Elizabeth Kadegan of the University of Toronto newspaper (The Varsity) is definitely contributing something to this "burka ban" debate in her article called "Symbol of oppression or matter of choice?", published October 1st, 2009, she skillfully provides both sides of the story. She is providing a voice that is, unfortunately, severely lacking in Muslim coverage of the issue.

Muslim reportage is notoriously unable to report on the two sides without passing judgment, alienating groups, and implicitly expressing some kind of superiority (one blog site last week said that the government should ban mini skirts as it is just as degrading for white girls to walk around as "sluts").

Most of this biased reportage seems inaccurate and harmful. We would do well to perhaps note that this is not a religious issue at all. We are certainly not going to have imams decide this issue at the Supreme Court, developing arguments based on hadiths and schools of thought. This is not going to work, and the CMC's claim to various religion thinkers is largely useless. The issue is largely of individual freedoms and individual rights.

For this reason, I invite you all to read Kadegan's article on Pink Hijab Day. In it, three eloquent, modern and educated Muslim women are interviewed:

- Sharifa Khan, in the first year of her Master’s in political science, after getting her undergrad degree at U of T.

- Idil Burale,  fourth year, doing a double major in political science and diaspora and transnational studies.

- Hanan Kulmiye, fourth year, with a major in bioethics and a double minor in physiology and biology.