00:00Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim
00:02Press Release
00:03Populist quote-unquote burqa war, a modern echo of European colonialism,
00:09used to ignore the genocide in Gaza and strip the Muslim women of her Islamic identity.
00:15The latest populist crusade from democratic right-wing parties and governments
00:20calling for a ban of the burqa now includes Australia, Italy and Portugal.
00:25These nations are part of a broader hostile collective of European countries that have already banned the burqa.
00:33France, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland enforce a nationwide prohibition in all public spaces
00:39while the Netherlands and Germany have partial bans targeting specific contexts like schools or government offices.
00:47In the UK, the debate centres on the workforce
00:49where the right-wing reform UK party argues such veils hinder integration, communication and security
00:56framing them as quote-unquote symbols of division.
01:00This current quote-unquote burqa war is not a modern phenomenon
01:04but the latest chapter in a long history of Western secular hostility towards Islam and Muslims.
01:10This long-withstanding historical animosity is being weaponised
01:14to distract from the profound economic insecurity that is felt across secular societies
01:19caused by a failed model of global capitalism.
01:23Right-wing parties such as Pauline Hanson's One Nation in Australia,
01:28Georgia Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia in Italy and André Ventura's Chega party in Portugal
01:35are using the burqa as a denigrating symbol to scapegoat Muslim women,
01:39forcefully assimilate them and divert broader public attention from the real crisis of state failure.
01:47This centuries-old debate over the Islamic dress of Muslim women echoes the European colonial
01:51quote-unquote civilising mission and the quote-unquote clash of civilisations
01:55repackaged for a 21st century audience left anxious and angry
02:00by a rigid and bankrupt capitalist economic system.
02:03It is a calculated strategy to channel real economic pain
02:07into a manufactured war against Islam and Muslims.
02:12Feminationalism, where politicians cynically co-opt the language of women's rights
02:16to justify Islamophobic policies like the burqa ban,
02:19also harks back to colonial-era orientalism,
02:23which depicted the Muslim world and Muslim women as backward-threatening and in need of saving.
02:28The burqa ban proposals in Italy and Australia specifically targets Muslim women
02:33who are already primary victims of Islamophobic attacks.
02:37In Australia, data from the Islamophobia Registrar Australia and report 2024
02:42shows that 75% of Islamophobic attacks target women and girls.
02:47Similarly, a report by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, FRA,
02:52states that 65% of Muslims in Italy experience discrimination,
02:55with Muslim women being the most targeted.
02:59Meanwhile, in Portugal, Islamophobia is a growing phenomenon
03:02directly linked to the far-right Sheikha party,
03:05led by André Rentoura, who frames Islam as a threat to Portuguese
03:09and quote-unquote Western Christian identity.
03:12A burqa ban in these countries would legally sanction
03:15the very prejudices Muslim women already face.
03:18Furthermore, the hypocrisy of right-wing political parties
03:21grandstanding about Islamic clothing,
03:23while the governments in Australia, Italy and Portugal
03:26preside over an epidemic of male violence cannot be ignored.
03:30In Australia, a woman is murdered by her partner nearly every week.
03:34Australian Institute of Criminology, 2023-2024.
03:39In Italy, one woman is killed every three days,
03:41revealing the extent of a shameful crisis.
03:44Source, Italian Ministry of the Interior, 2024.
03:47In Portugal, domestic violence is the most reported crime,
03:51with 85% of the victims being women.
03:54To ignore this crisis whilst securitising a piece of cloth
03:58reveals the claring hypocrisy of these states claiming to protect women.
04:02This burqa ban is a deliberate choice by the political class
04:05to ignore the public's real humanitarian concerns,
04:08while hundreds of thousands of people have marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge
04:12in Australia, in piazzas, across Italy and the streets of Lisbon
04:16to protest the genocide of Muslims in Gaza
04:19by the illegal Zionist criminal entity.
04:22Politicians are instead adopting an
04:24us-versus-them culture war.
04:26This direct attack on Muslim women's dress,
04:29which uses the tactic of securitisation to frame the burqa
04:33as existential threat to security, national identity and secular values,
04:37results in the state justifying a coercive project of forced assimilation
04:41that demands Muslim women shed their Islamic identity
04:43to conform to secular, nationalistic identities.
04:47It is vital as Muslim women that we continue to hold firmly
04:50onto our Islamic beliefs.
04:52We should remember the promise from our creator, Allah SWT,
04:55of the rewards, awaiting those who are patient and steadfast in their deen
04:59during times of adversity and difficulty.
05:02Allah SWT says,
05:04Verily, those who say,
05:26Our Rabb Lord is only Allah and thereafter stand firm and straight on the Islamic belief,
05:31on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
05:34Such shall be the dwellers of Jannah, Paradise,
05:37abiding therein forever, a reward for what they used to do.
05:41Surah Ahkaf, verse 13 and 14.
05:44Women's Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb Tahrir.
05:46Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
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