Thursday, January 30, 2014

Another good reason to ban the burqa (and the hijab and the niqab)

Disclaimer: Walt is posting this true story "straight" -- no smart remarks or editorializing -- to make the point that covering one's head with any kind of scarf or hood may not be the safest thing to do if you're going out in modern Western society.

A report from Montréal today says that a woman in her 30s is dead after her "headscarf" -- the word used by the QMI agency -- and hair became caught in an escalator at the Fabre Metro (subway) station.

A bystander found the woman lying at the base of the escalator and alerted transit workers, who called police. When first responders arrived, the woman was unresponsive. "We tried to perform resuscitation," a paramedic told QMI, "but we weren't able to save her."

Montréal police spokesman Jean-Pierre Brabant said the exact circumstances of the woman's death weren't immediately clear, but it appeared "her headscarf and her hair got stuck in the escalator. Was she strangled by her scarf or was she the victim of an illness before falling? It's too early to say."

Police shut down the Metro station for the investigation, and are examining surveillance video to find out exactly what happened.

Note from Ed.: Since the QMI report quoted the policeman as calling what the woman wore a "headscarf", you may ask why Walt has mentioned "hijab" in the headline. It's because that was the word used by QMI in their headline. It might have been a niqab, or a burqa...or just a headscarf with no religious or ethnic significance at all.

Further reading on WWW:
"Hijab, niqab, burqa -- what's the difference?"
"VIDEO: Culture clash! Québécois uncomfortable with Muslims importing their customs to Canada"

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