Hijab, Kamzy Gunaratnam | No to hijab in the police

Storting representative Kamzy Gunaratnam (Ap) asks the program committee to consider hijab use in the police. She believes that it will recruit more Muslim women into the police.

This is the issue: Kamzy Gunaratnam wants Ap to allow police hijab

Let me be clear: The police in Norway do not represent ideologies or religions. The police are neutral. Norway has abolished the state church. The police enjoy credibility and trust by virtue of that.

For a woman who has escaped from an Islamic regime – like me – it is very difficult to gain trust if the police wear a hijab.

The same may apply to a gay man, simply because the hijab marks loyalty to the religion and not to the state.

Will be placed in the office

So one can ask oneself, after several rounds of handshake debate, how these policewomen are supposed to be able to shake hands with the opposite sex and how are they supposed to arrest someone? And train with men?

How can police with a hijab, with all the religious restrictions it entails, function on the streets?

I think the most likely place will be in the office.

Furthermore, a girl who is loyal to the hijab can also be loyal to the culture of honor. Having confidence that she is able to maintain confidentiality or take seriously reports from girls who are victims of honor violence, is something that could worry the front line in such cases.

The hijab is by no means a neutral expression like the state uniform is.

Read the Koran with Kamzy

Gunaratnam argues that religious head coverings in the police will be able to recruit Muslim women. But hijab is not compulsory in the religion of Islam.

I would love to read the Koran with Kamzy to look for verses that say Muslim girls should wear the hijab. Or if there is a penalty for not going with it.

Neither covering nor hijab is obligatory in Islam. Veiling of women applied to the Prophet Muhammad’s wives. It was so that other men would not trouble the Prophet’s women and separate them from others, such as slave women, Jews and Christians. It was especially because during his lifetime they had to go out at night to do their business and had to avoid being seen by other men.

Just read verse 55, chapter 33 of the Quran.

We still see this in, for example, poor areas in Pakistan and India. Unfortunately, there are many women who have not read the Koran.

Read more comments from Lily Bandehy

Something fundamentally wrong with the integration

The arguments currently pending are often about the police having to adjust so that the immigrants have confidence in them. But the premise is wrong: the police have the trust of the population.

There is something fundamentally wrong with integration if the police have to dress religiously in order to gain the trust and respect of the immigrant population.

I suspect – with my background from Iran and with the knowledge that exists about the financing of Norwegian mosques – that the demands may come from the countries that send money to the big mosques, such as the Iranian mosque at Hauketo and the Pakistani one at Mortensrud. In these countries there is ongoing pressure about the hijab.

Muslims in Europe have it with them – and are financed by their home countries and rich Gulf states. Many women argue that it is about religious freedom, but we must be aware that religious freedom is just as much about the absence of religion. That is why we have abolished the state religion.

No to Hijab

That the state should allow itself to be pressured into entering into religious settlements does not belong anywhere.

Gunaratnam says she herself has changed her mind about uniforms and religious headgear. Now she also believes that the rest of Norway is “ripe” for the change.

I believe that we in Norway are so mature that we can safely say no to the hijab in the public sector.