Yesterday Parliament’s Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry announced new rules to separate people with facial coverings from other members of the public by forcing them to watch parliament from behind glass. Thus, Muslim women who wear the burqa into Federal Parliament will be banned from watching proceedings from regular public galleries and will be forced to sit in glass enclosures instead. This ruling is part of extra security measures introduced on advice of security officials’ advice.
This appears to be a form of segregation, or even apartheid, based on religious or cultural belief. Many would claim that this edict is an assault on religious freedom. In my view, it certainly offends freedom of expression. There are also the practical implications of this edict. Just imagine a spouse of a Saudi Kingdom official wearing a burqa while visiting Parliament; or simply consider our Santa Claus with a false beard covering his face. Should we also exclude them? Or think about traditional Catholic nuns wearing the chador style uniforms.
Many of us feel challenged by women wearing burkas. It challenges our attitudes about living in a secular society and about the emancipation of women. But it is certainly not a security issue at parliament house. In fact there are in existence many much better ways for protecting security at parliament – including identity checks or body scans at the entrance gates.
Historically speaking the use of state power had never worked when used to change religious or cultural believes. Remember the outcomes of fight by the Roman or more recently the Soviet empires against Christians! Let’s try to be a bit more of tolerant towards those of us who are different. Let’s us replace exclusion with education. This will keep the dialog open. Security measures are most welcomed to target effectively the real treats posed by Islamic fanatics; they however should not be used to contain enjoyment of freedoms of cultural and religious expression in Australia.