World Hijab Day 2022 #HandsOffMyHijab

Today marks World Hijab Day 2022. What is clear, is that the importance of this day has only increased since its inception – FEMYSO alongside our civil society partners would like to reiterate the clear statement #HandsOffMyHijab.  

The constant attack on the Hijab is centred in a patriarchal view that those in power have the right to legislate on women’s bodies. What a woman chooses to wear (and not to wear) is her own decision and those that seek to undermine this basic fundamental right should be seen as pariah.  

It is hypocrisy of the highest order to governments that seek to rightfully condemn other countries for human rights violations, to enact their own when it comes to the choice a Muslim woman makes whether to wear religious clothing.  

The recent decision by the French Senate to ban the Hijab in sports is one of many clear human rights violations that our region has seen. Sport is a unifying platform where one’s talent and work ethic should be the only consideration made. Instead, Muslim women now have to make the choice between wearing religious clothing and engaging in the sport they love.  

In July 2021, a political decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was passed which once again gives a free pass to employers to ban the headscarf. This saw the ECJ prioritise the financial interests of employers and prejudiced customers as more important than the rights of those who are perpetually made vulnerable and kept in a vicious circle of discrimination. 

FEMYSO President Hande Taner said ‘My choice to wear the Hijab was my own and one that has led to numerous barriers being placed in front of me in my pursuit to help shape a more just world. The efforts by many across our region to limit Muslim women like myself due to this aspect of my faith is a shameful endeavour that the generations to come will look upon with shame – #HandsOffMyHijab and the Hijabs of all the incredible young women I represent across our region.’  

As part of our work to tackle Gendered Islamophobia, FEMYSO has launched a survey that seeks to tackle the issues faced by Muslim women in the job market, translated into 8 languages, please take part here.  

We once again call upon EU Member States to stop their obsession with Muslim women’s bodies. We call on the EU and all its institutions to recognise the impact of Gendered Islamophobia on its citizens and to work alongside civil society to implement impactful and holistic policy to tackle this human rights violation.
 

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.     
  1. For more media-related information or requests please email media@femyso.org. 

Anti-Racism Action Plan (ARAP): 1-Year Anniversary Manifesto

It’s been a year since #BLM (Black Lives Matter) protests were successful in pushing the EU to create an EU Anti-Racism Action Plan. To truly start tackling racism over the next year, over 40 organisations have got solutions. We hope to work constructively with the European Commission to deliver change!

Rather than being protected by police, many racialised communities are victims of racist policing and violence.  The families of Stanislav Tomas, Adil or Ousman Sey are still waiting for justice, as are many more. We’re calling on the Commission to put an end to police brutality, discrimination and violence by extending the Race Equality Directive (RED) to cover law enforcement.

As President von der Leyen stated last year, it is time “to build a truly anti-racist Union – that goes from condemnation to action.” The Commission has promised to ensure that all Member States put forward National Action Plans Against Racism (NAPARs). With COVID-19 devastating our communities in some of the worst ways, we’re calling for these action plans to be finalised, and delivered by 2022. 

It’s time racial justice is mainstreamed in ALL policy areas. Racism does not happen in a vacuum. It’s structural. Let’s include racial justice in climate, digital, economic, education, employment, foreign, defence, gender, migration and security policy. With the increased targeting, arrests and outright banning of anti-racism activists and organisations across Europe, we’re calling on the European Commission to closely scrutinise developments in the Member States and provide concrete support for anti-racist human rights defenders and organisations at risk.

We’re calling for the EU Coordinator on Anti-Racism to work together with civil society in the organisation of the EU Anti-Racism Summit under the French Presidency in March 2022 and to ensure a dynamic and interactive meeting with a focus on structural racism, as well as high-level participation including the President of the Commission and Heads of States.

We want to see the EU Coordinator on Anti-Racism ensure meaningful and regular dialogue between the European Commission and civil society organisations led by racialised groups, communities and organisations.

Finally, it’s time that racialised people are properly represented in the EU institutions and agencies. 

We’re calling on the relevant bodies of the various institutions to put forward its proposals on creating a safe positive environment and strategy that will increase the representation of racialised people and others from underrepresented communities. 

 

To read the manifesto and see the list of civil society organisations, go here.

 

This statement is in cooperation with ENAR (European Network Against Racism), Equinox (Initiative for Racial Justice) and ERGO Network (European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network).

The EU Court of Justice institutionalises sexism and Islamophobia again

Brussels, 16 July 2021  

At FEMYSO, we are utterly outraged at the political decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which once again gives a free pass to employers to ban the Islamic headscarf. This is nothing less than a blatant reduction of the rights of visibly Muslim women in the EU, and thus nothing less than the institutionalisation of Islamophobia.  

Disguised under a layer of ‘neutrality’, the judgement in the joined cases C-804/18 and C-341/19, Wabe and Müller, on the right to wear religious clothing (headscarf) at work, solely panders to the prejudices of customers and employers by favouring racism over the right to non-discrimination. Indeed, the ECJ prioritises the financial interests of employers and prejudiced customers as more important than the rights of those who are perpetually made vulnerable and kept in a vicious circle of discrimination. This case demonstrates that Muslim lives are a justifiable exception to otherwise robust anti-discrimination legislation in the EU.  

Instead of acting as a powerful voice for the social and human aspect of European integration and protecting the rights of those who are most marginalised in our “Union of Equality”, this ruling provides a legal basis for further discrimination against Muslim Women in the job market. In simple terms, the prejudices of some are being placed above the human rights of others.

This political act adds to the hostile environment that Muslim communities face across our region. The 

Impact of islamophobia on our lives both in a structural sense – of which this is an example – and everyday prejudice, cannot be understated, with Muslim women most often as the biggest victims who.

We call on the European Court of Justice to revise this judgement, and EU Member States to stop the obsession with Muslim women’s bodies. We call on the EU and all its institutions to recognise the impact of Islamophobia on its citizens and to work alongside civil society to tackle this disease.

 

Notes   

  1. FEMYSO (est. 1996) is a network organisation for 33 Muslim youth and student organisations across 20 European countries, and is the leading voice for European Muslim youth, developing and empowering them, and working to build a more diverse, cohesive and vibrant Europe.  
  2. Graphic design credits: Limma Ali / Ali.Illustrate
  3. The Times, 15 July 2021 “Hijab can be banned at work, rules EU court” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hijab-can-be-banned-at-work-rules-eu-court-g8px0mlms?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1626347525  
  4. Al Jazeera, 15 July 2021 “Top EU court rules hijab can be banned at work” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/15/top-eu-court-rules-hijab-can-be-banned-at-work  
  5. For more information or requests please email media@femyso.org.  

 

FEMYSO is shocked and saddened about the hate crime against the Jewish Museum in Brussels 

The Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations (FEMYSO) is shocked and saddened to hear of the heinous hate crime against the Jewish Museum in Brussels. This targeting of the Jewish community is yet another tragic sign of the rise of hate and xenophobia on the continent of Europe, the dangers of which are apparent from recent history. 

 

We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. We call on European authorities to take immediate action to address, prevent and prosecute such hate crimes and send a strong message that an attack on one community is an attack on all. 

 

The European Union’s motto, United in Diversity, must be more than a mere slogan. It is time for Europe to stand up for its values of human dignity, equality and respect for human rights. 

 

26/05/2014, FEMYSO PR team