The niqāb, again

I can’t believe this didn’t occur to me before, but a news article mentioned in a comment yesterday pointed out that Muslims, especially ones who wear the niqāb, have been facing many more threats than our spineless chief electoral officer, and they don’t rate a police escort. Sh. realized they probably needed help voting so we called the Muslim Council of Quebec and offered to accompany any niqābi who still wished to cast a ballot. They said thanks, they had wanted to do that, but had already decided not to because they couldn’t find enough volunteers to guarantee the safety of those women. What the hell! I feel like a Freedom Rider in 1960’s Alabama (well, except for not being personally threatened). So now all 10 or 15 niqābi in Québec are going to stay at home and out of sight all day, while the three main parties privately congratulate themselves on having again kept them foreigners and not, say, fiscal policy, the issue of the day. Good work, fuckers. I sometimes wonder which of these politicians have a personal thing against immigrants, and which are merely clever and opportunistic, but really, it doesn’t matter; they’re all assholes.

We’re both too mad for words. We’re voting for Québec Solidare but, alas, weren’t motivated enough to actually help them out this time. Matthew has been pamphleting for them, bless him; we should have been, too. Oh well. For now, we’ve decided to join their party and to phone the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations to ask how we can help them. I mean, what’s next? A movement to ban hijābs and turbans from public schools, or public spaces? Do we have to imitate France in all this? I don’t even care who wins today, the major parties all piss me off so much.

Shit.