Caught off guard by political storm
Woman behind challenge chose to fight for her rights, looks forward to voting
When Zunera Ishaq decided to challenge Ottawa’s 2011 decision to ban the wearing of a niqab while taking the oath of citizenship, she never thought she’d be at the centre of a political firestorm.
Ishaq believes the ban is motivated by the Conservative party’s desire to get Canadians to ignore important issues, such as the economy and refugee policy, during the election campaign.
Indeed, her fight for the right to wear a niqab while taking the citizenship oath has become one of the most contentious issues in the campaign, which has seen the Conservatives recently promise new initiatives against the niqab if they are re-elected.
Earlier this week, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said his party plans to ban federal civil servants from wearing niqabs. He says the party is examining Quebec’s Bill 94, which requires Muslim women or others who wear face coverings to remove them if they want to work in the public sector or do business with government officials.
That move came on the heels of a failed last-ditch effort by the Conservatives to overturn the Federal Court of Appeal decision in Ishaq’s case. That court had ruled the government policy banning the wearing of a niqab — which covers a woman’s face and hair leaving only her eyes visible — during citizenship ceremonies is illegal. Ottawa tried to get that ruling stayed, but the courts rejected the move, leaving the door open for Ishaq to finally take her citizenship oath.
“I was not expecting that it would become such a critical issue for a political campaign,” Ishaq told the Star Thursday. “It started as a personal right issue. I would not have imagined that this could be taken to the point which it could be messed up with politics . . . It has become an issue which has separated Canadian society.”
Ishaq will be taking her citizenship oath sometime in the next few days and will vote on Oct. 19, the Mississauga resident said.
“I want to go cast my vote in the election and have a direct say in the system.” Her eyes — the only part of her face that is visible — reveal the deep emotion she feels about finally winning the right to become a citizen and vote on her own terms.
That right to vote comes with a hefty emotional price tag. The 29year-old mother of four and former teacher of English literature in Pakistan feels she has been vilified in recent weeks.
She feels threatened by the Conservative government and Harper. People have stopped her in the mall and called her names. On one occasion, her 7-year-old son witnessed the name-calling. Now he wants to know how the Conservative government can be defeated, she says. Her husband’s family has also fallen prey to name-calling and hostile stares.
Ishaq began wearing a niqab when she was 15. Her parents in Pakistan didn’t approve of her decision but she was determined. To her, it was a symbol of her faith and her religion — a statement that she was a devout Muslim.
She continued to wear a niqab when she moved to Canada in 2008, after she was sponsored by her husband. And when it came to taking her citizenship oath in 2012, she was equally adamant that she would
“It has become an issue which has separated Canadian society.” ZUNERA ISHAQ WOMAN BEHIND NIQAB DEBATE
wear her niqab.
Her husband thought perhaps she should make some kind of accommodation in taking her oath. But Ishaq didn’t believe that was the right thing to do. She chose to fight it in court — an expensive battle that was taken on, for the most part, pro bono by her lawyers.
For her, it was a matter of principle — protecting the right of women to choose.
And she rejects the rhetoric used by the Conservatives that the niqab somehow oppresses Muslim women and is a symbol of their inequality.
Ishaq, who has a master’s degree in English literature, points out oppression of women in the West, particularly in literature. The niqab has nothing to do with that, she said.
The battle with Ottawa has left her with a somewhat tarnished vision of Canada. But it has also inspired her to one day seek political office.
“Muslims are being singled out and put into a situation where people are feeling negative and some hatred for them,” she said.
She wants to change that and return Canada to a place that values multiculturalism and diversity — the kind of Canada she imagined she was adopting as her homeland when she first moved here.