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Marks & Spencer’s selling Hijabs for young children.

(108 Posts)
Bridgeit Fri 12-Oct-18 10:10:06

As in the title M& S are selling Hijabs for children , including for 3year olds.
Any thoughts ?

POGS Fri 02-Nov-18 10:41:16

As for Denmark it has joined the growing list of countries to ban the burqua.

POGS Fri 02-Nov-18 10:38:20

Iran imposed the wearing of the hijab for females after the Iranian Revolution.

Protest and you get a 20 year jail sentence, beaten and abused openly.

I am not even sure the Iranian Ayotollas would insist on children as young as 3 wearing the hijab although no doubt there will be many men and women who would insist on it given the chance.

I get so annoyed when it is said it is a ' personal choice' as that is patently obvious talking rubbish for a hell of a lot of women worldwide. At 3 years old it is patently obvious it is not the child but the parents making the decision and it is a cultural not a religious devotion.

Riverwalk Fri 02-Nov-18 07:02:17

Some shops, the Co-op for one, allow their female workers to wear headscarves as does the railway company, others do not - it is up to the employer to stipulate workers' dress code.

Neither schools, nor places of work can forbid Jewish men and boys from wearing their skull-caps (kippah/ kippot).

It's interesting Grandtante that Danish employers can stipulate workwear and some do/don't allow women to wear a headscarf, but they're not allowed to forbid men from wearing religious headwear.

So they can tell a woman what to wear but not a man?

grandtanteJE65 Fri 26-Oct-18 11:51:26

Private Muslim schools in Denmark are allowed to insist that girls wear headscarves, usually from the age of nine or ten. Public schools are not allowed to forbid Muslim girls from wearing either headscarves or hijab, but can demand that they do not cover their faces.

Some shops, the Co-op for one, allow their female workers to wear headscarves as does the railway company, others do not - it is up to the employer to stipulate workers' dress code.

Neither schools, nor places of work can forbid Jewish men and boys from wearing their skull-caps (kippah/ kippot).

Men of any denomination may be told that they may not wear shorts at work and most firms of lawyers still prefer to see their female employees in skirts and stockings rather than trousers. I believe, but am not entirely sure, that SAS still requires their air hostesses to wear bras.

Personally, I don't care for the sight of girls who are still children wearing headscarves, but the alternative would be to ban the wearing of all religious symbols in public, and I frankly would be insulted if I were told not to wear a crucifix or a medal of the Legion of Mary in public.

I agree that my understanding of the Qu'ran sura in question is that it requires men and women to dress decently, and that the wearing of headscarves, hijab, burkas, niqab etc. is a cultural matter, not a religious one, but unfortunately not all Muslims agree about this. To some it is a matter of religion.

maddyone Fri 26-Oct-18 11:40:42

Which she kindly acknowledged. Thank you POGS.

POGS Fri 26-Oct-18 10:57:16

maddyone

An excellent post which I am glad gave ' old batty ' an answer to her query.

maddyone Fri 26-Oct-18 10:37:52

Thank you ob.

jeanie99 Thu 25-Oct-18 08:35:12

I didn't realise young children wore them.

oldbatty Thu 25-Oct-18 08:24:28

Excellent post maddy, by somebody who clearly knows what they are talking about. I'm not entirely sure multiculturalism has failed though.

maddyone Thu 25-Oct-18 00:47:47

Oldbatty, whilst I didn’t write the sentence you quoted, I think possibly what was meant by the poster was that sadly a blind eye appeared to be turned to extreme Islamic clerics for quite a long time. A blind eye has also been turned to young girls not attending school and disappearing from the country, in other words forced marriage. A blind eye has been turned to FGM, only one prosecution and yet we know thousands of girls have suffered this both in this country and have been taken abroad for it to be done. And possibly the worst of all, the appalling cases of men who groom white girls and then regularly rape them, and pass them around other men, in Rotherham this happened whilst the police and Social Services wantonly ignored all the evidence and refused to investigate for years. The sex adviser who badgered the authorities about these girls was rewarded by being sacked! And most of these events have taken place in the Muslim communities across Britain.
But this does mean every community and family are engaged in such things, I should know because I worked amongst Muslim families for years, and just like every other community, there are good and bad. But we cannot bury our heads in the sand and pretend that there are not some very serious issues which were not, and often still are not being addressed. Forced marriage and FGM are the ones I’m particularly thinking about, and I’m sorry but it is mainly Muslim communities where these things are happening. In my opinion, multiculturalism is a dismal failure. What should have happened is that newly arriving immigrants should have been integrated properly into our society, whilst respecting everyone’s right to freedom of religion and speech. Respect works two ways.

oldbatty Wed 24-Oct-18 20:00:34

I agree multicultural got messed up when it started to mean turning a blind eye to both extreme Islam and ignoring appalling goings on within the Muslim community. Which made it all worse

How do you know both of these things went on please?

Jalima1108 Sun 21-Oct-18 19:34:16

Yes

and that's an under-statement!

PECS Sun 21-Oct-18 17:55:12

Don't the Klu Klux Klan claim to be Christian? They are not very tolerant.

alchemilla Sun 21-Oct-18 15:11:29

oldgimmer

Christianity doesn't practise tolerance particularly even though Christ did. Have a look at the persecution under the Tudors, the Spanish, certain parts of current day US. Christianity also demands obedience though it's not in the title as Islam is. The UK's always been multicultural - with bits of resistance including expelling the Jews. We've taken in all sorts including the Huguenots and Dutch.

I agree multicultural got messed up when it started to mean turning a blind eye to both extreme Islam and ignoring appalling goings on within the Muslim community. Which made it all worse.

I agree with maddyone wholeheartedly and thank her for her post.

oldgimmer1 Fri 19-Oct-18 10:30:54

I passed by my local Mosque last night. Lots of Muslim children coming out. All the young girls were in hijabs.

Boys were wearing the long shirts and trousers plus a sort of skull cap/ fez.

It may be a local custom, or simply what is worn to Mosque. A bit like Sunday Best for Church/ Chapel goers.

I think to be fair to Muslims we are in danger of hypocrisy here.

We were told to "embrace multiculturalism" some years ago (I think under Blair?).

As I recall, this was non-negotiable.

Muslims and the culture of Islam were welcomed with open arms.

Some of us clearly don't like some of these cultural signals.

Too late.

My own theory is that perhaps practisers of Islam, faced with cultural liberalism, are unable to cope with it. Islam is a religion that demands obedience. Christianity (generally) practises tolerance,

Perhaps Muslims NEED strict codes, and in the absences of these in a Christian society, rebel by becoming even more conservative than they otherwise would be.

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maddyone Fri 19-Oct-18 10:02:59

Notanan, you are right again.

maddyone Fri 19-Oct-18 09:59:24

None of it is about religious expression. As a teacher I worked with many Muslim ladies, in the role of bilingual assistants. I was assured by many that the Koran, like the Bible, merely states that both men and women should dress modestly. The idea of what is modest is different in different cultures. So most Arab women dress in western clothes, but cover up whilst out of the house in an abaya, or similar, sometimes just just a long black coat. However women from Pakistan or Bangladesh, will wear a salwar kameez, because this doesn’t show the shape of the female form, and again they will wear a long coat or cardigan when out of the house. They only cover their hair when with men who are not family members, therefore outside. I was also told that girls to not need cover their hair at all before puberty, and that women only need cover hair after they have made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Many choose to cover hair because they wish to, not because they have to. Whilst I worked with one lady who wore a hijab, most of the ladies used an extremely flimsy scarf, and others no head covering at all. Some of our Mediterranean ladies wore western clothing and no covering up at all. So it brings us back to the fact that covering up the hair is cultural, and different forms of coverings are used, or not used, according to where the family orginates from. The hijab for three year olds is a cultural, not religious, form of dress, and one I strongly do not agree with, because it sexualises young children, just as skimpy crop tops etc sexualise young children. I think it is a sad reflection of our society that both forms of dress are both sold and worn. Commercialism has brought many benefits, but it is a double edged sword, and it has also brought us many disadvantages. Hijabs for three year olds are one of them.

notanan2 Thu 18-Oct-18 22:25:06

The Quran doesn't suggest that pre pubescent girls cover their hair any more than the Bible suggests that little girls should wear padded bikini tops.

It is not about a right to religious expression at all

notanan2 Thu 18-Oct-18 22:22:41

If their religion insists or offers them this choice to wear one

It doesn't though.

Iam64 Thu 18-Oct-18 22:07:57

Thanks. I suspect what will stop m and s producing this item will be when it fails to sell. Profit rules and my non scientific research in our town suggests the demand doesn’t exist. Also, if it did, the item would be on sale in thd many Asian clothing shops and market stalls and cheaper

Bridgeit Thu 18-Oct-18 20:20:56

it just happens to be M& S that are selling them for 3 yr olds ( not sure if this is country wide ) 3 just seems a bit young to be wearing them. But that’s just my opinion which is why I wondered what others think.

Iam64 Thu 18-Oct-18 20:12:17

I may have misread your post Bridgeit but, yes, I thought you were referring to M and S .

Bridgeit Thu 18-Oct-18 20:02:00

Stop who ? Marks & Spencer’s , do you mean?

Iam64 Thu 18-Oct-18 19:47:26

How would 'we' stop them Bridgeit?

By the way, I drove along one of the main roads in an area with a predominantly Pakistani Asian community here as school came out today. I saw primary school children, either in uniform or in 'ordinary' clothing. I saw only 3 mothers who weren't wearing a burkha and face veil, they wore hijab and long clothing.