Hijab, niqab, and the religious symbol debates: consequences for health and human rights

Abstract

Recently there has been a rise in state surveillance of racialized persons, immigrants, and religious minorities. While there is abundant literature that discusses the discourses of security and concerns over international terrorism, as well as acculturation and accommodation, little is known about how some of these public policies and practices intersect with human rights, health, and wellbeing. This paper seeks to illuminate the health and human rights consequences of policies about the hijab and niqab, including bans on religious symbols in public workplaces. This work is guided by interdisciplinary health, social justice, and antiracism frameworks, and it explores the human rights concerns of policies that may be used to justify surveillance and control over racialized people, migrants, and their cultural practices. Various countries have increasingly expanded their surveillance of immigrant people from South Asia and the Middle East, especially Arabs, Central and South Asians, Africans, and Muslims. These groups have been experiencing racism at their places of worship, borders, ports of entry, and at airports. 1 Many governments, including the provincial government of Quebec from within Canada, have introduced policy interventions aimed at persons displaying religious symbols, which I argue have undermined the human rights and well-being of affected groups.

Niqab, Protest Movement, and the Salafization of Indonesian Islam

“…Besides, unlike Tarik Kulenovi's study that sees the niqab as a form of resistance to the mainstream of modernity (Kulenović, 2006), this study provides evidence and arguments that the niqab-wearing is a form of resistance to local values, traditional religious practices, non-sharia-based clothing, and market domination by investors. Thus, this study differs from previous findings that the niqab is an ideological doctrine that deals with democratic systems and nationalism (Dzuhayatin, 2020); identity politics (Pirol & Aswan, 2021); political identity (Saputra, Tanjung, & Augus, 2021); the niqab policy damages human rights and group welfare (Syed, 2021); and the ban on the niqab is a form of social injustice (Cohen-Almagor, 2021).…”

African Refugee Youth’s Experiences of Navigating Different Cultures in Canada: A “Push and Pull” Experience

“…Youth’s experiences are synonymous with feelings of ‘othering’ which can create tremendous pressure to conform to Canadian culture and identity and poor mental health. Identity struggles can be worsened by government policies that infringe on youth’s culture, religion, or identity (e.g., a ban on the use of hijabs by the Quebec policymakers) [ 17 , 52 ]. To promote youth’s health, migrant settlement organizations and communities needs to create environments that encourage youth to identify with and maintain ties with their native culture.…”

Feminist Political Economy of Health: Current Perspectives and Future Directions

“…Another area of opportunity would be to examine the experience of groups who are racialized minorities, such as Muslim women. Recent research has examined how the human rights and health of racialized women are shaped by state policies and structural/organizational decisions, which impact racialized women who often have little say in the decisions that affect their lives [ 69 , 70 ]. It would be interesting to examine socioeconomic disparities among these marginalized groups using intersectional approaches and feminist epistemology and methodology, which were mentioned in this paper.…”