Canadian Judge Refuses to Hear Case of Muslim Woman for Wearing Hijab
Rania El-Alloul, a Muslim single mother arrived in court on Tuesday to plead with a judge to get her car back. The vehicle had been confiscated by an insurance agency after one of her three sons was caught driving without a license.
But before they could proceed, the judge told her the headscarf would not be allowed in her courtroom.
“The same rules need to be applied to everyone. I will therefore not hear you if you are wearing a scarf on your head, just as I would not allow a person to appear before me wearing a hat or sunglasses on his or her head, or any other garment not suitable for a court proceeding,” Judge Eliana Marengo said according to an audio recording of the proceedings obtained by CBC News. “I will not hear you, I have to apply the same rules to everybody.”
Marengo began by asking El-Alloul why she was wearing a headscarf. When she replied that it was because she was Muslim, the judge put the court in recess for a half hour, and later returned to tell her that the hijab had to go or El-Alloul could hire a lawyer to postpone the hearing.
“When she insisted I should remove my hijab, really I felt like she was talking with me as … not a human being,” El-Alloul told CBC. “I don’t want this thing to happen to any other lady. This is not the work of a judge. She doesn’t deserve to be a judge.”
Because El-Alloul didn’t have the money to afford a lawyer, and didn’t want to postpone the case, the judge adjourned the hearing indefinitely, according to CBC
In Quebec, this sort of intolerance of hijab-wearing women isn’t new. In 2013, the Parti Québécois tried to push through a secular charter of values that would prohibit public servants from wearing religious symbols, such as the hijab, kippas, turbans, burkas, or large crosses.
The measure eventually died. But it left bad feelings and tensions in its wake.
