A young adult woman or an older adult woman are absolutely free to decide to wear a hijab (head scarf) or not, if they feel like it. It is their choice and it is their call. Bravo to them if they find a more meaningful (or spiritual) life like that.
However, a five-year old child (or a 6-9 year-old one) is by definition still a child.
Is a child as young as the one in the picture above able to consent to medical care or to other adult-like-decisions, including the adherence to strict Islam?
Why is one of our Canadian federal banks promoting Islamism in children then?
Why is it normalizing the sexualization of the body of a young girl (who is not even into puberty yet!)?
Why is it encouraging this sort of a barrier between her and the look of others on her (i.e., men)? Why are we contributing to making her feel as if something is wrong with her, just because she is a female, and she is just an innocent child?
Acceptance and tolerance of others is one thing. That is noble. However, the promotion of Islamist values is a totally different thing.
In other parts of the world, and likely in some highly religiously conservative circles in our country, women are daily fighting hard against oppression and for their emancipation.
Can’t we keep being the “kind Canadians” that we are whilst avoiding being too naive in our kindness?
The idea here should be respect, tolerance, and even love of Muslims. Period. We can do this without naively promoting Islamism in our society.
Just as a reminder: Islam is a religion. It is one of three major monotheistic religions (along with Judaism and Christianity). Islamism is a political ideology. It is usually very radical (e.g., Wahabism, Shia Islamism, Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, etc.). It is VERY far from being fair to women… as well as LGBTQ communities.
