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There has been a lot of discussion recently about Muslim women and whether they should be allowed to wear their niqab in public.
I think non-Muslim people/men should be extremely careful before requiring or expecting a Muslim woman to remove her niqab and be absolutely sure that any perceived need for niqab removal is justifiable and proportionate.
I doubt Birmingham Metropolitan College actually had a spate of security incidents caused by niqab wearing Muslim women...
I have my concerns about the so called openness and responses being parsed in the court case where a niqab wearing woman is being ordered by the judge not to wear it while giving evidence. Interpretation of body language and how people engage with others both positive and negative is very strongly based in gender, cultural origins, social class and even disability characteristics...
Deafness and lipreading
I supplement what I hear through my hearing aid(s) with lipreading (known as speechreading in the US). Lipreading is where the listener watches the speaker's face and mouth patterns while they speak and uses them to differentiate between words which might sound similar.
Lipreading is very important to me, especially if I am trying to understand someone I have never met before. Last time I was tested under silent sound proofed conditions my single word recognition levels with lipreading was 90%, and without lipreading was 60%.
Dentists and deafness!
I struggle to understand the speech of someone whose face is covered. I have to really nag dentists not to use their usual surgical masks and to use a clear face shield instead.
Deaf and hard of hearing people's views on niqab bans
I have seen a lot of comments in deaf and hard of hearing spaces emphatically agreeing with banning Muslim women from wearing niqabs in public. I can even empathise with these comments and understand. But...
I think we deaf and hard of hearing people need to do better than "ban the niqab", we need to recognise our own privileges on race, gender, religion lines and not tell Muslim women what they should do... Whatever our personal views are.
Should deaf and hard of hearing people call for blind people to be banned?
I work with a blind person, he can't see, I can't hear very well. We discuss clashes all the time, we negotiate, we compromise and each of us works hard at things and we mostly manage not to get too frustrated with one another. I don't get to tell him to "look harder" and he doesn't get to tell me to "listen harder" I can't just ban blindness or blind people from going out in public. I wouldn't want to, I quite like the challenge of working out how to work together.
Possible things which might solve or reduce issues
I live in Birmingham, I see women in niqabs probably once or twice a day as I walk to work. I haven't yet had to engage with anyone wearing a niqab but I have wondered "what if?" because I know it's intersectional and complex.
Ideas which have occurred to me include:
Being honest. So I could say to a niqab wearing woman "I'm partially deaf, I normally need to lipread to understand speech. Can you speak louder and more clearly and do other deaf awareness good things? And I'll try my best to understand you."
In a 1:1 situation a niqab-wearing woman might be willing or able to remove the face covering part of her veil so I can lipread her. I could ask this and put a do not disturb sign on the room's door. I realise this is a possible option because I am female.
If I can't hear the woman and she isn't able or willing to remove the face-covering, I could ask her to write down what she needs to say.
Is not being able to communicate with a tiny minority of people really a huge problem?
If none of the above options worked out and we couldn't think of others to try, then maybe a woman who wears a niqab and I could not have a useful face-to-face engagement. Maybe I couldn't have a niqab wearing client assigned to me at work. Maybe I couldn't do college group work with someone who I can't hear.
Muslims make up approximately 5% of the UK population. Assuming half of those Muslims are women, that's 2.5% of the population. I can't find figures for how many of those Muslim women wear a niqab but I believe it's a small minority, so we're almost certainly talking about less than 0.5% of the population, less than one in two hundred people.
There's more men with mouth-covering beards than that I am sure! Those are a definite lipreading barrier at times.
And while difficulty engaging is frustrating for deaf people and probably for a niqab wearing woman too I don't see this situation arising all that often in comparison with other bigger issues like racism towards Muslim people or Disablism and discrimination against deaf people.
I don't think my deafness gives me the right to require that I ask a woman to remove their niqab.
Some Muslim women's voices on the niqab and current debate and issues
Has a woman in a niqab ever harmed you? by aisha Gani in the New Statesman.
I wear the niqab let me speak on my own behalf by Sahar Al Faifi in the Independent.
The veil debate: why we must respect the autonomy of all women by Raisa Kabir in the F Word.
edited to add:
How many Muslim women of working age wear a niqab and no known cases where it's been an issue in say healthcare.
Discussion about the French niqab ban and problems it causes identifies no NHS workers choosing niqab wearing and that justifiable need to see faces is usually understood with niqab wearing women being willing to remove the face covering part of her veil when respectfully asked by Nabila Ramdani - Guardian.
There's a 20 minute documentary about a white British Deaf Muslim potential convert to Islam where veils are discussed at 10 and 12 minutes in.
I've also sent a facebook message to Muslim Deaf UK letting them know about this post and asking if they have any links or quotes they'd like me to append to this blogpost. I did do a little searching but haven't found anything by D/deaf Muslims in English so far but am happy if anything is found.
I think non-Muslim people/men should be extremely careful before requiring or expecting a Muslim woman to remove her niqab and be absolutely sure that any perceived need for niqab removal is justifiable and proportionate.
Deafness and lipreading
I supplement what I hear through my hearing aid(s) with lipreading (known as speechreading in the US). Lipreading is where the listener watches the speaker's face and mouth patterns while they speak and uses them to differentiate between words which might sound similar.
Lipreading is very important to me, especially if I am trying to understand someone I have never met before. Last time I was tested under silent sound proofed conditions my single word recognition levels with lipreading was 90%, and without lipreading was 60%.
Dentists and deafness!
I struggle to understand the speech of someone whose face is covered. I have to really nag dentists not to use their usual surgical masks and to use a clear face shield instead.
Deaf and hard of hearing people's views on niqab bans
I have seen a lot of comments in deaf and hard of hearing spaces emphatically agreeing with banning Muslim women from wearing niqabs in public. I can even empathise with these comments and understand. But...
I think we deaf and hard of hearing people need to do better than "ban the niqab", we need to recognise our own privileges on race, gender, religion lines and not tell Muslim women what they should do... Whatever our personal views are.
Should deaf and hard of hearing people call for blind people to be banned?
I work with a blind person, he can't see, I can't hear very well. We discuss clashes all the time, we negotiate, we compromise and each of us works hard at things and we mostly manage not to get too frustrated with one another. I don't get to tell him to "look harder" and he doesn't get to tell me to "listen harder" I can't just ban blindness or blind people from going out in public. I wouldn't want to, I quite like the challenge of working out how to work together.
Possible things which might solve or reduce issues
I live in Birmingham, I see women in niqabs probably once or twice a day as I walk to work. I haven't yet had to engage with anyone wearing a niqab but I have wondered "what if?" because I know it's intersectional and complex.
Ideas which have occurred to me include:
Is not being able to communicate with a tiny minority of people really a huge problem?
If none of the above options worked out and we couldn't think of others to try, then maybe a woman who wears a niqab and I could not have a useful face-to-face engagement. Maybe I couldn't have a niqab wearing client assigned to me at work. Maybe I couldn't do college group work with someone who I can't hear.
Muslims make up approximately 5% of the UK population. Assuming half of those Muslims are women, that's 2.5% of the population. I can't find figures for how many of those Muslim women wear a niqab but I believe it's a small minority, so we're almost certainly talking about less than 0.5% of the population, less than one in two hundred people.
There's more men with mouth-covering beards than that I am sure! Those are a definite lipreading barrier at times.
And while difficulty engaging is frustrating for deaf people and probably for a niqab wearing woman too I don't see this situation arising all that often in comparison with other bigger issues like racism towards Muslim people or Disablism and discrimination against deaf people.
I don't think my deafness gives me the right to require that I ask a woman to remove their niqab.
Some Muslim women's voices on the niqab and current debate and issues
Has a woman in a niqab ever harmed you? by aisha Gani in the New Statesman.
I wear the niqab let me speak on my own behalf by Sahar Al Faifi in the Independent.
The veil debate: why we must respect the autonomy of all women by Raisa Kabir in the F Word.
edited to add:
How many Muslim women of working age wear a niqab and no known cases where it's been an issue in say healthcare.
Discussion about the French niqab ban and problems it causes identifies no NHS workers choosing niqab wearing and that justifiable need to see faces is usually understood with niqab wearing women being willing to remove the face covering part of her veil when respectfully asked by Nabila Ramdani - Guardian.
There's a 20 minute documentary about a white British Deaf Muslim potential convert to Islam where veils are discussed at 10 and 12 minutes in.
I've also sent a facebook message to Muslim Deaf UK letting them know about this post and asking if they have any links or quotes they'd like me to append to this blogpost. I did do a little searching but haven't found anything by D/deaf Muslims in English so far but am happy if anything is found.
