27 Mar 2007 | Comment
British Education Secretary Alan Johnson’s announcement this week that head teachers are free to ban schoolchildren from wearing the niqab (full Muslim veil) misses the most significant point.
As in the British High Court ruling last month, upholding a court victory by a Buckinghamshire school (which cannot be named for legal reasons) which banned the niqab, the argument goes that wearing the full veil affects classroom interaction, communication, safety and learning. Of course they do, but these are mere side effects.
The most important point is that the veiling of children, in whatever form, constitutes the emotional abuse of girls. It relegates them to second-class status, keeps them trapped in mobile prisons and teaches them that they must forever be separate and unequal merely because of their sex.
Alan Johnson and the High Court should have safeguarded the girls in question, and all girls who are veiled, by instituting a ban on the imposition of their parents’ beliefs and religion until they are of an age to decide for themselves.
Just because parents believe in something does not mean they can harm, indoctrinate or impose their beliefs on their children. We have come a long way from the days when children were seen to be the property of their parents to do with them as they liked.
Today, in Britain at least, a child cannot be denied medical attention because her parents don’t believe in blood transfusions, can’t be beaten and starved to ‘exorcise demons’ or be genitally mutilated and married at nine because it is her parents’ belief or religion.
More subtle, but just as harmful, forms of emotional abuse like veiling, however, continue to be permissible or at best ignored or denied for the sake of religion or culture.
Yet the recent rulings that the niqab or jilbab have adverse effects (as in the case of schoolgirl Shabina Begum, who lost her fight to wear the jilbab, a flowing gown) are only deemed applicable to the schools in question and not all schools – or for that matter society at large.
Shabina, for example, attended another local school which allowed her to wear the jilbab. The 12-year-old whose father took her case to the High Court last month has been encouraged to go to an alternative school where she can continue wearing the niqab.
Moreover, according to a spokesperson at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), an important matter such as this is up to ‘individual schools in consultation with local parents and religious bodies’.
The fact that it can be permissible in one school, while not in another, and that the child is left to the mercy of religious bodies, shows how far the state is willing to appease religion at the expense of the child.
Nonetheless, whilst parents or self-appointed imams or ‘community leaders’ may believe that girls must be sexualised at a young age, kept segregated from boys, be taught that they are different and unequal, it is the responsibility of the state and educational system to intervene, level the playing field, and safeguard the rights of all children irrespective of, and even despite, the family they were born into.
Veiling is a clear case in point. The state is duty bound to ensure that nothing segregates children or restricts them from accessing information, advances in society, their rights, playing games, swimming and in general doing the things that children do.
Whilst the issue has deceptively been portrayed as a matter of ‘choice’ for the girls in question, it is anything but. Because of their very nature, children most often do what their parents want or expect of them, even if it is against their best interests.
Children do not make or have choices like adults.
Even if there are children who say they choose to be veiled, the veiling of children must still be banned – just as a child must be protected even if she ‘chooses’ to stay with her abusive parents rather than in state care, even if she ‘chooses’ to work to support her family in violation of child labour laws or even if she ‘chooses’ to stop attending school.
Until the child is given precedence over her parent’s religion or beliefs, society will continue to fail innumerable girls relegated to a life of sexual apartheid.
(more…)
15 Mar 2007 | Magazine, Volume 36.01 Spring 2007
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15 Mar 2007 | Awards, Awards year slider
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1485789156640{padding-top: 250px !important;padding-bottom: 250px !important;background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/awards-2007-logo-v2.jpg?id=82871) !important;background-position: 0 0 !important;background-repeat: repeat !important;}”][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1472525914065{margin-top: -150px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”middle”][vc_column_inner el_class=”awards-inside-desc” width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARDS 2007″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.
- Awards were offered in five categories: Film, Journalism, Books, Law and Whistleblowing
- Winners were honoured at a gala celebration in London at LSO St Luke’s
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”82901″ img_size=”460×260″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1472608310682{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”WINNERS” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1477036676595{margin-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Chen Guangcheng” title=”Whistleblower” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82903″]Chen Guangcheng is a self-taught lawyer in the Shandong province of China who has been regaled as representative of an emerging group of liberal Chinese intellectuals. In 2005, he publicised reports that women with two children were forced to be sterilised, and women pregnant with their third child were forced to have abortions. He also reported that officials took to holding villagers or their relatives hostage if the women refused sterilisation or abortion. He was charged with damaging public property and inciting people to disrupt traffic and was tried, convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in August 2006.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Siphiwe Hlophe” title=”Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82882″]Siphiwe Hlophe discovered she was HIV positive in 1999 and she lost her husband and agricultural economics scholarship as a result. But by 2001, she co-founded an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living (Swapol), which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and help other HIV/Aids victims. Almost half of Swaziland’s population is infected with HIV and women are killed for disclosing their infection or for simply finding out about their husbands’ infection. Similarly, women who are HIV-positive are isolated from their families and communities.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Kareem Amer ” title=”The Index / Hugo Young Journalism Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82904″]Kareem Amer is the pseudonym for 22-year-old blogger Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer, who now faces a trial in Egypt that could land him a decade in jail. His blog writings led to his arrest and brief detention in October 2005, his expulsion from Al-Azhar University in early 2006, and a second arrest in November 2006 that has left him in solitary confinement ever since. His trial was delayed multiple times, with the verdict finally scheduled for 22 February 2007, and he faces up to eleven years in prison for charges such as incitement to hate Islam and defaming the president. His blog writings promoted secularism and women’s rights.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”5 Days and Yoav Shamir” title=”Index Film Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82879″]Chronicling five days in Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in August 2005, this documentary benefits from extraordinary access to its subjects: both the Army and some of the approximately 8,000 settlers being relocated. Utilising seven film crews, director Yoav Shamir builds a composite impression of the withdrawal that does justice to the complexity of the issues at stake and the conflicting aims and worldviews of those taking part.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Being Arab by Samir Kassir” title=”TR Fyvel Book Award” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82880″]Being Arab is a searing analysis of the predicament facing the Arab world. Samir Kassir considers what he calls the Arab ‘malaise’ – a condition which he believes springs from a crippling sense of impotence. He considers the crisis facing the Arab state and the threat of militant Islam. He looks to history and the forgotten Arab renaissance of the nineteenth century for answers and urges his fellow Arabs to move beyond their sense of victimhood, reclaim their past and break free from the current deadlock. Samir Kassir was a journalist and historian, one of the bravest voices in the Lebanese media and a critic of the Syrian occupation in Lebanon. He was assassinated in Beirut in June 2005.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”JUDGING” font_container=”tag:h1|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_row_inner el_class=”mw700″][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]
Criteria – Anyone involved in tackling free expression threats – either through journalism, campaigning, the arts or using digital techniques – is eligible for nomination.
Any individual, group or NGO can nominate or self-nominate. There is no cost to apply.
Judges look for courage, creativity and resilience. We shortlist on the basis of those who are deemed to be making the greatest impact in tackling censorship in their chosen area, with a particular focus on topics that are little covered or tackled by others.
Nominees must have had a recognisable impact in the past 12 months.
Where a judge comes from a nominee’s country, or where there is any other potential conflict of interest, the judge will abstain from voting in that category.
Panel – Each year Index recruits an independent panel of judges – leading world voices with diverse expertise across campaigning, journalism, the arts and human rights.
The judges for 2007 were:
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Richard Sambrook” title=”Journalist” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82863″]Richard Sambrook joined the BBC in the 1980s as a radio news sub-editor. He is now Director of the BBC’s Global News division, responsible for leading the BBC’s international news services across radio, television and new media. He is also a member of the BBC’s Executive Direction Board and the BBC’s Journalism Board. As Director of BBC News from 2001 to 2004, Richard led the world’s biggest broadcast news operation. Recently, he has advocated Citizen Journalism and Social Media, contributing to the debate on their role and definition in an era of expanding access to the means of communication.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Dreda Say Mitchell” title=”Novelist” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82876″]In 2005, Dreda Say Mitchell was awarded the Crime Writer’s Association’s John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first time crime novel for her critically acclaimed novel, Running Hot. She is the first Black British writer to have been honoured with this award. She is also a judge of the CWA’s New Blood Dagger award and is the recipient of an Arts Council writing bursary. She has been a guest on a variety of radio shows, including the Robert Elms Show and Radio 4’s Front Row. She has a degree in African history from SOAS and an MA in education studies. She also works as an education consultant specialising in the achievement of Black pupils. She was born in London’s East End, where she continues to live. Killer Tune, her next novel, published by Hodder and Stoughton, will be published in August 2007.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Mark Kermode” title=”Film Critic” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”81669″]Mark Mermode is a film critic, broadcaster and musician. Resident film critic for many BBC programmes such as Radio Five Love and the News Channel, he also frequently contributes to The Culture Show and Newsnight Review. He is contributing editor to Sight & Sound, a regular writer for the Observer. He has a PhD in modern English and American horror fiction, and is a fello of the English and Film Department of Southampton University. He plays the double bass in The Dodge Brothers.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Kenan Malik” title=”Writer” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82874″]Kenan Malik is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. He is visiting senior fellow at the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies at the University of Surrey. His main academic interests are in the history of ideas, the history and philosophy of science, race, ethnicity and religion, and theories of human nature. His books include The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society (1996) and Man, Beast and Zombie: What Science Can and Cannot Tell us about Human Nature (2000). He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries for Channel 4 including Disunited Kingdom (29 October 2003); Are Muslims Hated? (8 January 2005); Let ‘Em All In (7 March 2005); and Britain’s Tribal Tensions (10 February 2006). He is a writer and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s current affairs programme Analysis.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Conor Gearty” title=”Professor and barrister” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82875″]Conor Gearty is Rausing Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights, a practicing barrister and professor of human rights law at the London School of Economics. His latest book is a study of the place of the Human Rights Act in Britain’s constitutional order.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Ursula Owen” title=”Editor” color=”#28a7cc” profile_image=”82905″]Until recently, Ursula Owen was Editor in Chief and Chief Executive for Index on Censorship, a position she held from 1993. While at Index, she oversaw a dramatic editorial
redesign of the magazine, raised the organisation’s profile internationally, and broadened its focus to include contemporary debates on issues such as immigration, religious fundamentalism, the death penalty, and the condition of the world’s children. She was a founder/director and managing director of Virago Press, the well-known feminist publishing company, from 1974 until 1990, when she became Cultural Policy Adviser to the Labour Party.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1473325552363{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 20px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-right: 15px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;padding-left: 15px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1473325567468{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;}”][awards_gallery_slider name=”GALLERY” images_url=”82884,82885,82886,82887,82888,82889,82890,82891,82892,82893,82894,82895,82896,82897,82898,82899,82900,82901″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
1 Mar 2007 | Awards
The Index on Censorship Hugo Young Journalism Award
Kareem Amer is the pseudonym for the Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Suleiman Amer. His blog writings about secularism and women rights led to his arrest and detention in October 2005, his expulsion form Al-Azhar University in early 2006, and a second arrest in November 2006 that has left him in solitary confinement ever since. On 22 February 2007 he was sentenced to four year’s imprisonment for insulting Islam and President Mubarak and for inciting sedition.
http://www.freekareem.org/
http://karam903.blogspot.com/
The Index on Censorship Whistleblowing Award
Chen Guangcheng is a self-taught lawyer in the Shandong province of China who has been regaled as representative of an emerging group of liberal Chinese intellectuals. He gained international attention for publishing reports on forced abortions and sterilisations. In August 2006 he was sentenced to four years in prison. His appeal was rejected on 12 January 2007.
The Index on Censorship Film Award
Five Days by Yoav Shamir is a documentary about the Israel Defence Forces as they evacuate 8000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza strip in August 2005, to make way for 250,000 Palestinians. The director builds a composite impression of the withdrawal that does justice to the complexity of the issues at stake and the conflicting aims and worldviews of those taking part.
The T.R. Fyvel Book Award
Being Arab by Samir Kassir is a searing analysis of the predicament facing the Arab world considering what he calls the Arab ‘malaise’ – a condition which he believes springs form a crippling sense of impotence. Samir Kassir was a journalist and historian, who was assassinated in Beirut in June 2005.
The Bindmans’ Law and Campaigning Award
When Siphiwe Hlophe from Swaziland discovered she was HIV positive in 1999, she was abandoned by her husband and lost an agricultural economics scholarship. She reacted by co-founding an organisation called Swazis for Positive Living (Swapol) in 2001, which aims to fight gender discrimination related to HIV/Aids and to help other HIV/Aids victims.
http://www.swapol.net/
