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Religious Dress

19/8/2018

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There’s been quite a to-do in the press and social media recently about the wearing of the niqab and burka, seen by some as a symbol of the oppression of women and by others as a symbol of religious freedom. Expressing dislike of it and even talking about it is seen by some as freedom of expression and by others as islamophobia and criticising it is considered a denial of freedom of expression.  It raises all sorts of questions and has become a bone of contention in many European countries. Denmark is the latest one to forbid the wearing of the niqab, burka in public, not ostensibly because of any discrimination against Islam but for security reasons. It has caused quite a stir in Britain because a rather flamboyant politician, who would actually defend a woman’s right to wear the niqab or burka, was insulting about it.  It’s the insults that, unfortunately, have given rise to islamophobic comments and created controversy.  

I’ve often wondered why a woman in a modern country like Britain would want to wear the niqab. I’d have to confess that it’s a bit disconcerting for me to have a conversation with someone whose face is covered apart from her eyes and I do find contact easier when I can see facial expressions. But religious dress is not confined to Islam or to women. Monks as well as nuns wear distinctive dress and I haven’t heard that they’ve been banned from wearing this in public. But wearing it has been banned in public schools in countries such as Germany and France ‘to make sure it doesn’t unduly influence pupils’ though I’m not exactly sure how wearing a particular dress would do that.  It’s all part of a secularity that wants to exile religion from the public sphere, not a secularity that I’d agree with.  I prefer a secular society that makes space for everyone, that appreciates diversity; that allows freedom of expression and doesn’t impose its own expression of citizenship. Secular societies are in danger of doing what religious societies did in the past and some do today – imposing a uniformity which can make people feel excluded with their various identities, whether these be religious or not, unacknowledged and disrespected.

I can imagine that it’s this perceived lack of respect for Islam at the moment that leads some women to choose to wear, not just the hijab, but the full covering of the niqab or burka. There certainly seems to be more women doing it now than even a few years ago. It has  become a statement, I think, of being proud to be Muslim and to witness to this in a very public way. The more it’s criticised the more it becomes a symbol of religious freedom  while in a country like Iran, where it’s imposed on women, not wearing it becomes a statement of religious freedom. Would it be so essential to completely cover up in a society that was much more open to Islam, understood it and didn’t identify it with terrorism?
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 Religious dress like all religious symbols and practices comes from a particular context but sometimes that context is forgotten in the significance given to the ritual or dress that takes on a sacredness and importance far beyond what it was in the beginning.  This was the case with the religious habit that many sisters wore for years.  It became synonymous with dedication and commitment and did have religious significance until history showed that what was thought of as a religious garb was in fact the dress typical of the time in which the community was founded. It then became unnecessary to wear what was an outmoded costume which cut us off from the rest of the population and made us different. We now have the freedom to wear what we want.

For Christians the veil belongs to this category. For centuries Christian women wore a head covering, particularly in Church. It was a sign of modesty, separated them from the pagans who didn’t wear a veil and imposed by a patriarchal society that stipulated how women were to dress and behave in public. Wearing a veil pre-dates Islam and would have been modest dress in the Prophet’s time.  The Qur’an stipulates that men and women have to dress modestly and while the Prophet’s wives were required to shield themselves from public gaze it is debated within Islam whether this even means wearing the hijab today never mind the niqab or burka.  For some Muslim women wearing the hijab is a genuine expression of their religion but for other women, equally committed it’s not necessary. This is not to call for any prohibition of wearing the veil but to respect it. However, I would hope that women whose participation and contribution to the future of the society in which we all live is important and valuable would not separate themselves by a more extreme form of dress which cuts them off from normal discourse. For me it would show an at-homeness as well as  an interest and concern for the common good on which we all depend.  But it is a decision that they must make and not one that is imposed upon them.

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Revisiting the Past

5/8/2018

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It’s the holiday season in Scotland and this year we’ve been blessed with good weather. I’m just back from my holiday in Ireland. It was a kind of pilgrimage to the land of my forefathers and foremothers, trying to find out a little more about my family background and get in touch with my roots, something that everyone seems to be into at the moment.

The journey began for me in Sligo which is where my maternal great grandparents came from. I knew a little about their circumstances and the poverty of the Catholic community in that part of the world, made poor in many instances by the policy of the British Government and English landowners who had confiscated the property of native Irish landowners, who were primarily Catholic, and distributed it to the predominantly Protestant settlers brought over from Scotland to populate the North of Ireland. Penal laws had placed significant restrictions upon Catholics. They were forced to practise their religion in secret and while the emancipation act of 1829 brought some kind of justice, tensions between Catholics and Protestants continued with most Catholics being disenfranchised because their poverty did not allow them to pay local taxes or rates on which rested the right to vote. It was a tense situation, made worse by the famine of 1817-22 when the potato crop, on which Irish peasants were dependent, failed and this at the same time as British landowners exported most of the crops grown on their lucrative land. The subsequent outbreak of cholera, and the Great Famine of 1845-49 led to hundreds of thousands of people dying of starvation without help from the British Government or British landlords. It decimated the population of Sligo by a third and thousands emigrated to America and Canada from Sligo port – mostly on sailing ships. The journey must have been terrible. By the 1850s steam ships were transporting emigrants to Glasgow and Liverpool. For some this would be a stopping off point for sailing to America and Canada.

My great grandparents made this journey in the 1870s with their first born. I can only guess how awful it would be to have experienced and, indeed been brought up, in the aftermath of both famine and disease. Obviously they longed for a better life.  I don’t know if they intended going further but they settled in Glasgow and an area of Glasgow which was burgeoning with new industries and businesses so work was available. This had led to a large influx of Irish and Highlanders but led to overcrowding and slum conditions so life was difficult even if there was work to put food on the table – probably endured because better than the conditions from which they had come. Nor did the Scottish population welcome them with open arms. There was the usual fear of immigrants – taking away jobs but especially with the Irish, of a takeover by Catholics.  The ensuing sectarianism and anti- Irish sentiment has been called Scotland’s shame. It’s been a blight on Scottish society and while there are still some expressions of it legislation such as Race Relations and Equality Acts  have outlawed the blatant anti- Catholicism that existed when I was growing up. The consequence of this, however, was that Catholics like other immigrant religious communities tended to live in rather a closed community albeit warm and loving.  Catholic schools exacerbated this and it was possible, up to not so long ago, to meet Catholics who hadn’t spoken to a Protestant, never mind anyone of any other faith. 

All of this pain and conflict I carry in my genes. In some ways nothing has changed, as is obvious from the plight of immigrants that we see daily on our television screens.  We have such an ability to cut ourselves off from the suffering of others, to harden our hearts against them and to leave them in dire situation. At least the poor Irish had work which allowed them to better themselves but present government legislation doesn’t allow asylum seekers to work even though they could make a very good contribution to the infrastructure of our country. In other ways things have changed, especially with regard to sectarianism.  Christian ecumenism has brought about new understanding of Catholic and Protestant denominations. Christians work, live and pray together happily and most anti- Catholic feeling is, I think, more tribal than religious. Scotland really does strive to be tolerant and welcoming but there is still a prejudice amongst some of those who are different. Perhaps today one of the biggest prejudices is against religion itself and religious people expressing their faith, either in what they think, what they wear or what they believe. For some people a secular society means having a place for everyone and accepting their right to speak and act out of their personal beliefs but for others it seems to be about imposing a secularism or non- religious view of life on everyone – something they would criticise religion for doing. And sometimes this criticism of religion comes from a place of hurt and rejection.
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Nearly all religions have a history of suffering, struggle, conflict and persecution. I think we carry a lot of suspicion and pain in all our genes. We are still connected to our painful histories. And this pain can rise to the surface at unexpected moments. It can influence dialogue between people of different religious and non-religious beliefs. It can influence the dialogue in unconscious ways.  It needs to be acknowledged by each of us who engages in dialogue, acknowledged and then let go of as we face one another in friendship and honesty with a concern for our common human struggle and the common good of the community in which we all live. 


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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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