“Are you friends with her? But she is a fucking terrorist!” That was what a stranger told my sister a few years ago when we were out with my friends. I was shocked and did not know how to respond. I am a Muslim hijabi and I always know that discrimination is out there, but that was the first directly racist statement that I ever heard.
Discrimination against minority groups is prevalent in Canada, especially against people who wear religious face coverings, who are mostly Muslims. According to a Statistics Canada report in 2018, there were a total of 173 police-reported incidences of hate crimes against Muslims. The report also notes 54 per cent of all religious-motivated hate crimes are committed against Muslim and Jewish people. These hate crimes included in-person and online verbal comments, physical incidents, and even vandalism of mosques and places of worship.
Over the last few months, I have seen fewer stories on my social media feeds of hate crimes against people who wear religious face coverings, such as a burka or niqab, than I saw pre-COVID-19. However, discrimination is still alive and well in Canada.
I walked down the streets in Ottawa a few days ago and had a few disgusted looks and atrocious comments aimed at me, but not as often as before COVID-19. Religious face coverings seem to be less of an ‘issue’ for now. The conversations surrounding religious coverings have quieted down in the wake of mask-wearing during COVID-19, at least here in Ottawa, and for many good reasons.
To begin with, covering your face by wearing a mask to protect yourself from getting the virus has become the new norm. On July 15, Ottawa Council passed a bylaw that states people are required to wear a mask in enclosed public spaces, such as malls, restaurants, recreational facilities, and public transport. Many transit companies have also required mandatory face masks in cities like Toronto, Hamilton and Guelph.
With all of these laws, you walk almost anywhere and you will see people wearing masks, including people who are wearing religious face coverings. People who wear religious face coverings are no longer considered “outsiders,” “barbaric” or “oppressed” for covering their faces, simply because we are all covering our faces. It makes no sense to make a negative slur against them because we are all covered up.
Politicians are also busy with pressing issues that face the community and the world during this sensitive time. Politicians have to provide medical equipment for essential workers to protect themselves, provide testing kits to detect the virus, assess the situation and decide whether to move to the next phase of opening up or go back to lockdown, and provide funding for Canadians who are economically affected by the crisis. Thus, it is not surprising that media attention is directed towards significant decisions that are happening in the world, which are predominantly COVID-19-related, rather than religious face coverings.
On the level of regular Canadian folks, most of them have too many issues on their own plates to worry about whether someone is covering their face with a niqab or burqa. The COVID-19 virus messed up our whole lives and made us get accustomed to new lifestyles in a very short amount of time. 52 per cent of employed Canadians have reported working from home, according to a survey by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). University students are studying online and other students in elementary and middle school are getting homeschooling. These are just some of the changes that people have to go through, and caring whether someone is covering up is definitely not a priority.
The pandemic will end eventually, it is just a matter of time. Mask-wearing might be the new norm for some time or it may not. Regardless, I hope that Canadians take this time to question their racist beliefs about religious face coverings. Many of the reasons for people to advocate for banning religious face coverings with laws like Bill 21 in Quebec, such as the safety of Canadians and better communication, are ridiculous because these ‘problems’ don’t seem to exist in a society where people cover their faces because of the pandemic. The issue is far deeper than just covering faces; it is about not accepting people who are different from typical white folks, which is ironic in a country that prides itself in having a multicultural and accepting society.
We will hear more incidents about hate crimes, vandalism and Bill 21 when COVID-19 is no longer the pressing issue of Canadians, but here are questions to ask: Why is it normal for people to cover their faces now and not before? Why when minority groups wear a religious face cover is it a huge issue and they are demanded by law to take it off, but if someone who is white covers their face, the problems disappear? The answer lies within racism, but some people might not admit it.
Featured image by Rodaina Ibrahim.
