To understand why Syrians support a niqab ban, you have to look at the judgment of strangers.
From the outside, two recent bans on the niqab in public places look dispiritingly similar. Both France and Syria have taken the decision to ban the full face veil worn by a small minority of Muslim women from public spaces - France, in all public places; Syria in public schools and universities. Both governments said they were defending secularism.
Yet differences are clear. The French government - note that the law has yet to pass the upper house - went through a democratic process to decide to enact the far-reaching ban; the Syrian government merely announced it. France is a liberal democracy; Syria has been ruled by the same party for nearly half a century. France has fraught relations with its Muslim community, the largest in Europe; Syria is a majority-Muslim country.
More pointedly, though, is how the French ban was greeted with dismay by French women who don't wear the niqab; whereas the Syrian ban was applauded by Syrian women. How to explain this difference?
First, the details. News of a ban on teachers wearing the niqab in public schools first trickled out at the end of last month. Then this week, the Syrian minister of higher education said students wearing the niqab would be banned from university campuses in the country.
Both decisions come soon after Egyptian courts upheld a government ruling that niqabs could not be worn during university exams. These are small steps, but they herald larger changes. When, last year, Egypt's most senior cleric, Sheikh Tantawi, banned the niqab from Al-Azhar, the greatest seat of Sunni Islamic scholarship, it was seen as a marker of where the debate lies. Other countries in the region will be watching the reaction from Syria and may yet follow suit.
Media reports from Damascus have shown women and feminists broadly in favour of the ban: one law professor said it showed the country was taking a moderate stance, while the director of the Syrian Women Observatory, a women's rights organisation, said: "The niqab is a very big kind of violence against women. The women underneath the niqab are victims."
Speaking to Syrian women over the past two days, some who veil and some who don't, the overall feeling is one of a positive move. "I don't think you'll meet many women opposed to it," one tells me. "The niqab infringes my rights and I'm glad it's gone."
What is it, from the perspective of Syrian women, that makes them so keen to accept what appears to be an infringement of personal rights? The answer is familiar to anyone who has been given the condescending once-over on the streets of Manhattan or Beirut: the judgement of strangers.
It turns out to be a question of choice: by removing one choice, Syrian women hope the ban will defend a space for them to choose others. That view needs some unpacking.
Start with the munaqabas (as women who wear the niqab are called in Arabic). For them, this ban is not merely an inconvenience. It strikes at the heart of their freedom, forcing them to choose between an education and their conscience. The media has not spent much time worrying over their views, but it is a fearful choice for these women to make: should they give up the opportunity of higher education, or compromise their beliefs?
That choice is complicated by the situation on the ground. Some choose the niqab less out of piety than practicality. "Girls are so competitive in what they wear and I don't have the money to keep up," a young manaqaba told me in Damascus. "This way, no one cares what I look like and no one judges me for being poor."
It is certainly true that the niqab appears to be more popular among women of lower socioeconomic status. With the exception of an emerging sub-strata of wealthy women who have started covering themselves completely, the daughters of the rich and middle classes (who provide the vast majority of university students) tend to uncover their hair or wear the hijab.
For most of this group, who have been immersed from an early age in French and Anglo-American culture, overt displays of faith are not common, and they are fierce defenders of Syria's secularism.
Their support for the ban comes not from a wish to infringe the rights of a minority, but from a feeling that their right to choose what to wear was itself being infringed; that, in a small but serious way, their consciences were being coerced.
This coercion is subtle, but every woman I spoke to mentioned it. It is the equating of modesty with piety. An increase in the wearing of the hijab in Syria has brought a type of competition among women for the appearance of piety. Previously, women could dress (broadly) as they wished, without a suggestion that the tightness of their jeans or the colour of their hijab implied anything about their morals. But as clothing became looser, that connection became tighter, and is increasingly made by women themselves. "The worst people for judging you are other women," said one Syrian businesswoman. "They tell you you shouldn't be wearing this or that you should be more modest. Even strangers will tell you."
The hijab, they seem to suggest, is so last season.
Thus the wearing of the niqab has become more than a choice or a symbol; it has become a declaration, a way of displaying one's inner devotion. The more devout you are, the more pious, the more you cover up. If you follow that logic to its natural end, it also suggests that those women who don't wear the veil are themselves declaring something. And, in a conservative society, they are not declaring something wholesome.
Understandable, then, that women who don't wear the niqab refuse to be judged for that decision. That, it seems to me, is the feeling that Syrian women who support the ban have. That the peer pressure to appear devout was a serious infringement.
This peer pressure is where the people affected by the niqab ban intersect with the politics. The Syrian government has other reasons to enact the ban than simply responding to the wishes of women; it is not hard to see the move as a way of defending its secular rule against rising religious voices.
Yet the impact of the ban is being felt as empowering. As much as it is difficult to get excited about a government interfering in the lives of its citizens, it is easy to understand why some Syrian women now feel more empowered to make choices. Whether such a blunt legal instrument will have the desired effect is yet to be seen.
Faisal al Yafai is a journalist and Churchill Fellow for 2009/2010. He is the editor of a forthcoming collection of essays, "Women, Islam and Western Liberalism", to be published in London in the autumn.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
NO OTHER LAND
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Total eligible population
About 57.5 million people
51.1 million received a jab
6.4 million have not
Where are the unvaccinated?
England 11%
Scotland 9%
Wales 10%
Northern Ireland 14%
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
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Employees: 50
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TEACHERS' PAY - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The Brutalist
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Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
