Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis defended on Saturday, March 8, the right of Muslim women to cover their heads as per their religion, refuting claims that hijab poses a threat to secularism.
"Human rights and the secular nature of a state are not threatened by the headscarf. Nor are they safeguarded by a ban," Bakoyannis told an international women conference in Ankara, reported the Turkish website newstime7.
"Rights and open societies are guaranteed by political will, legal frameworks, policies on education and access to information and new technologies; policies on development, employment, entrepreneurship, equal social and political participation."
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one's affiliations.
The Muslim head cover has been thrust into the limelight since the 2004 French ban on hijab at public schools and institutions.
Several European countries have since followed the French lead.
Ghent City, Belgium's third largest, decided in late 2007 to prohibit civil servants who deal with the public from donning hijab.
Belgium's second city Antwerp banned hijab earlier the same year.
Governments in some Arab and Muslim countries also place restrictions on hijab.
Last month, Turkish President Abdullah Gul signed into law a constitutional amendment easing the hijab ban on campus, in place since shortly after a 1980 military coup.
Equality
Bakoyannis, the Greek foreign minister, blamed ignorant Western media for propagating misconceptions about the status of women in Islam.
"There is a general misconception, based on false readings of the Qur'an, that Islam treats women as inferior to men," she told the conference, coinciding with the International Woman Day.
"A roguish reading of the Old or New Testament ignoring the historical context in which they were written could easily support a similar conclusion about Christianity," she contended.
"I strongly believe that in the so-called Western world we have more stereotypes than we care to admit."
Greece's top diplomat insisted that Islam ensures men-women equality.
"Successful women from many Muslim countries with whom I have met and conversed in various fora, reiterate that for them, religion really means peace and equality."
She cited Turkey as a living example that Muslim women are as successful as their Western peers.
"Let us not forget that both Islam and Christianity are based on the precept that rights and obligations to our fellow human beings and to God are the same for everyone. No exceptions."
Source: Islam Online (English)
See also: Italy: Muslim law encourages respect towards women
5 comments:
Was that sarcastic first line really necessary?
Hi anonymous,
Neither the comment, nor the article, nor this blog is really necessary.
When somebody says that there's a general misconception that Islam treats women as inferiors and that this misconception is based only on the Koran (and a false reading at that), I feel the need to point out that it's also based on reality.
Was it really necessary to ignore reality when talking about such an important issue?
I usually let my readers draw their own conclusions, but as far as I'm concerned, that comment was necessary. The reason you think it's sarcastic is because of the very sad situation where women's rights and human rights in general are non-existent in religious Muslim countries.
Yes that 1st line is very useful, in particular for the more ignorant people not used to think anymore by themselves and go only by the media.
Remarkable load of hogwash the Greek Foreign Minister, especially that she is Greek not that long ago the Greeks did live under the ottoman islamic sharia bootjack as dhimmis. As late as 1955 there was pogrom against the Greek Orthodox community in Turkey “included the systematic destruction of the majority of its churches,” monasteries and cemeteries. It had clear religious overtones.
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one's affiliations.
A religious obligatory code of dress is not a symbol?
"Let us not forget that both Islam and Christianity are based on the precept that rights and obligations to our fellow human beings and to God are the same for everyone. No exceptions."
But there is an abundance of well defined rights and obligations that is definitely not equal fpr Muslims those who is not muslims.
"There is a general misconception, based on false readings of the Qur'an, that Islam treats women as inferior to men,"
It’s not a misconception it’s fact confirmed by prominent numerous so called Islamic scholars.
"A roguish reading of the Old or New Testament ignoring the historical context in which they were written could easily support a similar conclusion about Christianity,"
Not to the same extent and absolute definition as the unchangeable order from God personally. But most of the world use either NT or OT as laws for present society.
There is probably a lot of bigotry in the western Hijab bans but there is also intensions of giving girls more freedom. With the mandatory dress code it’s very easy for the unofficial moral/religious guardians to spot muslim girls and see if they are in the wrong place or circumstance.
When the hijab ban is implemented in Turkey and some other Arab or muslim countries they have totally misapprehended the equality of woman in islam and full of prejudice?
If even front line states like Greece, formerly occupied territory, but also the birth place of Western civilization, do not get it any more.... Then we are in really in bad shape...
And that first factual line was of course much needed. It placed this news in the much needed context. Something that due to the all pervasive influence of cultural relativism is too often lacking.
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