Brenda Brenda:
Why would a string bikini be offensive but a niqab wouldnt?
Bikini vs. Niqab:
Because some guys get all tingly in their pants when they see a half-naked girl and they were raised to feel embarrassed by it. Because some girls feel subconscious and insecure infront of a female figure that might be nicer than theirs. Because some guys are so hard up for female attention they can't focos on anything else. A bikini can be "sexually suggestive" but a Niqab obviously is not. Personally, I would love it if girls in my work came in wearing string bikinis but alas......
$1:
Yes, a lot of people are offended by it.
But how does somebody get offended because somebody else in the class is wearing a niqab? I get that you think its wierd looking but how does that offend you? How is that different than some old person being offended by a wierd hairdo or nose ring or an interracial couple? Isnt the right-wing always saying there is "no right to not be offended" whenever some minority claims they're offended by this or that? To me, this is no different than saying your offended by a Jewish guy wearing a yamaka...and yes, that claim was made about 50 or 60 years ago too.
My point is: the student's niqab does not interfere with other students ability to learn or the teacher's ability to teach. The only plausible excuse is that it somehow interferes with the Egyptian's ability to learn. But so what, are we her baby sitters now? If she is the only one who is going to suffer from it, who else should care? Let her get a "Needs Improvement" score on the elocution section of the grade or let her work a little harder or maybe even hire a private tutor on the weekends to supplement her weekly lessons if she wants to stay caught up to the rest of her class. Its a minor issue and not worthy of all the fuss.
The point is, she is not asking for any special advantage against her other students (not that adult education is competitive, but I digress) or making anybody in the class to do anything different than they would normally do without her there, so its a hard case to make that she is interfering or getting special treatment. Again, note that it was the teacher who wanted students to face walls, etc. not the student.
Maybe I should break this down a little differently:
When we talk about acommodation, it's not about what you 'feel' like accomodating, or whether you can justify your discrimination on some ground. The issue has to be approached from the question of: does the circumstance make it impossible (or unreasonably difficult)to accomodate? Thats why Sikhs won the right to wear Turbans at most places of work, but not on construction sites or on motorcycles or other places where a helmet or mandatory headgear would make accomodation impossible. So in this case one would have to prove that the Niqab makes it impossible for the wearer to learn French or unreasonably difficult to teach French. That's a stretch in this case. If she was wanting to get a Drivers License and didnt want to sit for the photo, I'd be on your side because a Niqab makes it impossible to photograph your face. But it doesnt make it impossible to learn French.
CKA Uber 
CKA Uber 
