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Articles on Burqa

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Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop has backed down on her proposal to segregate people wearing head coverings in Parliament. Lukas Coch/AAP

Bishop backs down on burqas, with a twist

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry have reversed their decision to segregate veiled women watching parliamentary proceedings – but the women will have to show their faces on entering…
Bronwyn Bishop had to drop her interim edict on people wearing face coverings during question time. AAP/Inter-Parliamentary Union, Lucien Fortunati

Parliamentary committee only tinkers with foreign fighters bill

Parliament’s presiding officers, Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry were hung out to dry by Tony Abbott over their ill-judged plan that veiled women would be segregated behind glass…
The Australian parliament has given rise to the ‘burqa box’, the top tier of glassed-in public galleries. AAP/Lukas Coch

Parliamentary push to ‘ban the burqa’ defies logic of real security

So leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives want to ban the burqa in open parliamentary chambers on the grounds of “security”. They would relegate wearers to a glass box usually reserved…
Visitors of Afghan nationality wearing hijabs outside Parliament House yesterday. Lukas Coch/AAP

Burqa and Niqab: they cover the face, not the mind

A call to ban the burqa has permeated Australian political discussions since police raided the homes of suspected Islamist extremists in Sydney and Brisbane on September 18. Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi…
Tony Abbott’s office has been keeping an eagle eye on the upgrading of security in Parliament House. AAP/Lukas Coch

Grattan on Friday: Row over facial covering exposes rifts and red faces

For a prime minister who says he wants to promote Team Australia, Tony Abbott made a right mess of it this week. Somehow he managed to let the burqa, which as he correctly says no one actually wears to…
Politicians and parties on Australia’s political fringe would ban the burqa - except, apparently, when it is worn for the purposes of their political campaigns. AAP/Julian Smith

Banning the burqa is not the answer to fears about public safety

The burqa and niqab are often viewed as symbols of extremism. In the wake of the rise of Islamic State, it is unsurprising, therefore, that in recent days a number of Australian politicians have called…

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