Like banning your headscarf against a wall

There’s been a bit of a furour in Belgium in the last few weeks about Muslim students and the veil. Some schools and universities in Flanders have banned students from wearing it, and the Exécutif des Musulmans de Belgique (EMB) is not happy about it. They see it as a violation of their human rights, which is a phrase I always find amusing when it comes from someone who practices Islam.

What is great about a veil (or headscarf) ban in public institutions is that it will make Muslim women realise that not wearing it will make no difference to the way they are treated by members of the public. They certainly won’t get raped. The sight of hair is apparently too much of a turn on for men in Islamic countries, and the veil, along with the burqa and niqab, exist so that their sexual urges aren’t stirred in any way.

In Antwerp 300 students quit the local university in protest at the ban, though around half have since re-enrolled. I find the former fact quite incredible. If you want to go to a state-funded school or university where the veil is accepted or perhaps even compulsory you can choose any of the Islamic states on the list at the bottom of this page.

You’ll have to scroll down to page two, though, for this is the World Economic Forum’s annual gender gap survey. Iceland heads the list, followed by the other Scandinavian countries. While the top and bottom halves of the ranking are generally made up of developed and developing countries respectively, there are some surprising exceptions. Lesotho, for example, is in 10th place, while Mongolia comes in 22nd, far ahead of the USA in 31st (it might also grieve the Americans to know that they were beaten by Cuba).

What’s not surprising, however, are top and bottom ends of the list. Most of us would have predicted the Scandinavian countries at the top and the Islamic countries at the bottom. The highest placed Islamic country is Indonesia in 93rd, while the highest placed member of the Arab League is Kuwait in 105th. From there until last placed Yemen at 134th the list is almost exclusively Arab or Muslim, or both. Some notable exceptions are Guatemala in 111th and South Korea in 115th. Countries like Nigeria (108th), India (114th) and Benin (131st) are majority Muslim or have large Muslim populations, hence their inevitable presence in the latter half of the ranking.

The majority of Muslims in Belgium come from Morocco and Turkey, which are ranked 124th and 129th respectively. Turkey’s ranking is particularly worrying as they aspire to join the EU. In any case it’s incredible that Muslim women in Belgium are trying to replicate the behaviour and status of women in these two countries rather than follow the example of Belgian women, who have helped put Belgium in 33rd place.

http://www.weforum.org/en/Communities/Women%20Leaders%20and%20Gender%20Parity/GenderGapNetwork/index.htm