Hijab for police?

[Adavidson]

This is a debate currently going on in Norway, the basics are should female, muslim policeofficers be allowed to wear hijab?

It became an issue as the government are trying to recruit more people with minority back-ground into the police.
There are of course two sides to this story, and I would like to say a little about both, and thought maybe I could see what the rest of the world has to say on the subject.

First of all muslim women are, or have proven, to be the most difficult group of people to recruit. Their religion lays many restrictions on their life, and without going too much into detail, hijab and burka became the two most important issues.

If I have understood this correctly, a muslim woman wearing a hijab is prohibited from touching another man.

The police force (at least in Norway) are supposed to be religion-neutral. Therefore women wearing hijab will technically be promoting/showing their religious views.

Becoming a police officer is not a human right. If you apply you must be able to do all aspects of the job, that is what the public pay you for. So in relation to cultural sensitivities, tough luck, that is what you are paid for?

There are many different religions in the police today, christian, catholic, jehovas, jewish etc, but they are not allowed to sow the star of David, or a cross to their uniform. That wouldn`t be neutral.

That being said, a modern day police force must attract representatives from all parts of their communities and police by consent of the public. So the only way I can imagine the hijab being allowed is if it were a special police one designed as part of the uniform.

One argument is if there was a murder within the muslim community, a women wearing hijab and having the language skills might be more excepted than a big short haired norwegian man. Although this might be true, I do not think muslim men would treat a policewoman wearing hijab with more respect than a policeman. But then that becomes a discussion about how liberal they are about their faith.

I just think celebrating a persons culture is fine, politics are not. And when religion becomes politics.. things have gone wrong.

[Puppycow]

No.

[Professor Yaffle]

I think the not being allowed to touch men would make the job impossible, but I don't see why wearing a veil should be a problem - Sikh police are allowed to wear a turban, after all.

[Adavidson]

Thought I might add that in women in pakistan are not allowed to were hijab as policeofficers. The reason? They want to promote equality.

Funny how the world works.

[gumboot]

Something to be pointed out, the complete covering is not a requirement of Islam, and is something only practised by more conservative Muslims - the extreme end of course being the Burqa.

I would humbly suggest that a western police force shouldn't want conservative Muslims serving in it, and that conservative Muslims are unlikely to want to serve on the force.

In fact, given that the basic premise behind conservative Islam is a rejection of western values, and given the well-established practise of Radical Muslims infiltrating western establishment to undermine it, I would be highly suspicious of any conservative Muslims actively seeking to join a western police force.

I would be spending my time trying to attract liberal and modernist Muslim women, who don't completely cover themselves.

[lionking]

Already happened in Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Making-hijab-part-of-Victoria-Police-uniform/2004/11/26/1101219743263.html?from=moreStories

[Professor Yaffle]

Already happened in Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Making-hijab-part-of-Victoria-Police-uniform/2004/11/26/1101219743263.html?from=moreStories

And the UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4175339,00.html

[gumboot]

One argument is if there was a murder within the muslim community, a women wearing hijab and having the language skills might be more excepted than a big short haired norwegian man. Although this might be true, I do not think muslim men would treat a policewoman wearing hijab with more respect than a policeman. But then that becomes a discussion about how liberal they are about their faith.


If anything, I think Muslim men would be far more likely to respond positively to a non-Muslim male police officer than they would a Muslim female police officer. In fact they might be quite offended by a Muslim female police officer, because they are liable to think she has no place trying to play police.

Muslim female police officers would only really be useful for talking to muslim women, but even then I suspect if muslim women are reluctant to talk it's a reflection of how their husbands and fathers treat them, and the confidence of a fellow muslim woman is unlikely to rank above fear of their men.

The notion of having a more diverse police force is a good one, but it's rather naive to think it would be useful to have females of a particular ethnic group when women are quite badly oppressed in that ethnic group.

Remember, women are in many cases regarded as inferior to boys in Islam.

[Professor Yaffle]

Something to be pointed out, the complete covering is not a requirement of Islam, and is something only practised by more conservative Muslims - the extreme end of course being the Burqa.

I would humbly suggest that a western police force shouldn't want conservative Muslims serving in it, and that conservative Muslims are unlikely to want to serve on the force.

In fact, given that the basic premise behind conservative Islam is a rejection of western values, and given the well-established practise of Radical Muslims infiltrating western establishment to undermine it, I would be highly suspicious of any conservative Muslims actively seeking to join a western police force.

I would be spending my time trying to attract liberal and modernist Muslim women, who don't completely cover themselves.

Hijab usually refers to just a headscarf, not more complete covering like niquab or burqua.

[Undesired Walrus]

An interesting question, following on from the OP's question, is whether transexual or transgender people should be able to wear the opposite sex's clothes.

[lionking]

An interesting question, following on from the OP's question, is whether transexual or transgender people should be able to wear the opposite sex's clothes.

Hard to see that as a freedom of religious expression issue.

[Adavidson]

Wearing hijab is very common in Norway, and women get to make the choice themselves.

It is not viewed as extremism over here so there are huge debates going on in the muslim community, and its looks like they want it allowed.

[Polaris]

Wearing hijab is very common in Norway, and women get to make the choice themselves.

It is not viewed as extremism over here so there are huge debates going on in the muslim community, and its looks like they want it allowed.

Suuuuuuuuuuuuure they are. Something tells me the women who wear hijab (or worse) might not care to tempt the fates by taking it off in public around at least one of their extended (if not immediate) family members.

As for the focus...the Muslim community is not the majority in Norway. Who gives a crap if they want it allowed? They aren't in charge of the police force, and this base attempt at tolerance of a symbol of intolerance is putting political-correctness over the effectiveness of that police force. I understand Norway has lower crime by far than the US, but regardless of the rates, I'm sure most of it is committed by men. Men the bedraped conservative Muslim women won't be allowed to touch based on their own superstitions - meaning they won't be able to do their jobs properly.