policy & reform
campusreview.com.au
How can she show
her face in one space and
hide it in another? I think
it could create confusion
and resentment.
AN ISLAMIC PRACTICE?
Breaking cover
Should burqas be banned
in university classrooms?
By Loren Smith
“W
hy do you wear all black?
Why are you even still alive?
It isn’t fair to us.”
While Australian universities grapple with
isolated Islamophobic attacks, like the one
quoted above, which was directed at two
female Indonesian students in Canberra
earlier this year, institutions elsewhere are
dipping into religiously controversial waters.
Germany’s Kiel University recently
announced a ban on niqabs and burqas
in classrooms, claiming they inhibit open
communication by concealing facial
expressions and gestures.
Unlike the more common hijab and
chador, the niqab and burqa partially or
fully cover a wearer’s face.
Types of Islamic headdress.
“On campus, students may wear a
burqa or niqab, which only has one eye-
slit,” a university spokesperson clarified,
confirming that the ban is confined to
learning locales.
Although Kiel is not the first German
university to do so, it has waded into a
political debate by imposing the ban. With
far-right politicians praising the decision,
and leftist ones condemning it, the move
calls into question the role of universities
as bastions of freedom. Greens politician
Lasse Petersdotter said the ban may breach
Germany’s constitution, which enshrines
freedom of religion.
Although Denmark, France, Belgium,
the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Austria and
other nations have instituted either full
or partial public face-cover bans, by
framing them as anti-face concealment
(motorcycle helmets, for example, also fall
under the ban) rather than anti-burqa, they
circumvented such constitutional issues.
Kiel University is located in the northern
German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where
Syrians, then Turks, constitute the largest
ethnic minorities.
Yet most Muslim women don’t wear a
hijab, let alone a niqab or burqa. Despite
that, there are common misconceptions
that they do, and that the niqab and burqa
in particular are strictly affiliated with Islam.
They aren’t, informed Professor
Samina Yasmeen.
Yasmeen, the director and founder
of the University of Western Australia’s
Centre for Muslim States and Societies,
said that the niqab and burqa are a
“culturally specific way of dressing”.
Because of this, she doesn’t think
Kiel University’s decision could be
classified as Islamophobic. In fact, she is
sympathetic to their rationale.
“I’ve had at least one student in my
class, years ago, who would come in a
niqab. As a teacher, I felt that ... it was
hard to pick up her ideas,” she said.
“I can understand why it would be
banned within a university teaching
environment.”
Yet this doesn’t mean that she is
completely comfortable with it either.
“From the point of view of the [burqa
or niqab] wearer ... she’s made a choice,”
she said. “If you tell her she must remove
it in class, from her point of view, it kills
its purpose, because how can she show
her face in one space and hide it in
another? I think it could create confusion
and resentment.”
Personally, however, Yasmeen is
anti‑niqab and burqa, whether in the
classroom or elsewhere.
“I cringe when I see them, even in
Pakistan, where I’m from,” she said.
Australia, including its universities,
does not ban the public wearing of
these garments.
As recently as last year, politicians
like Pauline Hanson have pushed for a
burqa ban, to no avail. ■
13