نقاب پر پابندی لگا کر پورپ تو پہلے ہی بے نقاب ہو چکا تھا، مگر اب اس قسم کی اوچھی حرکتیں کر کے مکمل برہنہ ہو گیا ہے(یہ الگ بات ہے کہ برہنہ ہونا یورپ میں معیوب بات نہیں، بلکہ کالے انگریزوں کے نزدیک ترقی کی معراج ہے)۔منافقت کی کیسی انتہا ہے کہ اگر ایک مسلمان عورت اپنی خوشدلی سے چہرہ ڈھانپتی ہے تو اس سے لبرلزم خطرے میں پڑ جاتا ہے، مگر عین اسی وقت کرونا سے بچنے کےلئے ماسک پہنا لازمی ہے۔اگر ماسک کرونا وائرس سے بچاتا ہے، تو نقاب گندی نظروں سے بچاتا ہے۔افسوس ان لوگوں پر جو ایسے بے شرم اور ڈھٹائی کے مظاہرے دیکھنے کے بعد بھی مغرب کو انسانی حقوق کا چیمئن ، اور نام نہاد حقوق نسواں کا علمبردار سمجھتے ہیں۔
Will Mandatory Face Masks End the Burqa Bans?
As face coverings become the rule in public spaces, attitudes about head scarves may change.
Women in Paris after their release from a police station in 2011, when a ban on full-face coverings went into effect in France
While face coverings are fast becoming the norm to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, visible on city streets and public transportation everywhere, the global politics that surround them are more complicated than ever — a reflection not just of this current crisis, but also of broader values and stereotypes.
This is especially true in the European Union, where the laws informally known as “burqa bans” that forbid full-face coverings, often on the basis of public safety, are being called into question.
Suddenly the niqab, or full-face veil, has a whole set of new, more communal, associations; and various legal establishments are gearing up to challenge the current status quo.
“It’s a big contradiction,” said Alia Jafar, a British schoolteacher in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, of the many face covering laws, which differ by country — especially because, to avoid charges of discrimination, the legal wording of most burqa bans is often framed more neutrally to apply to both men and women hiding their faces.
Recently, inspired by the global surge of face coverings, Ms. Jafar posted a picture on social media, which she shared with The New York Times, of two women in the street during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Both wore wide-brimmed hats, pulled low, with scarfs tied across their faces. Only their eyes peeked through.
“It looks like the burqa,” Ms. Jafar said, by telephone. The implication being that things are not that different today. In the street, many wear baseball caps with bandannas across their faces.
Yet this week France stood firm on its ban, which prohibits the wearing of clothing intended to hide the face in public spaces, despite the fact that masks are now being required on public transportation and in high schools. The French interior ministry confirmed to The Times that the face coverings rule of 2010 would stay in place. (A separate 2004 ban prohibits head scarves in public schools, referring to the religious neutrality of state institutions.)
The result is a Catch-22. Those who do not wear a mask can be fined, as can those who violate the face-covering law.
While some European countries, such as France, have exceptions to their bans that allow for face coverings for “health” reasons, confusion remains about what counts as an acceptable coronavirus face mask.
France has offered no formal specification. A spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior said, in an email, “it is common sense without legal definition.” The situation is further complicated by a worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment (P.P.E.), which has many people turning to existing items found at home for coverings.
Will Mandatory Face Masks End the Burqa Bans?
As face coverings become the rule in public spaces, attitudes about head scarves may change.
