24 Apr 2012

European governments ‘pander’ to prejudice

European governments often pander to prejudice in order to win votes and are failing to do enough to challenge negative stereotypes of Muslims, according to a report by Amnesty International.

A Muslim woman wearing the niqab (veil which covers the body and leaves only a small strip for the eyes) participates in a meeting with Imam Ali El Moujahed on May 18, 2010 outside Paris (Getty)

The research claims Muslim women and girls in Europe are not receiving the same employment and educational opportunities as their peers because of laws on traditional dress and religious symbols.

France became the first European country to ban the full Islamic veil in April 2011 – Belgium followed months later. Women in these countries who go out fully covered now face fines.

Amnesty’s latest report – Choice and prejudice: discrimination against Muslims in Europe – focuses on the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, France and Belgium. It accuses political parties of “pandering” to prejudices in a quest for votes.

Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination, said: “There is a groundswell of opinion in many European countries that Islam is alright and Muslims are ok so long as they are not too visible.

“This attitude is generating human rights violations and needs to be challenged.”

Read more: Niqab fines for women who defied French ban

Employers ‘allowed to discriminate’

The report argues that legislation prohibiting employment discrimination has not been properly implemented in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

It takes figures from 2009 which show that the employment rate of women holding French citizenship was almost 61 per cent while the rate for Moroccan women in France was 26 per cent.

Amnesty says employers have been “allowed to discriminate” on the grounds that religious or cultural symbols will jar with clients or colleagues or that a clash exists with a company’s corporate image or its neutrality.

Marco Perolini said: “Wearing religious and cultural symbols and dress is part of the right of freedom of expression. It is part of the right to freedom of religion or belief – and these rights must be enjoyed by all faiths equally.

“While everyone has the right to express their cultural, traditional or religious background by wearing a specific form of dress no one should be pressurised or coerced to do so. General bans on particular forms of dress that violate the rights of those freely choosing to dress in a particular way are not the way to do this.”

The UK is not included in Amnesty’s latest report. There is no ban on Islamic dress in this country but schools are allowed to dictate their own dress code after various high profile court cases.