Reactions to the latest fake veil scandal
Comment is free: Lifting the veil
Rajnaara Akhtar (chair of Protect Hijab) on the recent fake scandal involving the Somali who was involved in murdering the policewomen Sharon Beshenivsky and supposedly might have escaped disguised as a Muslim woman in a veil. What she doesn't mention is that the "veiled escape" is only one of a number of possible reasons for why Mustaf Jama fled and thus escaped justice. Of course, nobody in our community has ever demanded that veiled women not be identified if need be, but you don't need to flip a veil to find out if the wearer is actually a woman - you need to just induce them to speak (and devise ways of surprising them into dropping their attempt to disguise their voices, if that's what they're doing).
Comments
as salaam alaikum
How easy is it just to have a woman look at the face of the one veiled for identification. Make this a viable option, it isn't a big deal. When women cross the border here to get out of the country passport control has an office so the women are identified against their identificaiton. Simple solutions, it doesn't have to be so difficult.
Posted by: Nzingha | December 25, 2006 4:18 PM
The fact that her passport is missing makes it more likely that it was used. It wouldn't need to be used to go to Somalia- a trip to a European country where he wasn't being looked for as carefully, and then a return trip with people smugglers.
Posted by: Thersites | December 26, 2006 4:45 PM