Islamabad Girls Forced To Unveil

[Meow Mix]

Veil fury as students forced to show faces

Students at Punjab University were asked by male instructors to uncover their hair, face, and necks in order to identify them to take a test -- which, I should point out that I would normally weakly support unveiling for identification reasons (such as at airports, to make drivers licenses, etc.), but this is a school for which the girls had an implicit expectation that if they were going to be unveiled in a room it would be amongst female teachers.

Punjab University cited a lack of female teachers at the time, so some reasonable questions for me are:

1) Was there not even a single female staff member that could have handled the identification process?? Better slowly done than to trample on the students' beliefs, no?

2) If there weren't any female staff members, why not (once the students complained) move the test date to respect something the students obviously hold extremely dear to them?

I mean, if the students are obviously that uncomfortable, *wouldn't having them unveiled with male staff members in their presence affect their test scores* via their nervousness, outrage, etc. anyway?

This is a needless faux-pas on behalf of Punjab U, methinks!

 

[Assad91]

I am extremely surprised this happened in Islamabad. Is this the best move to make when in the international news, everyday there are bombings in Pakistan?

 

[Meow Mix]

I am extremely surprised this happened in Islamabad. Is this the best move to make when in the international news, everyday there are bombings in Pakistan?

The international news is blind, and I don't know whether to blame them or blame people for not demanding to hear the real truth of what's going on! (Not a conspiracy theory rant, but you know what I mean: the real death and misery happening daily as opposed to "fluff" pieces!)

Regardless, I'm glad this injustice has been brought to light so that maybe in the future schools can better meet the religious needs of their students if there's an implicit understanding such as this.

 

[InformedIgnorance]

It seems to me to be a rather ridiculous situation; they go to an institution where the norm of their garb is well established and accepted, while it is completely understandable that they need prove their identity to engage in supervised assessment, given the reservations about unveiling before men, it should have been obvious that this was not an acceptable means by which to proceed.

 

[Me Myself]

Veil fury as students forced to show faces

Students at Punjab University were asked by male instructors to uncover their hair, face, and necks in order to identify them to take a test -- which, I should point out that I would normally weakly support unveiling for identification reasons (such as at airports, to make drivers licenses, etc.), but this is a school for which the girls had an implicit expectation that if they were going to be unveiled in a room it would be amongst female teachers.

Punjab University cited a lack of female teachers at the time, so some reasonable questions for me are:

1) Was there not even a single female staff member that could have handled the identification process?? Better slowly done than to trample on the students' beliefs, no?

2) If there weren't any female staff members, why not (once the students complained) move the test date to respect something the students obviously hold extremely dear to them?

I mean, if the students are obviously that uncomfortable, *wouldn't having them unveiled with male staff members in their presence affect their test scores* via their nervousness, outrage, etc. anyway?

This is a needless faux-pas on behalf of Punjab U, methinks!

I agree. If I understand correctly, it is just the norm and culture there. How did they not see this happen? Your options are good ones.

 

[Me Myself]

I do wonder about this though:

If high security airports and government buildings can manage to identify women without forcing them to expose their faces to men, then colleges should also be able to manage it, she said.


Read more: Veil fury as students forced to show faces

Perdon the ignorance but, how do they manage to do that? Instant dna test?

 

[illykitty]

I agree as well, as someone who has dabbled in Islam, the Hijab is very important and this situation was very poorly handled.

 

[Meow Mix]

It seems to me to be a rather ridiculous situation; they go to an institution where the norm of their garb is well established and accepted, while it is completely understandable that they need prove their identity to engage in supervised assessment, given the reservations about unveiling before men, it should have been obvious that this was not an acceptable means by which to proceed.

I agree, if anything even just for the fact that it would obviously affect their stress levels and thus their test scores, too!

 

[Quintessence]

Unfortunate. This is a good example as well of why education about religious diversity is so important. I'd like to think that this incident happened out of ignorance, and such ignorance can be rectified by understanding other people's religious and cultural traditions. Only after understanding can the active respect happen.

 

[Assad91]

Unfortunate. This is a good example as well of why education about religious diversity is so important. I'd like to think that this incident happened out of ignorance, and such ignorance can be rectified by understanding other people's religious and cultural traditions. Only after understanding can the active respect happen.

That is true. But what I don't get is this happened in Islamabad. Not London or New York City.

 

[Maija]

Veil fury as students forced to show faces

Students at Punjab University were asked by male instructors to uncover their hair, face, and necks in order to identify them to take a test -- which, I should point out that I would normally weakly support unveiling for identification reasons (such as at airports, to make drivers licenses, etc.), but this is a school for which the girls had an implicit expectation that if they were going to be unveiled in a room it would be amongst female teachers.

Punjab University cited a lack of female teachers at the time, so some reasonable questions for me are:

1) Was there not even a single female staff member that could have handled the identification process?? Better slowly done than to trample on the students' beliefs, no?

2) If there weren't any female staff members, why not (once the students complained) move the test date to respect something the students obviously hold extremely dear to them?

I mean, if the students are obviously that uncomfortable, *wouldn't having them unveiled with male staff members in their presence affect their test scores* via their nervousness, outrage, etc. anyway?

This is a needless faux-pas on behalf of Punjab U, methinks!

When wearing hijab in an airport in Kenya a woman asked me once to remove my hijab (my face was not covered, hijab is NOT an unsual sight by any means) to show my identity. I said no, because I could have chopped my hair off, dreaded it or dyed it blonde- hair is by no means and effective method of identifying people.

LAME.

 

[Meow Mix]

When wearing hijab in an airport in Kenya a woman asked me once to remove my hijab (my face was not covered, hijab is NOT an unsual sight by any means) to show my identity. I said no, because I could have chopped my hair off, dreaded it or dyed it blonde- hair is by no means and effective method of identifying people.

LAME.

Yeah, I should have clarified that when I said I supported identification when it's absolutely necessary, females should be the ones to do it and it's only "necessary" when there's a niqab or burqa or something that covers the whole face -- I can't imagine why hijab would ever have to be removed!