By Torbjorn Naes Bertelsen
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A senior lecturer has caused controversy amongst students after calling for the niqab to be banned in universities.

Rosie Waterhouse, (right) director of the MA in Investigative Journalism, wrote an article in the Independent on City University’s Islamic Society.

Her views on the niqab, a veil that fully covers the face and is worn by many Muslim City students, sparked a debate on campus. She said: “I think the niqab should be banned at university.”

She added: “I was particularly disturbed by the sight of Muslim female students wearing the niqab, a dress statement I find offensive and threatening.”

Waterhouse also argued that the niqab is a symbol of oppression. She said: “Don’t they value the rights and freedoms they enjoy in Britain? In Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan they are forced to cover up and denied an education.

“One of my journalism students, who is a Muslim woman, interviewed four British-born Muslim girls who said they began to wear the niqab only after coming to City and joining the Islamic Society. They found it ‘liberating’, they said.”

In the article, which discussed the university’s Muslim prayer room dispute, Waterhouse said she was “concerned” at the activity of the ISoc. She referenced The Islamist author, Ed Husain, among other researchers, who have suggested that City is “a potential recruiting ground for violent extremists.”

She has received heavy criticism posted online and in the journalism department, including some calling for her to be sacked. Others have defended the article for making a stand.

She said: “I stand by the article, which was a comment piece expressing my personal opinion based on genuine concerns, and look forward to hearing the voice of moderate Muslims in any future debate.”

Seher Mahmood, one of Waterhouse’s students, said: “I totally understand that she’s entitled to her opinion, but because she has that academic status as a lecturer, she’s in danger of promoting things she might not mean. If a person said they find part of someone’s religion “offensive and threatening”, then I’d lose respect for them because of that.”

Peter Newlands, BA Journalism, said: “No community, whether religious or cultural, is immune to criticism. Rosie Waterhouse criticised a community and asked them to defend their values and policies. Sometimes people have to defend their beliefs if they are contradictory to another’s.”