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The citizenship policy banning niqabs required two things: that anyone wearing a face covering must prove their identity to a citizenship judge, and that the soon-to-be-Canadian must take off their face covering when reciting the oath at a citizenship ceremony.The first part is relatively uncontroversial, and wasn't challenged in this case. Women wearing the niqab are generally amenable to removing their veil to strangers, so long as only women are present. The rules allow for that—a Citizenship and Immigration policy guide reads that confirming someone's identity "should be done in private, by a female citizenship official." That's what Ishaq did.But when it comes for the oath, the guide reads "the candidates must be advised at this time that, they will need to remove their face covering during the taking of the oath. Failure to do so will result in the candidates not receiving their Canadian citizenship on that day."
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The federal court decision has sparked a row that has split along odd lines—the anti-niqab camp is a strange alliance of conservative, second-wave-type feminists, conservatives, and secularists. Many have characterized this as a cynical ploy to win votes. The Harper government's nationalistic chest-thumping plays into that point.
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While scorn has been heaped on the prime minister and his ministers, they're not the only ones who are pushing an anti-niqab agenda.Ex-Quebec Premier Pauline Marois, of course, proposed a Charter of Values to ban all sorts of religious symbols—and the Liberals who defeated her have promised a toned-down version of the Charter. A Quebec judge recently made waves for telling a woman to remove her hijab in the courtroom.It's not just Quebec, either. Canadians as a whole are increasingly wary of immigration. Two-thirds support the government's insistence on banning niqabs in citizenship ceremonies.A slew of Mosques nationwide have also been vandalized in recent months.Even the Supreme Court, supposedly a bastion of liberal bias, ruled against a woman's request to testify with her niqab on against the men who allegedly sexually assaulted her. (Justice Rosalie Abella dissented, arguing that doing so would discourage the woman from testifying in her own defence, and that would be more harmful than depriving the judge and jury to look at her face.)Of course, the federal government is also pushing through Bill C-51, which Muslim groups say will disproportionately affect them.The Canadian Council of Muslim women say the hysteria over the niqab, specifically the ban, "provokes, exploits, and sustains hate and fear," and puts Muslim women in the "cross-hairs."They might not be wrong. According to national police data from 2012, Muslim and Middle Eastern residents are more likely to be the victims of hate crimes. Five percent of hate crimes were motivated by the victim's Arab/West Asian ethnicity (despite them being less than two percent of the population), while another three percent of the crimes were driven by hatred of Islam.Follow Justin Ling on Twitter.