Opinion: Canada is still reckoning with the hijab – and not just around Quebec’s Bill 21

DECEMBER 29, 2021

Maria Kari is a freelance writer and lawyer.

Two disputes in December – the removal of Chelsea Elementary School teacher Fatemih Anwari from her class because her hijab violated Quebec’s secularism law, and the publication of one Letter The Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) has put a spotlight on the hijab being called “an instrument of oppression” by pediatrician Dr. Sherif Emil Canada’s Count with hijab.

Dr. Emil’s letter came in response to a former CMAJ publication that featured an image of two young girls – one in black, the other wearing a hijab – reading a book together. The picture, he wrote, “shocked and outraged many”; To support his claim, Dr. Emil cited a tweet by a Vancouver-based, former Muslim activist Yasmin Mohammed In which she refers to the hijab as a practice “which is happening only in the most extreme of religious homes.” Dr. Emil also cited an unnamed surgical trainee who felt “afraid of seeing the image”. [because it] Raised painful childhood memories of growing up in a radical Islamic society. ,

Indeed, the author even went so far as to declare that the little girls featured in the CMAJ report were “usually banned from riding a bike, swimming, or participating in other activities characterized by a healthy childhood.” Goes.” He also claims that the mentality of the Taliban allowing “institutionally child rape” has a lot in common with the “child-covering mentality”. And while Dr. Emil briefly acknowledges the “real” and “wrong” harassment and discrimination faced by hijabis – women who wear the costumes – she ironically disguises women for subjecting them to the same harassment and discrimination. Go ahead what he condemns.

CMAJ is a peer-reviewed general medical journal that aims to “champion knowledge that matters to the health of Canadians and the rest of the world.” But the letter, in its pages, also sends a clear message of the unwelcome to Canada’s hidden health care providers and patients – and should serve as a wake-up call to all Canadians to ignore the politics of the veil. There is a luxury that we no longer have.
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With hate crimes With Muslims rising up against here, and relentless efforts to legislate what Muslim women can wear, Muslim Canadians are finding themselves increasingly on the defensive. While Muslim men have long been compared to terrorists who are naturally prone to violence, the stereotype behind Muslim women is that they lack control and agency over our lives. But for most Muslim women in the West, wearing the hijab is an intimate matter of choice – a marker of empowerment, and a claim to identity. And while there are some communities and three countries around the world where the hijab has been made mandatory, generalizing about the veil and all women wearing it is patriarchal and Islamophobic.

I, myself, choose not to veil. But my best friend, an Alberta-based physician, has worn a head scarf since she was little as a girl pictured in CMAJ, and I assure you she bikes, swims, and goes hiking. is – all started while working in a medical clinic by her mother, who was herself a hijabi doctor. My sister-in-law was raised in a family where no one wore a hijab, and yet began veiling shortly before starting her journey into pediatrics. We all consider ourselves practicing Muslim women, doing our best to personally interpret and follow the standards of modesty that the Qur’an asks of all Muslims regardless of gender.

The letter has been attacked by Muslim Advisory Council of Canada And this National Council of Muslims of Canada, Hijabi health care workers have taken to social media to share examples from their personal lives. A therapist shares the story of her 11-year-old daughter, who chose to wear a hijab and loves to skateboard, ice skate, swim and ride a bike. Others have noted that by publishing letters recounting the experiences of a non-hijabi, male health care provider known only to a female Muslim hijabi, the CMAJ has signaled to hijabi health care workers that their There is no voice or choice in matters affecting the pass. their own life. The irony is laughable.

The CMAJ has since issued an apology, but anger and frustration continue to spread on social media. I think this is good and necessary, because anger and frustration tell our systems that something is wrong – that our balance is out of whack, that we are under attack and that action is necessary – and alerts us to danger. does, which in turn helps us find it. Justice.

And if the recent debates surrounding Quebec’s Bill 21, Ms Anvari’s case and now Dr Emil’s letter tell us anything about ourselves, it is that Islamophobia is the breathing space in Canada. It simply cannot be wanted or ignored.