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New Delhi: Senator Pauline Hanson, an Australian far-right lawmaker, ruffled feathers on Monday after she wore a burqa in Parliament. Her act drew accusations of racism from Muslim senators. Hanson donned the burqa as a political call to ban the Muslim garment in public places across the country.
Hanson is the leader of the populist anti-immigration One Nation party. She resorted to the act after she was blocked from introducing a Senate bill seeking to prohibit the traditional Muslim garment and other full-face coverings in public spaces in Australia.
This was the second time when Hanson donned the Muslim women's head garment in Parliament as part of her campaign to ban the public display of burqas.
Hanson’s decision to enter the Senate chamber sporting a burqa invited hackles and immediate backlash, with several lawmakers hitting out at the act as racist and Islamophobic. Proceedings of the House were halted after she declined to take off the garment.
Reuters report said that Muslim Mehreen Faruqi, a Greens senator representing New South Wales, remarked: “A dress code might be a choice of the senators, but racism should not be the choice of the Senate. This is a racist senator, displaying blatant racism and Islamophobia.” Muslim Fatima Payman, an independent senator from Western Australia, dubbed the act as “disgraceful”.
Penny Wong, leader of Australia’s centre-left Labour government in the Senate, said that Hanson’s act was “not worthy of a member of the Australian Senate”. She moved a motion demanding her suspension. Anne Ruston, the deputy Senate leader for the opposition coalition, also flayed Hanson's actions.
In 2017, Hanson had used the burqa in parliament earlier. She performed the stunt to push for the ban of the Muslim garment. The senator represents Queensland, and she first invited attention in the 1990s because of her strong opposition to immigration from Asia and to asylum seekers.
She heads the One Nation party, which at present holds four seats in the Senate. It increased its representation in the chamber during May’s general election, as support for its far-right agenda saw a surge.
Taking to Facebook after Monday’s events, Hanson said her actions were a show of protest after her proposed bill to ban burqa and other full-face coverings in public spaces in Australia.
She pointed out that she had donned the “oppressive” garment to put the spotlight on the mistreatment of women and the peril it posed to security of the country.
