Scandinavian Saunas to burqas: lingering and rising discrimination

By Naomi Conrad

Hassan Schehata has announced that he will henceforth only select devout Muslims to play on his team. – Schehata is the Egyptian national football team’s head coach and accordingly his decrees are a matter of no small importance in a country of football fanatics.

I am aware of this interesting fact, because yet another Saturday was spent in freezing cold stations waiting for delayed trains, their replacement trains and finally replacement buses for the replacement trains. Trains to and from Brussels, it seems, are invariably delayed, cancelled or stuck in tunnels. But the heart of Europe beats relentlessly, a flurry of briefings, reports and secondary directives emanate from its grey corridors and cubicles, decorated with colourful posters of Albanian fortresses and slowly dying dusty pot plants, but once you are in Brussels, you cannot escape easily.

Be that as it may, I found myself amidst a group of Germans, very vocal in their annoyance, with more than enough time on my frozen hands to read a weekend newspaper cover to cover. And then cover to cover again. Venturing into the normally mysterious, uncharted territory of the sports section, I read the article about Hassan Schehata and his players. My first reaction was one of mild astonishment; Do devout people play better football? And what about talented Christians, an increasingly beleaguered minority in Egypt, atheist or even female players?

In France at least it is unlikely that we will see any veiled football players any time soon; The leader of the right-wing UMP party Jean-Francois Cope recently proposed a law that would make it illegal to cover one’s face in public places. While this may also pose a problem for men with thick, hairy beards or balaclava-taunting climate change protesters, its stated aim is to attack burqas; M. Cope is calling for fines of up to 750 Euros for women who flout the ban. In 2004, France banned the wearing of ‘conspicuous’ religious symbols, including headscarves, by pupils in state schools and by public sector workers. The bill is scheduled to be debated after regional elections in March, which means political parties can capitalise on, and possibly fuel, anti-Muslim feelings.

But whether this constitutes discrimination on the grounds of religion is a difficult question. Some call it a much-needed bill to protect oppressed women, forced into wearing degrading Muslim attire, others point to the fierce secular tradition in France, established ever since the glorious French revolutionaries took on the powerful church. Others defend an individual’s right to freedom of expression and religion. What do the women in black themselves think? Not many people seem that bothered to find out. But if they are to be fined every time they step into the streets, it seems unlikely that many people will have the chance to ask them.

While head to toe covering poses a problem for some, nudity may bring others: Finnish friends told me of lingering discrimination in Scandinavia’s saunas: Political deals and shady economic transaction are made in the wood-panelled steamy saunas of politicians’ villas or ambassadors’ residencies. Given Scandinavians’ tendency to sauna tout-nu, men and women sweat and settle deals separately. So if your boss is male and you are not, you miss out on precious sauna and networking time.

As a woman you are of course, also unlikely to recline in a velvet arm chair and plan the next political coup or Saudi arms deal while sipping brandy in one of Westminster’s exclusive, pipe-smoke filled gentlemen-only gentlemen’s clubs. Or so I have been told.

Discrimination on the grounds of religion and gender, but also sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, disability, etc in the economic and political spheres in Europe of life is not new and things have improved since the early 20th century when women had to ask for their husbands’ written approval that would allow them to work.  But not much progress has been made recently; A couple of weeks ago I almost threw a German tax return in the bin that stipulated that in the case of a married couple, the husband was to fill out the form. The underlying belief presumably being that most wives either do not work, earn less or are bad at numbers. As much as I hate tax returns, earn a pittance and am bad at numbers, I will now have to make a point of always doing them myself.

Worse still, the effects of the economic crisis is having an impact too; rising unemployment tends to go hand in hand with rising discrimination, social protection against the other, the foreigner who is suddenly seen no longer to belong. According to the Economist, migrant workers from Northern Africa have lost their meagrely paid jobs picking crops in Southern Italy. Now many of them, often undocumented and without social insurance have been forced to leave and their miserable huts demolished.

Yet according recent European opinion poll conducted in 30 European countries (27 Member states plus Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey) this may be merely anecdotal.  The poll showed that a significant amount of people believe that the downturn will lead to discrimination in the labour market. A majority of Europeans expect the crisis to lead to higher levels of discrimination on the ground of age (64 %), disability (56%) and ethnic origin (57%). However, personal experience of discrimination remains largely stable since the last survey: Almost 20 percent of Europeans reported experiencing open discrimination themselves.

Maybe the wrong people, or right, depending on one’s political views, were asked. Maybe many people just don’t see the problem in making and breaking deals in the sauna or forcing migrants to leave when unemployment rises. The problem, of course, being that intellectual, creative, social potential, or productivity if you prefer, is wasted. I for one am intrigued to follow up on the Egyptian team to find out whether it is in fact benefitting from Hassan Schehata’s decision. Maybe I can one day read my Sunday newspaper in a - non-smoking, don’t forget the European smoking ban - gentlemen’s club and find out.