Identity Vs Identification: The Naqib and Women's Access to Public Services

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As a multi-cultural society, Canada by definition must embrace attitudes and beliefs that are difficult to integrate into public society and/or held by a minority of the population. Our nation's laws and services are beholden to no particular belief system, and when religious doctrine runs counter to those policies every effort should be made to accommodate. However, if such accommodation is not possible, it is the dogma which must give way, and the Islamic custom of the niqab - which covers all of a woman's face but for her eyes - is no exception. My position is not that Canadian (or any) women should be denied the right to dress as they see fit, whether or not their motivation is religious, but that this right must concede to particular circumstances in which public safety and/or reasonable right to identification are factors.
First, I would point out that within Islam itself, the niqab is not essential, but customary. Only a small minority of Muslims hold to the belief that covering the face is 'fard', meaning obligatory (Akou, 1). Sheikh Mohammed Tantawi, regarded as Egypt's Imam and Sunni Islam's foremost spiritual authority, said, "The niqab is a tradition, it has no connection with religion." (The Telegraph.) In 2009, the Muslim Canadian Congress called for a ban on burqa and niqab (but not the hijab, or headscarf), saying that they have "no basis in Islam". Spokesperson Farzana Hassan, for a piece in the Globe & Mail, said that "To cover your face is to conceal your identity," and that public safety was a concern, since "...concealing one's identity is a common practice for criminals". She also offered that the practice was more part of Middle Eastern culture than the Islamic faith. If those who hold a stance opposite...

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...amentary Information and Research Service.

No author.( 2009, Oct. 07. Last updated 2012, Aug. 23). Muslim group moves to ban burka. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved March 18, 2014, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Canedy, C. (2002, June 27). Lifting Veil for Photo ID Goes Too Far, Driver Says. The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com.

Blomfield, A. (2009, October 5). Egypt purges niqab from schools and colleges. The Telegraph. Retrieved March 20, 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Akou, Heather Marie, "Head Coverings in the Virtual Umma: The Case of Niqab". Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, Paper 3. 1.
Bakht, Natasha. Veiled Objections: Facing Public Opposition to the Niqab (September 20, 2009). 1 & 81- 82. Lori Beaman, ed, Reasonable Accommodation: Managing Religious Diversity. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2012.

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