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'All women live under the male gaze, but the European hijab ruling feels like the eye of Sauron'

World Hijab Day allowed me to see the hijab for what it is – not a threat, not a tool of oppression – but a reflection of care for others and sense of belonging, writes Sinead Mercier.

THREE YEARS AGO, I walked into university to attend a conference on the meaning of traditional clothing in the West of Ireland. It was called “Threads of Discovery: Cloth, Clothes and Culture” and, by some strange and fortunate coincidence, this conference and NUIG’s Malaysian society World Hijab Day event were in two rooms side by side.

World Hijab Day is the 1st February every year when Muslim women dress others with the hijab in order to promote the Day’s motto of “Better Awareness. Greater Understanding. Peaceful World”.

I was assured I wasn’t appropriating but instead it would be a chance to find out for myself the reality of wearing a piece of clothing truly imbued with meaning in not just the West of Ireland, but the Western world.

I’ve been subjected to pretty colourful jibes and jokes about redheads for much of my life, yet I have never endured serious abuse for what was on my head. I’m privileged to be part of the scenery, fading into an abundant crop of pasty Galwegian redheads.

Listening to the open, kind and funny members of NUIG’s Malaysian and Muslim societies recount their stories of public and official abuse, whilst wearing myself the otherwise innocuous object of their persecution, it brought home to me how unjust and cruel their treatment was.

Love and kindness

To be able to experience wearing the headscarf in such a friendly atmosphere was a privilege, but I felt odd and appropriating.

I’m grateful for that chance for allowing me to see the hijab for what it is – not a threat, not a tool of oppression – but a reflection of care for others, a love of one’s culture and sense of belonging.

Women expressing their identity and self must be respected and supported, rather than seen as helpless victims of oppression or a target for violence.

European Court ruling

0063 European hijab ban protest copy Demo outside the European Parliament Office in Dublin in protest of the European Court of Justice ruling allowing employers to stop their workers wearing the hijab. Pictured is Amram Abdalla, originally from Somalia. RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

I find the recent case from the European Court of Justice appalling in light of that February day in 2014 and the headscarf-wearing friends I have made over the years, many of them avowed feminists.

The European Court ruled that you can’t fire someone because your customers don’t like being served by a woman in a headscarf. However, it appears you can fire a headscarf-wearing employee if after you employ them a customer complains and you subsequently formalise an informal rule requiring all employees to dress “neutrally”.

All women live under the male gaze, but for a European court to puts its focus on a piece of cloth on the heads of a tiny proportion of the EU population feels decidedly like the eye of Sauron.

The EU has done little to protect Irish women from death and disability under the anti-abortion and anti-contraception stance of religious institutions. It has done even less to protect Ireland’s poorest cohort in the workplace – single mothers – from EU-imposed austerity.

Furthermore, from a gender equality perspective, this ruling will further alienate Muslim women and prevent them from strengthening their economic independence and their emancipation.

Whatever your stance on religion or feminism, it is also frightening that an employer could have such power over how an individual chooses to express deeply held beliefs.

Legitimising across all workplaces the intrusion of consumer, corporate or managerial desire – unconnected to any health or safety concerns – into the everyday life of an employee is a dangerous precedent to set.

This case also cannot be pulled from a context in which the EU moves to militarise its borders as 3,740 refugees – many Muslim and many fleeing wars Europeans have stoked and started – died in Mediterranean waters in 2016 alone.

European Principles

There is no doubt that in an increasingly globalised world, as all that is solid melts into air and nationalism rises to fill the void, the EU is seeking common principles with which to define itself.

Will the EU define itself by borders, increasingly privatised and increasingly lethal? Will our common European culture be dictated by a minority of multinational corporations profiting from the disintegration of a people’s dignity? Or will we define ourselves by excluding others as we begin in Ireland to uncover plot upon unmarked plot of unmarried mothers and their stolen children?

With my upbringing as an Irish Catholic in an internationalist EU, came the duty to understand and accept faith and culture in other forms as but one of the myriad mediums through which people give effect to love and kindness in their lives.

A far more wholesome option, would be to see the great beauty in seeking to live lives along guidelines of understanding, love and kindness to others, a promise which World Hijab Day’s motto “Better Awareness. Greater Understanding. Peaceful World” reflects.

Sinead Mercier is a researcher for the Irish Green Party and has worked with Amnesty International, the Irish Penal Reform Trust and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

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    Mute Keith Dunne
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:52 PM

    Straight outta Carlow.

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    Mute G
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:04 PM

    Gwan the boyz yup yup

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    Jun 8th 2019, 11:00 PM

    Embarrassing…

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    Mute Daragh Ó Murchú
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    Jun 9th 2019, 12:19 AM

    @TamuMassif2019: cad go díreach a bhfuil náireach fúthu ?

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    Jun 9th 2019, 12:57 PM

    @Daragh Ó Murchú: I never put much effort into Irish at school…

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    Jun 9th 2019, 1:00 PM

    @Daragh Ó Murchú: Them denying their own culture and trying to act if they belong to another culture and to another race, why making eejits of themselves.

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    Mute Mike Spillane
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    Jun 9th 2019, 2:49 PM

    @TamuMassif2019: you haven’t got a clue. I’d say Irish wasn’t the only part of your education you neglected.

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    Mute David Hickey
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    Jun 9th 2019, 5:12 PM

    @TamuMassif2019: Would you say the same of a rock band? Rock music is from the south of the US originally. Should we stop that, and only play trad so?

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    Mute Disco Pants
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:12 PM

    Lowest common denominator trash for the most brainless in society.

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    Mute .
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:18 PM

    @Disco Pants: ooooooh look at me I use big words to seem smarter than anyone else

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    Mute Patsy Mongan
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:18 PM

    @Disco Pants: moron

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    Mute Conor Daly
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:20 PM

    @Disco Pants: idiot

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    Mute Disco Pants
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:22 PM

    @Conor Daly: who bees you dog? Gnome sayin

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    Mute Leitrim303
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:22 PM

    @Disco Pants: i bet you would be great crack on a night out

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:25 PM

    @Disco Pants: put down what you don’t understand is smart thinking

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    Mute j4VEpUO8
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:26 PM

    @T Jay O’Mea: putting

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    Mute Blockboy Bertie
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:40 PM

    @Disco Pants: bellend

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    Mute Marty
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:03 PM

    @Disco Pants: Hey mate you havnt got a clue what’s up

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    Mute John Paul
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:07 PM

    @Disco Pants: brainless? Most of these lads are above average intelligence. They have to be to write songs and have the intelligence and confidence to come up with lyrics on the spot

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    Mute Barry Dempsey
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    Jun 9th 2019, 7:55 AM

    @Disco Pants: thanks for your insight. Lowest common denominator trolling

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    Mute Cheeky Bums
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:50 PM

    Anyone else remember Scary Éire?

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    Mute G
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:09 PM

    @Cheeky Bums: Yeah, last I heard he got whacked in Compton, drive by shooting. Rip Scary

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    Mute Linda Kirby
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    Jun 8th 2019, 11:51 PM

    @Cheeky Bums: They played the sugar club on Paddy’s weekend, wasn’t there but it was a great gig so I’ve been told.

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Jun 10th 2019, 10:35 AM

    @Cheeky Bums: Yeah, Saw them live back in the day.. great band.

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    Mute Tommy D
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:21 PM

    Mago x mathman have some really good stuff that deserves more air play

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    Mute popeye Doyle
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:40 PM

    Load of me b. O. X s

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    Mute Keith Dunne
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:14 PM

    I said a hip hop …… stall it down the shop ….

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    Mute Sirius
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    Jun 9th 2019, 7:39 AM

    “entrenched racism”? How about a fact check on that claim.

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    Mute Linda Kirby
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    Jun 8th 2019, 11:54 PM

    It’s quite astonishing that an article about Irish rap has no mention of Scary Eire

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    Mute TheFreeSpeechParty
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:46 PM

    Just need to avoid the trap that happens with any Dublin scene where a group of artists get good, then disappear up their own posteriors

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    Mute Iarla Ó
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:28 PM

    Kneecap’s album gets played a lot in our car. Check them out on YouTube/Spotify if you haven’t already.

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    Mute J
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:39 PM

    The comments here are hilarious

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    Mute thephantomshit
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    Jun 8th 2019, 11:43 PM

    Is seems like most Irish hip hop that makes social media graduated out of gonzaga college

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    Mute Keith Dunne
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    Jun 8th 2019, 9:53 PM

    Straight outta Carlow

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    Mute Sega Yolo
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:05 PM

    @Keith Dunne: or Straight outta Carlaa

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    Mute De20
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:22 PM

    I really don’t the Kneecap boys would call themselves northern Irish and what’s with the ‘his real name is an Irish name’ comment? What’s that supposed to mean? Belfast is cheap compared to Dublin but you would be hard pushed to get a room in a shared house for less than £250 a month. For a flat, you’ll be talking £500 a month unless it’s in the absolute worst areas

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    Mute De Zach Same
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    Jun 9th 2019, 4:30 AM

    @De20: We are taking Irish hip hop and somehow you manage to make it about property prices….shame on you.

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    Mute Al coholic
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    Jun 9th 2019, 1:43 AM

    Fair play lads all the best no mention of Rob Kelly from Wexford who really blazed a trail for the hip hop community

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    Mute Bass demon
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    Jun 9th 2019, 2:42 PM

    Rap/ hip hop just never sounds good done by Europeans it just comes across as lame and fake .

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    Mute Michael Maher
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    Jun 9th 2019, 8:27 PM

    diddi diddle dillidy dillidy dillidy dee

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    Mute Marty
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:05 PM

    These boys are very talented not mainstream which is great….we are sick of PC bullshit we’re know
    what’s going down

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    Jun 8th 2019, 11:03 PM
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    Jun 8th 2019, 10:32 PM

    5th element on youtube. Class lads!

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    Mute Donwon999
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    Jun 9th 2019, 9:49 AM

    Calling all da scraggy b I tches from accross the land. Jump up on me 1997 Civic and we’ll show those nerds.

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