A woman who fled Saudi Arabia and became a new Canadian citizen on Sunday has asked the incoming Ontario Conservative government to ban the burqa and niqab.
As Global News reports, Ensaf Haider, whose husband Raif Badawi remains in a Saudi jail for “insulting Islam through electronic channels,” says the new Doug Ford administration should learn from the example of neighboring Quebec and ban Islamic face coverings in public.
The Quebec law targets face covering in general without using the terms burqa or niqab but is currently under suspension after being declared unconstitutional by a provincial judge. Under the legislation, people cannot receive any government services when their faces are covered.
(RELATED: Bill Banning Muslim Face Coverings Would Be The First In North America)
Badawi is serving a 10-year sentence for his crime of blasphemy and also received a public flogging of 50 lashes.
Haidas issued a statement to Global News Sunday that describes why she chose to discuss the issue, just as she became a Canadian citizen who no longer needs to fear “misogynist men” who rule “over powerless women with no rights.”
“As a refugee in Quebec and Canada, I have noticed the fast growth of Islamist groups loyal to the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Saudi clergy imposing the Burqa and enforcing Niqab on girls and women as political flags to mark jihadi territory.
“Nowhere in Islam is a woman required to cover her face….It is for this reason that on the first day as a Canadian I have raised the issue of banning the Burqa and Niqab in Ontario as I feel Premier Ford is a man who will listen to my plea and end the war by deception being waged by Islamists against Canadian values.”