Chichah, an assistant and researcher in economics at the university, grabbed a veil and continued his harangue.  Apparently, Chichah (who is said to have extremist views) had for several days been calling for "Burqa Pride" on various social networks, and was devoted to the "stoning of Caroline Fourest".

Fourest finally left, escorted by security, saying she would never return.

University officials were so outraged by this clear violation of freedom of expression, that the rector has called for a disciplinary board to look into what actions should be taken against Chichah.

He should be fired.

 


H/T Islam In Europe