Mariam Lau on the headscarf debate in Germany

Mariam Lau comments on the revival of the headscarf debate in Germany after Ekin Deligöz, a member of the German parliament for The Greens, received death threats after calling on Muslim women to throw off their headscarves. She describes the headscarf as a means of demarcation. "The young girls who go round in high heels and heavy eye make-up make it difficult to perceive wearing headscarves is a sign of chastity... The coquettishness of the headscarf consists in the implication that men will turn into animals if one only reveals oneself. At the same time, their wearing the headscarf carries the implication that they regard their German peers as whores... So the discussion about the headscarf is not just about the women who are victims of a patriarchal society, as far too many of them no doubt are. It's also about those who wear the headscarf of their own free will. Why shouldn't we make it clear to them that we would rather have them among us without headscarves?"

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