Should Veil be Banned in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Should Veil be Banned in the UK - Essay Example Considering Sura 7:46, a veil acts as a separation between the resident of Heaven and the resident of Hell. In Sura 19: 16-17, a veil is remarked as the symbol of sovereignty and purity. Other explanations in the Quran also describe veil as a separation of evil with the good (Amer, 2000). On this note of an affirmative definition of veiling one shall think that why veil should be banned in the UK or any other country contradicting preaches of Islam and the belief of Islamic women. It was in the year 2006, when Mr. Jack Straw, a leader of the House of Commons in the UK stated ‘Hijab’ to increase the differences between Islamic religion and other religious groups and remarked the practice as a â€Å"visible statement of separation†. This incident was led by the suspension of an assistant teacher wearing veil in her workplace (Sultan-ul-Qalam, 2006). Since then, the practice of wearing veil in the UK by Muslim women has become debatable in relation to the judgment be hind banning the veil in the economic region. The paper presented here will intend to discuss various aspects related to this issue with due regards to local and global values regarding ‘Hijab’ or ‘Full Face Veil’ along with cultural imperialism and national sovereignty of the UK. The role of media will also be analysed to obtain rational in relation to the debated topic of banning veil in the UK. Local Values vs. Global Values Abraham (2007), in his study adroitly states â€Å"Just as complex discourses have developed around the metaphor of ‘the closet’ and ‘coming out of the closet’, the metaphor of ‘the veil’ and the concept of ‘lifting the veil’ have developed their own political debates†. With due consideration to this explanation of veil, the local values can be recognised in this context. Veil which is also called ‘Naqab’ or ‘Hijab’ originates as an Arabic word that refers to as barrier. Moving further from the lexicon explanation, veil has a broader meaning in the local values of Islam. It largely indicates towards the philosophy of modesty in both men and women (Long, 2009: 93-94). However, in the current day context, the most common metaphor of Hijab is an Islamic woman wearing on veil to cover her head, her face and her body. Furthermore, according to the Islamic values, a veil also tends to provide sexual space to the women in the society indicating that women should keep themselves covered in front of any unknown male figure with whom they were unable to theoretically be engaged, i.e. men who do not relate with their family (Long, 2009: 93-94; Abraham, 2007). Even in the current practices, veil is considered by Muslim women to provide them with space in terms of sovereignty and modesty as well as in terms of sexuality (Gabriel & Hannan, 2011). On the contrary, from a generalised point of view the global values of Islam have often presente d the religion as ‘barbaric’ restricting many natural flows of human life. In many instances, the religious beliefs are also stated to reflect the society to be male dominated. For instance, Islam states that men can have more than one wife provided he is able to render equal love and affection to each (Long, 2009: 92). Similarly, from the global perspective wearing a veil is considered to be a religious belief that creates a social difference between the Muslim women and men of the same as well as other religions. Thus, it is