When a Dutch Alderman on the Amsterdam Council makes the suggestion that women who wear the burka women should lose unemployment benefit, we might well be outraged. On the other hand we might just put it down to the rising tide of Islamophobia in the Netherlands ,as we reported recently when commenting on the so-called "Civic Integration Test". The test, the first of its kind in the world and part of a broader policy on immigration, came into effect last month and includes the compulsary viewing of a film with scenes featuring gay men kissing and a topless sunbathing woman. See our earlier story here: Islamophobia Netherlands Style).
More astonishing is the discovery that Amsterdam's Social Affairs Alderman is not some redneck rightwing racist, but a left wing Moroccan.
Alderman Ahmed Aboutaleb, who was born in Beni Sidel in Morocco in 1961, claims that women who choose to wear the face-covering garment are hindering their ability to get work. Therefore they should not be automatically eligible for welfare payments.
A member of Amsterdam's Labour Party , Aboutaleb said he did not object to the burka on principle, but that the government had a right to expect citizens take responsibility. "Nobody wants a an employee in a burka. In that case, I say: off with the burka and apply for work. If you don't want to do that, that's fine, but then you don't get a benefit payment".
He was responding to the example of a ruling by the Equality Commission that backed a Muslim woman who refused to shake hands with men while working in education.
Aboutaleb questioned whether such a woman was in the right line of work. "She has to realise her behaviour is building enormous obstacles for her in almost every situation. This woman must recognise that she is sidelining herself and that she runs the risk of being turned down for a job more often".
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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