NIQAB ISSUE IN CANADA

A Canadian government decision to expel a Muslim student from a school for refusing to remove her niqab (face-veil) angered the sizable Muslim minority which considered the move discriminatory. Quebec’s human rights commission is considering a case by a Muslim student who was expelled from Saint Laurent school in Montreal for wearing niqab. The unidentified girl was studying French as a part of a government-sponsored integration programme. “There’s this misunderstanding that if you cover your face, you cannot interact with society,” Asma Qureshi, 24, a first-year recreation therapy student at Concordia University, said. She refused the argument that niqab poses an obstacle to studying and communications. For instance, she noted, surgeons wear face masks, as did many people during the last year’s H1N1 scare. “As long as you’re not imposing it on others, isn’t it their choice?”