www.izrs.ch

Press release 10122010-0029

Berne, 10th December 2010

The Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS) is very astonished about the paternalistic attitude of the EKF (=Swiss Commission for Women's issues) in the matter of the Islamic Hijab.
As the Commission announced in a press release, it recommends that schools should not tolerate "gender specific clothing, which expresses a disparaging, controlling attitude towards women and their sexuality and an understanding of the genders which are fundamentally contrary to the state's concerns of equality". This includes according to the EKF namely the "face veil", the "headscarf" and "long skirts".

The attitude of the EKF seems all the more astonishing, as it is clearly committed to the "elementary legal positions of the state", which are following its own statements including  "not only the right of freedom of religion, but also the ban on discrimination based on gender, the protection of physical and psychological integrity, the freedom of marriage or the right to basic education".

There is no doubt that these elementary legal positions would be violated exactly then, when a certain form of clothing would be imposed on an individual without significant need. This is applying both to a positive as well as in a negative situation of force. A force to unveil is from a legal point of view as much a violation of the named fundamental rights, as it would be in   case of a force to veil.

The EKF bases its recommendation on the presumption cemented by common stereotypes that the Islamic Hijab and, more recently, also long skirts are restricting the woman in her sexual freedom in a discriminating way. It falls in this respect back into an old-feminist tunnel vision, which is completely losing the optic for the cultural historical and especially for the religious peculiarities of different creeds.

EKF contradicts also the EKR

Furthermore the Islamic Central Council (ICCS) is astonished that the Swiss Commissions are contradicting each other in their recommendations and by this don't do any favor to the legal certainty in the country.

The Swiss Commission against Racism (EKR) represented on the 25th August 2010 in a press release the view that such a ban on Hijab would be "a special measure against one single religion", which "is violating the right of equality regarding the practice of religion", and would also be "an (primarily party-politically motivated) action against the Muslim minority".

The Hijab belonged to the "area of religious self-understanding" which had to be protected in Switzerland, as long as it didn't violate a superordinate fundamental right. While the commission described the ban on Hijab for teachers as "justifiable", it clearly rejected such a ban for students and employees. "This is not only an attack on a religious commandment binding for the concerned women, it also violates the principle of equal treatment, because it does not apply analogously to other religious communities".

Hijab is not a religious symbol

In fact the Islamic Hijab is, unlike a cross, a David-star or a half-moon, not a religious symbol. The Hijab is rather an integral part of Islamic worship. All Sunni and Shia law schools consider the wearing of a "headscarf" for women from the puberty as a religious duty. If a free human follows or neglects religious duties, which in no way contradict the law, can due to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion and worship not be anticipated by state or private-sector regulatory.