By Rumki Chowdhury
Why do we, the millions of hijab-bearing women in this world, constantly need to fight on the same battlefield every–single–day? We are human beings, each an individual with her own story to tell.
What is ironic is that the one person who, in her role as a spokesperson on gender equality and honor policy issues, should be defending a woman’s right to choose her own clothing, is against the hijab. However, what sets Sara Gille apart is that she speaks for The Swedish Democratic Party (SD), which is led by Jimmie Åkesson. According to Political Scientist, Johan Martinsson, SD is famously known as “an anti-immigration, anti-multicultural, nationalist party.”
This week, addressing the media, including The Nordic Times ,SVT, and Sveriges Radio, Sara Gille said, “They [The hijab] are garments that oppress women and are about women subordinating themselves to men. We want to get to grips with honor-related violence and oppression, and if we are to do that, then we must also remove these garments. You can still have your religion; you can still believe whatever you want.”
SD is one of the four main parties in Sweden, alongside the Moderate Party, Christian Democrats and Liberals. The current Prime Minister of Sweden is Ulf Kristersson from the Moderate Party, but SD, under Åkesson, have presented a proposal to ban hijab in Sweden, a country whose law includes the freedom to practice one’s religion, hijab or not. Since 2023, Åkesson has also been trying to promote the demolition of mosques:
“It is not a right to come to our country and build monuments to a foreign and imperialist ideology. In the long term, we need to start confiscating and demolishing mosque buildings where anti-democratic, anti-Swedish, homophobic, or anti-Semitic propaganda or general misinformation about Swedish society is spread.”
Nevertheless, Muslims are approximately 700,000 strong in Sweden. In the past 25 years, the number of prayer rooms and mosques have increased in Sweden, approximately 300 mosques as of today. Still, since 2002, the Swedish government has attempted and failed at implementing a hijab ban at least 38 times, both on national and municipal levels.
We do not cover because men told us to cover. We cover because God told us to dress modestly in the same way that Christian nuns commit themselves to God. Moreover, the first word of The Quran is “Iqra,” which means “Read” in Arabic. Therefore, instead of making assumptions and relying on AI, reading is the key to increasing knowledge. However, I doubt SD wishes to know or understand anything at all given that their solution to decreasing crime is to govern women’s bodies. Read that again. Sounds irrelevant to me.
This past week, Swedish hijabi influencers and activists, baffled by SD’s hijab-ban proposal, have taken to their social media platforms, expressing their opinions on the matter. Many have published their opinions via various media.
Also speaking up is Shama Vafaipour, a multidisciplinary artist who also played a role in “Swedish Hijabis,” a play that was in theaters all over Sweden a few years back. She voiced her perspective to The World Hijab Day Organization: “The irony is that the hijab-ban proposals are made in the name of equality and freedom, but what they result in is exactly the opposite-it restricts women’s autonomy over their bodies and choices. It serves as a tool to limit Muslim women’s rights based on prejudice and political interest.”
