By Fariha Tabassum

 

Over the last few decades, there has been a trend of banning the hijab and/or niqab across Europe. They usually have a knock-on effect and have spread across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and Denmark. These bans are usually aimed at protecting gender equality and freeing Muslim women from religious oppression; however, they are enacted without consulting the women who would be most affected by these bans. In the French context, a consultation was conducted at the request of André Gerin, a member of the National Assembly, before enforcing a national ban on the full-face veil. The report published after this consultation included 221 testimonies from various experts and organisations. Kenza Drider was the only niqabi who was consulted, after she approached the commission of her own incentive, and she was only allowed to give evidence once she agreed to do so without the niqab. Gerin stated, ‘to perfect our judgment, we absolutely wanted to listen to at least one woman who wears the full facial veil.’

 

Although no general ban on the hijab or the niqab exists in the UK, this issue has been the subject of national debate on several occasions. In October 2006, former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw made a comment in a national newspaper about feeling uneasy when talking to Muslim women whose faces he could not see, which caused national controversy on the issue. This led to headlines from the Daily Express and the Daily Star demanding ‘Ban the veil’ and ‘Get em off’. In 2010, there were calls to ban the niqab from the Independence Party and Conservative Party backbench Phillip Hollobone who introduced a private member’s bill to outlaw face coverings in public places. The bill failed to pass due to the parliament closing early. 

More recently, Reform MP Sarah Pochin used her first parliamentary question at Prime Minister’s Questions on the 4th of June 2025 to call for the Prime Minister to ban the burkha in the interests of public safety. She stated: “Given the Prime Minister's desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he - in the interests of public safety - follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others, and ban the burqa?" Although her call was rejected by the Prime Minister, she received support from fellow Reform UK members such as Lee Anderson and Nigel Farage. Pochin also stated that she received the idea for the question through a crowd sourcing exercise on social media.

 

I believe it is important to centre the views of Muslim women in relation to these policies. For this reason, my research project aims to highlight the views of Muslim women in the UK due to the lack of engagement with their views in the past. In interviews and focus groups with Muslim women, I will be discussing the complexities behind their choice to veil, the difficulties that Muslim women face because of this choice and their opinions on the policy arguments made in favour of the bans; their thoughts on forced veiling and to elaborate on their own gender views and practices.

If you are interested in participating in an online interview or in a focus group to share your views and experiences of being a Muslim woman living in Europe, please email me via 2274998@swansea.ac.uk.