| Europe | |
| Denmark: Danmarks Radio to host "Miss Headscarf" beauty contest | |
| 2008-05-27 | |
| Danmarks Radio will hold a beauty contest for women with the only requirement being that they are over 15 and wear a headscarf. Denmark's headscarf debate took another bizzare turn Monday when public broadcaster DR announced it would be sponsoring a 'Miss Headscarf' contest for women and teens over the age of 15. DR's youth club, 'Skum', is behind the project which they believe will display the 'cool Muslim women' who 'often make up a very fashion-conscious and style-confident part of the Danish street scene'. The competition is, however, also open to non-Muslim females. The youth club said it is seeking to hear from the 'unheard' members of the headscarf debate - the women themselves. 'We would like to contact all the Muslim women who are seldom heard in the debate but are often just as preoccupied with fashion and beauty as other women,' Bjarke Ahlstrand, editor-in-chief of DR's youth division, told Nyhedsavisen newspaper. Participants are urged to send in pictures of themselves wrapped in the appropriate headwear via email or mobile phone to DR. The photos will be judged by fashion expert Uffe Buchardt with first prize being an iPod and a specially-designed headscarf from top fashion house Mads Nørgaard. In addition, the top five contestants receive a year's subscription to 'Muslim Girl' magazine. The contest is supported by the instigator of the headscarf debate, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, who had said she would not remove her headscarf if selected for an MP position with the Red-Green Alliance party. But the competition was not so well-received by a representative of the Islamic Faith Society.
Women must not reveal their beauty.' | |
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| Denmark: Muslim MP candidate takes one-year "break", complains |
| 2008-02-28 |
| The Red-Green Alliance's earlier parliamentary candidate, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, has stated she is taking a one-year break from the party and will not run in the next election due to the uproar over her wearing a headscarf. Abdol-Hamid has been a controversial figure in Danish politics since she was selected as an MP candidate last year. She has since made several unpopular comments based on her Muslim faith and is again in the news for saying she would not remove her headscarf if she were to address the assembly. In the last election, Abdol-Hamid was not selected for a seat because the Red-Green Party secured only four parliamentary seats and already had sitting MP's to fill those slöts. Abdol-Hamid told Politiken newspaper she was disappointed in both her critics and her own party. 'I have to admit that my disappointment in the left wing hasn't waned,' she said. 'And while there's all this hubbub out there over Muslims, with one over-the-top suggestion after the other, the Red-Green Alliance has been disturbingly silent.' Abdol-Hamid also said she was troubled by comments from Socialist People's Party leader Villy Søvndal telling members of radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir they could 'go to hell'. The Muslim politician did say, however, that she would remain with the Red-Green Alliance and would likely run for MP again after returning from her break. |
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| Headscarf row flares again in Danish parliament |
| 2008-02-27 |
| Tension about the possibility of a Muslim politician addressing the Danish parliament in a headscarf has flared again, but Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen tried to calm the debate on Tuesday. Its up to parliament to decide dress codes, and if some people were to get up on the podium wearing a [Muslim] headscarf, I would not leave the room, Rasmussen told reporters. In my opinion, peoples ideas and points of view are more important than what they wear, he said, adding however that it would be beneficial for Danish society if the public sphere were exempt of some religious displays. Rasmussens comments came after his liberal-conservative governments ally, the extreme-right Danish Peoples Party (DPP), rekindled a row over whether women wearing the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, should be allowed to address parliament. DPP spokesman Soeren Espersen said last week that Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Dane of Palestinian origin, should not be permitted to address parliament while wearing a hijab. She failed in her bid to become the first headscarf-wearing Muslim in Europe to be voted into parliament in last years general election, but there is a possibility that she could stand in temporarily for a parliamentarian from the small far-left Unity List Party. |
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| Danish-Muslim leader lampoons latest prophet cartoon |
| 2007-10-26 |
| A far-right Danish political party controversially depicted the prophet Muhammad on election material yesterday. Now a high-profile Danish-Muslim politician has hit back with a poster lampooning the move. The ad by the Danish People's Party, the country's third largest political force, showed a hand-drawn picture of the Islamic prophet under the slogan "Freedom of expression is Danish, censorship is not". The ad was condemned as a "provocation" by at least one Danish-Muslim group, as Islam forbids representation of its most important prophet. Now Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Danish-Muslim politician who could become the first MP to wear the hijab in the Danish parliament if elected in next month's poll, has hit back with a poster showing a hand-drawn picture of the DPP leader, Pia Kjaersgaard, under the slogan "Freedom of expression is Danish, stupidity is not". "It is ridiculous [of the DPP] to do that kind of thing," Ms Abdol-Hamid told Guardian Unlimited. "It's not clever, there is no point to it." "You have to think before using freedom of expression," said the town councillor for Odense, and a member of the leftwing Red-Green Alliance. Ms Abdol-Hamid believes the current controversy will not reignite the Muhammad cartoon crisis, when 12 caricatures of the Islamic prophet published in the daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 caused anger across the Muslim world. "People won't react to it because they have decided not to. Nobody wants to talk about [the Muhammad cartoons crisis]. It is no longer an issue," she said. |
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