Headscarfs and Other Religious Clothing.

In my opinion clothing with religious connotations worn in western countries can be viewed as national costumes from another country and era. By linking clothing to piety, religious authorities and groups keep their members in an unfavourable situation that impedes integration and social harmony.

Establishing a successful personal style preoccupies most of us. Newspapers and magazines devote whole sections to clothing, hair style and the minutest aspects of behaviour. Even the most WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), tall, good-looking male graduate from the best university (assuming a full set of stereotypical advantages) will not get many job offers unless he is dressed and coifed in a way that the interviewers find pleasing. Some young men and women are even hiring advisors to get it right. Despite superb qualifications, any job seeker can lose out because of an unfavourable first impression. Yes, this is prejudice but we all face it. Maybe it should be ok to wear dirty jeans and a baseball cap to an interview, but in fact we all know it isn’t.

Suppose the German immigrants who came to Canada after WWII insisted on wearing their national costume because they were Lutherans. For the sake of the argument, suppose this to be lederhosen, braces and a hat with feather for the men and for the women; a dirndl (embroidered dress with an apron). Naturally the women would wear their hair in pigtails. Do you think they would be in the same totally integrated situation today had they stuck with this sort of dress? They had enough of a mountain to climb as strangers in Canada with a new language to learn, suspicions about residual Nazism and other challenges. Newcomers in that period had to face a much higher level of xenophobia than is now common. The concept of human rights and associated legal protections were unknown.

It would be wrong to make laws or regulations against religious clothing, with the possible exception of face masks in some circumstances. It is appropriate, however, to wonder what is the point of coming to a new country in order to have a better life and then continuing to wear unfashionable clothing that is laden with symbols of faraway political conflicts? Is the aim to engage in a teenager-like power struggle hoping to force old-country styles into the mainstream? Is it to please God? An especially odd concept when it is the same God who apparently does not care what people in other religious groups wear. Let us face it; a religious uniform is a powerful tool of behaviour control. It is easy to see who is in and who is out. Moving from one level of belief to another is much more difficult if it involves external symbols and not just different thoughts.

If it were the case that wearers of religious clothing and symbols were content to live on the margins of society as the Mennonites do, their choice of clothing would not matter. But new immigrants have skills and talents to contribute to our country. They want to be in the main stream and we want them to be there too. Displaying symbols that shout divided loyalty does not help the process of integration.