The biggest reason for banning niqabs is quite obvious. It has nothing to do with religion. The thing is, ill-intentioned individuals, often non-Muslim males, turn to niqabs as a camo outfit to commit all sorts of felonies ranging from theft to murder.
A recent news story mentioned a shoplifting incident in Dagestan that involved a niqab-clad woman. The trouble is, nothing is known about the perpetrator, including their gender. It may well have been a teenager or a male. In a number of countries this problem has already escalated to a point where the criminals, often non-Muslim males, turn to niqabs to commit all sorts of felonies ranging from theft to murder.
A niqab perfectly camouflages the wearer’s physique and facial features so that it can be easily used by literally anyone to perpetrate various crimes. It protects the delinquent from surveillance cameras and eyewitnesses alike. The piece can be used to stash anything, including a Kalashnikov with a spare magazine. Moreover, a request to lift the face covering will be deemed offensive and spark outrage among the ‘activists’, and so, a lot of people will opt to leave the wearer alone.
The societies that have already faced this problem, such as the UK, have been sent into a downward spiral. Crimes involving niqabs as a cover predictably stoke the anti-Islamic sentiment. This, in turn, sets off the Muslims. An article published in The Guardian quotes a Muslim woman as saying: ‘When people attack you, you feel like the only thing you have to cling on to is your religion.’ This kind of reaction spurs the garment’s popularity, while criminals find it extremely easy to get lost in the sea of niqab-donning women.
Hence the reason for the niqab having been banned in many countries, including the Muslim world.
Importantly, though, the grounds for outlawing the niqab must be spelled out unambiguously. Different countries have followed different strategies.
For instance, France rests its case on the secular principle. Any public display of religious affiliations is either frowned upon or downright banned. The act dated 15 March 2004 forbids French pupils from wearing religious garments and accessories, such as hijabs, kippahs, turbans and large cross necklaces, in public schools.
This appears to be a rather flawed approach as it is mostly ideological as opposed to being pragmatic. Triggered by the radical Islam manifestations, the French lawmakers even proscribed something as seemingly harmless as hijabs, whereas the rest of the above-listed pieces were jettisoned for the sake of equality and justice. The French government therefore decided to oppress pretty much everyone regardless of their potential links to extremism.
The problem is, religion will not suddenly vanish into thin air once you have banned its manifestations. All it does is hamper the natural flow of the individuals’ social integration and erode their loyalty. By trying to get rid of religion, you are only encouraging it to thrive on the wrong side of the tracks with unpredictable and sometimes grim consequences.
An arguably much more reasonable approach has been pursued by the Russian government in that it has been interacting with religious communities and denominational manifestations have been thoroughly respected. People represent a variety of creeds and convictions, which is perfectly normal. The country’s history of interreligious co-existence goes back centuries, and this tradition has been proudly cherished.
Conservatism implies a certain reliance on tradition and a wealth of societal experience. It defies any revolutionary attempts to ideologically rearrange and re-fashion the society.
Notably, there are left-wing and right-wing revolutionaries.
The former stand for the indiscriminate denunciation of the past. They strive to dismantle ‘the old world’ and build the one they consider perfect from scratch. The right-wing revolutionaries, by contrast, wax nostalgic of the ostensibly perfect and even sacred past that needs to be recreated. This past is mostly imaginary and as utopian as is the bright future championed by their left-wing counterparts.
In this regard, the niqabs are not conservative at all. Far from it, they are being hailed by the ‘right-wing revolutionaries’ as both the symbol and the vehicle of radically reforming the society. And this is reason enough to say no to this practice.
Modern Muslims, including those living in Russia, have a number of really praiseworthy traditions. Wearing niqabs is certainly not one of them.