Dear Editor,
I am a proud Canadian. I am grateful and thankful for the freedoms I enjoy, that we all enjoy.
Our freedoms especially as women were hard fought for by our forefathers and mothers. Canadian women received the vote in 1919 except for Quebec in 1940. Canada has been a country where women and men have equal value. Our judicial system has laws in place to protect women from rape and other violations.
The young Pakistan woman recently wanting citizenship in Canada comes from a very different culture. A women’s testimony does not equal a man’s. They believe and practice polygamy, the practice of more then one wife. The practice of covering woman is protection for them from men who do not take responsibility for their actions. Their law system does not protect women, women carry the responsibility.
In Canada men must take responsibility for their choices or face our justice system.
This is not a perfect system but far superior to many other countries. People from other countries want to come to Canada and enjoy our freedoms.
I am grateful for Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party for standing up for our national values of equality for all people. I thank them for not supporting an oppressive system, be it said a religious one.
The wearing of the niqab must be difficult. Let us as Canadians not support this oppressive custom for woman only.
Let these women, our new Canadian sisters, enjoy the freedoms we enjoy. Let them live, work, raise their families with faces open and free.They have come to Canada where they don’t have to cover their faces to have safety and protection.
The ruling by the Federal Board of Appeal of Canada allowing new Canadian women to be sworn into citizenship without showing their faces needs to be contested.
Let us not be protectors of an oppressive practice. Speak out against it. It affects us all.
Sharon Harris
Ponoka
Editor’s note: Isn’t it a freedom for a woman to be able to wear niqab where she doesn’t have to?