by Khadija Khan, spiked
Giving a niqab-wearing youth-club founder an award for ‘empowering young women’ is absurd.
Khadija Patel is the niqab-wearing founder of the Bolton-based KRIMMZ Girls Youth Club. She recently received a British Citizen Award at a ceremony held at the Palace of Westminster.
It’s a decision that has polarised public opinion. Many have rightly applauded her contribution to the local community and for inspiring children to get into sport. But others are baffled by some of the other reasoning behind the award. To be specific, they are questioning why someone clad head to toe in the attire of a misogynistic religious ideology is being recognised for, in the words of the Lancashire Football Association, ‘her work empowering young women’.
It’s a good point. As a passionate advocate for women’s rights, I firmly believe that no one should dictate what a woman should wear. But the burqa or niqab is not a benign piece of clothing. It represents the erasure of women’s freedom in the name of a repressive religious morality. It is certainly not a sign of young women’s empowerment.
Hardline Muslims and many leftists refuse to accept any criticism of the Islamic veil. They accuse critics of ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘racism’. They would rather we didn’t talk about this attire and the misogynistic ideology behind it at all.