The following article was published by Toronto Sun on March. 11, 2011
We have recently passed through a monumental International Women’s Day in celebration of the great many women all around us who help improve our world to great heights. One would imagine that with new profound awareness of the critical role women play in society and all their accomplishments, that society would continue to progress further and not trample on basic human rights of women. What is more shocking is that these rights are being suppressed in the beautiful and developed country of Switzerland, in the guise of niqab ban. As the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad says, “Will a woman wearing or not wearing a veil affect the economy of the country of the world? … Will it affect the moral values of a country or will it lead to a recognition of the Creator? If it does, then I will be the first to accept it because Islam teaches that you should be willing to sacrifice something small for the greater good. But no! All these actions are strengthening the foundations of hatred.” Let women decide for themselves on how they must dress. If it is their free will to dress in a veil, then who are we as men or society to stop them in the name of freedom? And indeed, what freedom is this. Let us honour the great women of the world all around us and be not misguided in our endeavours that claim to remove shackles for women while accomplishing the contrary.
Nomaan Mubashir, Cambridge
