UKIP used feminist rhetoric to justify burqa bans and FGM screening

Evidence

In this short chapter I have explored contemporary mainstream public debates about gender and Islam. Earlier in 2017, UKIP’s election manifesto included a ban on the ‘dehumanizing’ burqa and full face coverings in public places partly on the grounds that veils ‘prevent intake of essential vitamin D from sunlight’. The manifesto also proposed introducing a screening programme of annual non-invasive physical check-ups for girls identified to be at risk of FGM (Maidment 2017), thus illustrating how everyone claims to be a feminist when it comes to Muslim women (Rashid 2016). — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 574

Categorization

• CANDY: The vitamin D justification for banning the burqa is such an absurd specific detail it’s tweetable on its own.
• ADDENDUM: Fits the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ strand — dress regulation justified through concern for the wearer’s own welfare, a recurring move across moral panics.
• XREF: connects to: Safeguarding policy conflates FGM and forced marriage with radicalization — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 572; French mainstream parties mainstreamed fringe Islamophobic rhetoric about the hijab; The niqab functions as a visual marker of failed integration in British public discourse — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 562

Broader Connections

• French mainstream parties mainstreamed fringe Islamophobic rhetoric about the hijab #expands (0.78)
• The niqab functions as a visual marker of failed integration in British public discourse #complicates (0.72) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 562