University cover-up

I wrote this opinion piece in June for the Free-D section on the Guardian website. Comments?

Like any other self-proclaimed nerd I was more than excited when Wolverine made its way into the cinema this past month. Surely anybody who watched the show or read the comics as a child couldn't help but relate to the misunderstood X-men. Visibly different, yet continuously struggling to improve their society, while trying to fit in and achieve acceptance. Sitting in my room on a Saturday and watching the first movie in the series, witnessing the hysteria of the human species' perpetual fear of the unknown and listening to the government's remarks about the need to abolish the "Mutant Menace", I thought about an old debate on campus on the niqab (face covering) that needs a fresh perspective.

The X-men story reminds me of a panel discussion I attended a few weeks ago on "What Britons Have in Common". According to one speaker, donning the niqab hinders the progress of the Muslim community in Britain. A member of the audience then called for the niqab to be banned on campus. The discussion left me with the question: If I, a Muslim woman who has chosen not to wear the niqab or the more common hijab, support a woman's choice to wear the niqab, am I against integration, inadvertently aiding and abetting a threatening Mutant-Niqabi Nexus?

Much like the belief of the human masses in the world of Marvel, who felt that those who were different posed a danger to their established way of life, the argument made by many niqabaphobes is that its oppressive and intimidating presence threatens the collective identity and values of the student body. Others question the viability of free exchange of ideas on campus when the niqab serves as a physical barrier to communication, as Jack Straw once claimed. Decisions in some schools and universities to ban the niqab on "practical" grounds may seem logical, but they are based on false assumptions about the niqab. These assumptions must be scrutinized in order to have a truly free exchange on our campuses.

A free choice exercised by a woman to wear the niqab should not be automatically interpreted as subjugation, or as an attempt to build an impenetrable force field which shields them from interacting with their fellow students. To paraphrase a friend from uni: "I am wearing a niqab, not a sign on my head that says, 'Conversation not welcome!'." We use our mobiles and Facebook to communicate every day without seeing our friends' faces. Maybe the barrier is more in our minds.

Communication on campus is also about exchanging ideas and values. The niqab is a symbolic expression of values, a visual spark for discussion that can enrich the student body. Its presence demonstrates a landscape – unified while diverse – where students can engage with those that look different, and be challenged to step outside their zone of reassurance. In the process we may learn that those whom we once constructed as "the other" are in fact not the threat that we believed them to be.

A basic democratic value is that each person has the right to express opinions, to contribute, to question, and to discuss. The presence of a piece of cloth should not serve as a barrier, or as a litmus test for an individual's participation in society. I invite us all – Mutant, Human, Muslim, non-Muslim, Niqabi, non-Niqabi – to challenge our assumptions about our fellow students. Only on this basis can we have free, honest and open debate.