From Montreal-
A bill that would bar a woman wearing a face veil from receiving government services is an attack on women’s rights in the guise of defending equality of the sexes, say the Anglican diocese of Montreal and the Simone de Beauvoir Institute.
In a statement approved Monday night by local clergy and Bishop Barry Clarke, the diocese said the bill erodes freedom of religion guaranteed under the Quebec and Canadian human-rights charters.
The local church body added that Bill 94 also unfairly targets women, since there are no men who wear the niqab, a veil with slits for the eyes worn by a small minority of Muslim women in Quebec.
“Obliging women to choose between the free exercise of their Charter right to freedom of religion, and the exercise of their rights to participate in society is odious,” the diocese said.
The de Beauvoir Institute, a women’s studies college at Concordia University, charged that Premier Jean Charest’s claim that the bill would protect gender equality is misleading.
“We feel in effect this bill will limit Muslim women’s autonomy and freedom,” said Gada Mahrouse, an assistant professor at the institute.
Denying niqab-clad women the right to government services, including education and health care, will exclude them from public life, she said. “They are going to be housebound.”
Read more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Diocese+educators+condemn+Quebec+veil/2907207/story.html#ixzz0lAUDFmh5
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