In the Netherlands we have seething, following the announcement that the government may ban a misogynistic symbol of political Islam: Dutch Muslims hit out at proposed burqa ban.

Dutch Muslims have hit out at a proposed government ban of face veils, saying it was over the top, ill-conceived and infringed religious rights.

On Friday the Dutch cabinet said it was proposing a bill banning clothing that covers the face in public, targeting in particular Muslim woman wearing the burqa or niqab. The burqa is an Islamic veil covering the entire face and body and a mesh screen to see through, while the niqab is a veil covering the face but leaving the eye area clear. The garments are worn by a few dozen women in the Netherlands.

Rita Verdonk, minister of immigration and integration, said the bill proposed a ban on the basis that covering the face constituted a risk to public order and safety. The ban would be imposed in public and “semi-public” places such as schools, courts, ministries and trains, her spokesman Martin Bruinsma told AFP. “In this country, we want to be able to see each other. The ban is a question of security,” daily De Telegraaf quoted on Saturday the minister as saying.

But representatives of the country’s Muslim population were unimpressed.

“They are going to have to find a better argument than security. It is an infringement on the freedom of religion,” said Ahmed Markouch, a Moroccan mosques representative. He predicted that the bill would go down badly with the country’s sizeable Muslim population, “because it comes from Verdonk, not because they are in favour of the burqa.”

Green Party lawmaker Mustapha Laboui, who is of Moroccan origin, said that although he believed the wearing of the burqa in Dutch society was “not logical”, he was sceptical as to the bill’s legality.

And Ayhan Tonca from the CMO, a group representing Muslims, said that such a law would be “useless”.

UPDATE at 11/18/06 2:36:23 pm:

Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed al Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, thinks suicide bombing against Jews is fine, but when it comes to the burqa he’s a champion of women’s rights. He says it’s OK for a woman to show her face and hands as long as every other inch of her skin is covered: Asharq Alawsat.

Q) There has been much debate in Egypt concerning the Niqab recently. From a religious standpoint what is the proper dress code for a Muslim woman?

A) God says: “And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms.” Since the Quran says this, we, men and women, should say: We hear and obey. What I think is meant by God’s words “except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof” is the face and hands. As long as a woman’s face and hands are the only revealed parts of her body, she is following the required religious dress code. As for covering the face or what is called the Niqab, this issue is more to do with traditions.

UPDATE at 11/18/06 2:50:03 pm:

And to underline the human misery and pain caused by Islamic repression of women: Afghan women commit suicide by fire.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Blood dripped down the 16-year-old girl’s face after another beating by her drug addict husband. Worn down by life’s pain, she ran to the kitchen, doused herself with gas from a lamp and struck a match.

Desperate to escape domestic violence, forced marriage and hardship, scores of women across Afghanistan each year are committing suicide by fire. While some gains have been made since the fall of the Taliban five years ago, life remains bleak for many Afghan women in the conservative and violence-plagued country, and suicide is a common escape.

Young Gulsum survived to tell her story. Her pretty face and delicate feet were untouched by the flames, but beneath her red turtleneck sweater, floral skirt and white shawl, her skin is puffy and scarred. More than a month after her attempt, her gnarled hands still bleed.

“It was my decision to die. I didn’t want to be like this, with my hands and body like this,” she said, sitting on a hospital bed in Kabul and hiding her deformed hands beneath her shawl.

Reliable statistics on self-immolation nationwide are difficult to gauge. In Herat province, where the practice has been most reported and publicized, there were 93 cases last year and 54 so far this year. More than 70 percent of these women die. …

An estimated 60 to 80 percent of Afghan marriages are forced, the report said. More than half of Afghan women are married before they turn 16 and many young girls are married to men who are several decades older, the report said. The exchange of women and girls to resolve a crime, debt or household dispute is also common.