A woman walks past a mural in Cairo. Reuters
A woman walks past a mural in Cairo. Reuters
A woman walks past a mural in Cairo. Reuters
A woman walks past a mural in Cairo. Reuters


I'm tired of defending my right to wear a headscarf


  • English
  • Arabic

July 23, 2021

On Friday night I was called by a well-known TV station. Did I want to be interviewed by one of their presenters about the latest ruling from the European Court of Justice about Muslim women and the hijab? The new rule states that workplaces can ban women from wearing headscarves. I sighed wearily. I thought about how the interview would unfold – about how I would repeat, as I have for the past 20 years, that Muslim women are human beings like anyone else, and should have the same rights as anyone else. I thought about the seeming futility of repeating this, and ultimately, about the emotional toll that the interview would take on me.

I felt drained. “I’m sorry but I’m unavailable at that time.” I put the phone down and immediately felt guilty that I wasn’t going to engage in the fight.

In the '90s, I went on an exchange programme to Paris, to improve my language skills and immerse myself in French culture. The family I stayed with owned a shop and one day, I accompanied the daughter to sit behind the counter. A customer opened the door and saw me – wearing a headscarf. She looked at me, a steely cold stare, as though my mere existence in that shop was an affront to her. She then looked pointedly at the owner, and in a great show of disgust, left the shop, slamming the door on the way out.

During Eid Al Adha, women visit a museum in Mombasa, Kenya, on July 20. EPA
During Eid Al Adha, women visit a museum in Mombasa, Kenya, on July 20. EPA

Even decades after that incident, I still feel angry at the way Muslim women are often treated and the manner in which they can be represented. I despair that we are stuck in this loop.

The new EU ruling would have given the employer in Paris the chance to force me to remove my headscarf. Not because I was doing anything wrong. Not because I was doing the job badly. But because that customer didn’t like the look of me. The justification? My headscarf is perceived as breaching an ‘image of neutrality’.

Ostensibly, the rule applies to any and all large-sized, conspicuous religious symbols. But since the ruling is in response to cases by two Muslim women in Germany, who were suspended from their jobs, it is clear who this is about, in a time of rising Islamophobia across the western world.

I am angry and despair that we are stuck in this loop

So what is neutrality? There is no objective answer because even deciding on what constitutes neutrality is by definition a non-neutral act.

Often times those who hold power and privilege try to impose rules on those who are fighting prejudice. When the England football team took the knee, they were told that this was not the right way to protest. That the meaning of their action was deemed offensive – as determined by those who hold power.

In France, during the pandemic, you could be fined for not covering your face. But at the same time, Muslim women could be fined for covering their face. A facemask and a niqab cover the same area of the face. It is simply the meaning that is different.

In the west, the same case is often true for Muslim women who choose to cover their hair. As so many Muslim women including myself have been at pains to explain, it is just a piece of cloth. It is part of who we are, the meaning it holds is for us. It is not intended as a symbol, protest, political expression or as a challenge to anyone else.

This constant justification takes a toll. Having to explain over and over the meaning of what you wear is taxing. Having to justify that you are not a terrorist for wearing it or having to explain the literal obviousness that you have your own opinion and have chosen freely to adopt the headscarf; that no, my husband or father has not forced me to wear it; no, it doesn’t mean that I had a forced marriage; no, I don’t have to wear black all the time. Yes, I can travel freely. Yes, I can speak English. No, I don’t want to escape from anything. No, I shouldn’t be forced to remove my headscarf because in other places women are forced to wear it.

I feel guilty if I turn down interviews to explain all these things all over again. Because irrespective of the seeming futility of repeating these arguments, they clearly still need to be made.

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Squad

Ali Kasheif, Salim Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdulrahman, Mohammed Al Attas, Abdullah Ramadan, Zayed Al Ameri (Al Jazira), Mohammed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammed Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Essa, Mohammed Shaker, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah) Walid Abbas, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli), Tariq Ahmed, Jasim Yaqoub (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Muharami (Baniyas) 

Difference between fractional ownership and timeshare

Although similar in its appearance, the concept of a fractional title deed is unlike that of a timeshare, which usually involves multiple investors buying “time” in a property whereby the owner has the right to occupation for a specified period of time in any year, as opposed to the actual real estate, said John Peacock, Head of Indirect Tax and Conveyancing, BSA Ahmad Bin Hezeem & Associates, a law firm.

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETuhoon%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EYear%20started%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EJune%202021%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECo-founders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFares%20Ghandour%2C%20Dr%20Naif%20Almutawa%2C%20Aymane%20Sennoussi%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ERiyadh%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Ehealth%20care%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESize%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E15%20employees%2C%20%24250%2C000%20in%20revenue%0D%3Cbr%3EI%3Cstrong%3Envestment%20stage%3A%20s%3C%2Fstrong%3Eeed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EWamda%20Capital%2C%20Nuwa%20Capital%2C%20angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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Kalra's feat
  • Becomes fifth batsman to score century in U19 final
  • Becomes second Indian to score century in U19 final after Unmukt Chand in 2012
  • Scored 122 in youth Test on tour of England
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INFO

Premier Futsal 2017 Finals

Al Wasl Football Club; six teams, five-a-side

Delhi Dragons: Ronaldinho
Bengaluru Royals: Paul Scholes
Mumbai Warriors: Ryan Giggs
Chennai Ginghams: Hernan Crespo
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THE%C2%A0SPECS
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How to help

Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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THE BIO

Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979

Education: UAE University, Al Ain

Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6

Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma

Favourite book: Science and geology

Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC

Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.

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%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20Juice%20jacking%2C%20in%20the%20simplest%20terms%2C%20is%20using%20a%20rogue%20USB%20cable%20to%20access%20a%20device%20and%20compromise%20its%20contents%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20The%20exploit%20is%20taken%20advantage%20of%20by%20the%20fact%20that%20the%20data%20stream%20and%20power%20supply%20pass%20through%20the%20same%20cable.%20The%20most%20common%20example%20is%20connecting%20a%20smartphone%20to%20a%20PC%20to%20both%20transfer%20data%20and%20charge%20the%20former%20at%20the%20same%20time%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20The%20term%20was%20first%20coined%20in%202011%20after%20researchers%20created%20a%20compromised%20charging%20kiosk%20to%20bring%20awareness%20to%20the%20exploit%3B%20when%20users%20plugged%20in%20their%20devices%2C%20they%20received%20a%20security%20warning%20and%20discovered%20that%20their%20phones%20had%20paired%20to%20the%20kiosk%2C%20according%20to%20US%20cybersecurity%20company%20Norton%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%E2%80%A2%20While%20juice%20jacking%20is%20a%20real%20threat%2C%20there%20have%20been%20no%20known%20widespread%20instances.%20Apple%20and%20Google%20have%20also%20added%20security%20layers%20to%20prevent%20this%20on%20the%20iOS%20and%20Android%20devices%2C%20respectively%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.

Living in...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

SUZUME
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From Zero

Artist: Linkin Park

Label: Warner Records

Number of tracks: 11

Rating: 4/5

What is hepatitis?

Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver, which can lead to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer.

There are 5 main hepatitis viruses, referred to as types A, B, C, D and E.

Hepatitis C is mostly transmitted through exposure to infective blood. This can occur through blood transfusions, contaminated injections during medical procedures, and through injecting drugs. Sexual transmission is also possible, but is much less common.

People infected with hepatitis C experience few or no symptoms, meaning they can live with the virus for years without being diagnosed. This delay in treatment can increase the risk of significant liver damage.

There are an estimated 170 million carriers of Hepatitis C around the world.

The virus causes approximately 399,000 fatalities each year worldwide, according to WHO.

 

Duterte Harry: Fire and Fury in the Philippines
Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications

Infiniti QX80 specs

Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6

Power: 450hp

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Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000

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Vikram%20Vedha
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Updated: July 23, 2021, 9:05 AM`