Muslim women clad in a niqab are becoming an increasingly common sight in the streets of Oslo, reports say.
The trend of wearing the religious garment, a black veil that covers a woman head to toe, has apparently developed rapidly over the past two years.
“Yes, the niqab is popular,” Kari Vogt, a historian on religion and Islam, confirmed to Aftenposten, Thursday.
“A new generation of Muslims is entering Norwegian society at full speed, and some of them choose a more Salafist Islam, a strict and literal interpretation of Islamic injunctions and prohibitions,” she added.
The Salafi Movement (also known as Salafi methodology/Salafist movement) is a sect among the Sunni Muslims often associated with a stricter and more literal line of the religion.
It is often associated with the Wahhabi Movement, an even more conservative and fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam.
According to Aftenposten, a vast majority of the dozen fabric shops in Oslo’s Grønland have experienced an increased turnover in niqab sales.
Journalists have been in contact with several women who use or sell niqabs in recent weeks, but they say none have come forward.
At the same time, Muslims and experts who did respond to enquiries believe that the niqab trend is due an identity quest, a need for attention, youthful idealism, or reaction to the injustice in the world and Western politics’ presence in the Muslim world.
Two of Norway’s leading experts on Islam have denied that the Qur’an imposes the use of a niqab in any way.
Historian Kari Vogt and Anne Sofie Roald – a professor in religious studies in Malmö University and affiliate at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) in Bergen – explained it was mainly to do with its interpretation.
“There is nothing concrete in the Qur’an or Hadith which requires the use of the niqab,” said Ms. Roald.
“However, Salafists that base themselves on the Wahhabi Movement believe there’s a verse in the Qur’an stating that women should stay at home not only applies to the Prophet’s wives, but all Muslim women,” she explained.
“In addition, it is stated in the Qur’an that men had to talk to the Prophet’s wives behind a curtain. From this, Salafists believe that women have to cover themselves completely when they go out.”
Professor Roald also believes that the lack of Arabic knowledge of many converts and second generation Muslims might explains the increase of the use in the niqab.
These women tend to seek out translations and websites which contain more literal interpretations of the Qur’an, according to her.
Aftenposten also writes that important translations often contain Wahabi Movement interpretations of the veil/shawl in brackets. These are apparently financed by Saudis.
“Salafists are very active online, in Arabic, English, and Norwegian,” said the professor.
“Many Somali scholars have had their Islamic education in Saudi-Arabia, therefore they teach this to their Somali countrymen in the diaspora,” she added.
Discussions about wearing the Niqab in Norway have surfaced from time-to-time, both at academic and political level, amongst others.
Earlier this year, Vestfold County officials were considering imposing a ban during Adult Education classes. Some one year earlier, a University of Tromsø professor did this for during his lectures.
Current government coalition Party Progress (FrP) has also suggested vetoing wearing it in the past.
Then Party spokesman on immigration policy Per-Willy Amundsen, now their energy issues spokesman, claimed garments that envelop the entire body have no connection to freedom of religious expression.
“There are limits. It’s got nothing to do with religion, and certainly isn’t voluntary. At least, I can’t understand why anybody would willingly choose to wear a tent,” he told VG, suggesting penalizing women who wore a niqab in public.