ISIS Imposes a Partial Ban on Burqas
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Before getting to the news item at hand, a personal preface:
I am frustrated that Westerners don't perceive the obvious point that
burqas and niqabs, both of which cover not only the head but the whole
body, threaten public security. A person wearing these Islamic garments
can be male or female, can carry an assault rifle, and can usually get
away with anything anonymously.
I expected that my compilation
of burqa- and niqab-assisted crimes and acts of political violence
going back nearly fifteen years and now about 150 incidents long, would
convince any sensible observer of the public security problem; all the
more so because the assaults included child abduction and rape, the
murder of police officers, and other outrages; and because banks
and other institutions have noted the problem and in many cases
banned these and many lesser coverings.
But no, whether it be an intellectual like Martha
Nussbaum, a journalist like Joel
Mathis, or the many, many voices opining on the recent burkini ban
from French beaches, security issues inspire a collective shrug, with
almost everyone focused instead on the symbolism of these two garments,
whether it be concerning the welcoming of the other, the inhibition of
social interaction, or the status of women.
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For reasons that
baffle me, the burkini raises more protests than the burqa. One is not
dangerous, the other is.
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While sensible to these concerns, I fail to see how one can legally
ban an article of clothing because it bothers one's sensibilities. As I
like to put it, bad taste is a human right; you can wear a green-and-pink
plaid jacket and I have no right to forbid it because it happens to
offend me; likewise for the burqa and niqab. I can only ban those if they
pose a danger, which they do.
So much for the West. Now to the news item, which concerns the Islamic
State, that bastion of burqas, where women
can be flogged for not wearing one; Iran
Front Page translated a Persian-language item from Al-Alam News
Network, an Iranian regime news agency:
A local source in the Iraqi province of Nineveh announced on Friday,
September 2, that the [ISIS] terrorist group has released an order, based
on which no woman is allowed to be wearing niqab or burqa when entering
the security and military centres. The decision, according to the source,
came after some fully veiled women killed a number of ISIS commanders and
members in the past months.
Comments:
(1) First irony: The ISIS rulers first require the burqa and then,
realizing what a perfect cover it provides to attack themselves, ban it
from sensitive areas. Should attacks on them continue, perhaps ISIS will
have to ban the burqa from all public places, which would be quite a
change.
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Members of the ISIS
all-women Al-Khansaa Brigade, a police unit, in their burqas.
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(2) Second irony: The most retrograde, extreme, and morbid Islamist
regime on earth recognizes burqas as a danger to public security while
the modern, moderate, and democratic states in the West remain clueless.
(3) Despite my frustration on this issue, I do believe it's just a
matter of more assaults and more time before Westerners wake up to this
problem. But how many more must be gratuitously robbed, raped, and killed
before that happens? (September 6, 2016)
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