Canada’s largest Muslim organisation is outraged over a bill introduced by the Quebec government that would ban headscarves for school support staff and students.
“In Quebec, we made the decision that state and the religion are separate,” said Education Minister Bernard Drainville, CBC News reported. “And today, we say the public schools are separate from religion.”
But the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), who are challenging in the Supreme Court the original bill that forbids religious symbols being worn by teachers, say the new bill is another infringement on their rights and unfairly targets hijab-wearing Muslims.
“This renewed attack on the fundamental rights of our community is just one of several recent actions taken by this historically unpopular government to bolster their poll numbers by attacking the rights of Muslim Canadians,” the NCCM said in a social media post.
The Canada I believe in is a mixture of cultures and beliefs. Saying they should assimilate to our (white) ways conflicts with that.
Edit: to be clear, I’m obviously not for oppression of women, but that’s not what it symbolizes to everyone. At a certain point they’re old enough to make their own choices and if they feel better wearing one I prefer to respect that.