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Tony Abbott Backflips on Australian Parliament's 'BurkaBox'

Australia's Prime Minister reportedly moved to strike a rule that would segregate visitors wearing facial coverings at Parliament House to a glass-enclosed gallery.
Photo via Flickr

Amid harsh public outcry, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has requested that lawmakers abandon a plan to segregate visitors wearing facial coverings at Parliament House, according to local media.

The new interim rule, which was informally dubbed "BurkaBox," was approved Thursday by Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry. The rule would force anyone with their face covered to sit in a separate glass-enclosed public gallery — a space usually occupied by rowdy schoolchildren.

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"Persons with facial coverings entering the galleries of the House of Representatives and Senate will be seated in the enclosed galleries," the Department of Parliamentary Services said in a statement. "This will ensure that persons with facial coverings can continue to enter the chamber galleries without needing to be identifiable."

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The move came amid the launching of a controversial Australian anti-terror campaign that has seen dozens of homes in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods raided by police in two states and the adoption of a series of new laws that compromise freedom of speech and movement, with particularly disturbing ramifications for Muslims.

Muslim community leaders had already reported an increase in religious-based violence in recent weeks, from the desecration of mosques to women wearing head coverings being spat on in the street.

Advocacy groups and various opposition parliamentarians are now concerned that the BurkaBox proposal could spark further repercussions for Muslims, especially those wearing headscarves, and further fuel the racist rhetoric that has swept parliament.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie equated the laws with "religious apartheid," while opposition leader Bill Shorten told the Australian Associated Press that the issue has revealed the government's undue xenophobia and bias.

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"If we're asking our troops to stand up to sectarianism, intolerance, and prejudice overseas, we should be prepared to do the same in our parliament," Shorten said.

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But Attorney General George Brandis has defended the interim rule to local media, citing security issues.

"There may be particular circumstances in which people should be required to reveal their identity and those rules should apply equally to everyone regardless of what garment they may be wearing that might conceal their identity," Brandis said.

Other MPs have advocated that measures be pushed even further. A "ban the burka" campaign has been raging on the house floor for some weeks, propelled by Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi, House of Representatives Liberal George Christensen, and Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie.

Note burqa wearers in some of the houses raided this morning? This shroud of oppression and flag of fundamentalism is not right in Aust

— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi)September 17, 2014

The MPs say that Muslim veils such as the niqab and the burka, which covers the full body with an opening for the eyes, should be proscribed entirely from both parliament and Australian society, and their campaigned has received widespread condemnation as well as some support.

Before adjusting his position on the parliament plan, Abbott said Wednesday that he found the burka "a fairly confronting form of attire. Frankly, I wish it was not worn but we are a free country."

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"In the end it is up to the citizens of Australia to decide what they should wear," he added. "It is a little different obviously in a situation where people's identity is important."

After the new parliamentary rule was released on Thursday, local media reported that Abbott had backtracked on his initial comments and was seeking Bishop and Parry's review of the ban.

Abbott's office told VICE News in a statement that security arrangements at Parliament house are not decided by the Prime Minister, but that he has "asked the Speaker of the House to reconsider an arrangement that would impact on people wearing facial coverings from sitting in the public gallery."

"The hysteria is not based on any evidence," Mariam Veiszadeh, a lawyer and founder of the rights group Islamophobia Register Australia, wrote in an op-ed for theSydney Morning Herald. She expressed frustration that the words "niqab" and "burka" were being used interchangeably, and noted that "Tony Abbott himself has admitted that no one in a full face covering has sought entry into Parliament House."

"I personally find the sight of Tony Abbott in budgie smugglers 'confronting' but I would defend his right to wear them," Veiszadeh wrote.

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Haris Tarin, Muslim Public Affairs Council spokesman in Washington DC, told VICE News that bans on such attire across the world are nothing new.

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"This is less about the actual physical burka than it is about the broader anti-Muslim sentiment and feeling in the countries dealing with this issue," Tarin said. "You've got very right-wing or left-wing politicians trying to rally supporters and constituents, and pushing extreme measures that really have no impact because it is an extremely small number of Muslims who wear the niqab."

This summer, the European Court of Human Rights upheld France's controversial ban on face coverings, which includes women wearing burkas in public. The court, which had previously upheld the country's headscarf ban in state schools, agreed with the government that the veils were "incompatible" with the rule of French law.

Australia does not have the same revolutionary political history or the strictly enforced public secularism that propelled such legislation in France.

Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifields

Photo via Flickr