Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Palestinian-born Dane, has sparked a heated debate in Denmark by declaring that she would wear her veil in parliament if elected in 2009.
COPENHAGEN: With a headscarf elegantly draped over her hair, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a Palestinian-born Dane, has sparked a heated debate in Denmark by declaring that she would wear her veil in parliament if elected in 2009.
A member of the ex-communist Unity List, Abdol-Hamid has a good chance of becoming what could be the first veiled Muslim in Europe to be voted into parliament.
The 25-year-old social worker and former television host from the Danish city of Odense is known for her commitment to politics and equal rights, as well as her headscarf and her refusal to shake hands with men.
But the prospect of a woman in parliament wearing the traditional headscarf, or hijab, has further disrupted sensibilities in Denmark, a country still shaken by last year's Mohammed cartoons row that swelled from a domestic Danish affair into a worldwide crisis pitting Muslim values against Western ideals.
Muslims make up 3.5 percent of Denmark's population of 5.4 million.
A recent poll showed 48 percent of Danes believe Muslim women have the right to wear a headscarf in parliament but the same number are opposed to the idea, with four percent undecided.
A spokesman for the far-right Danish People's Party (DPP), Soeren Krarup, was among the first to react to Abdol-Hamid's pledge, calling her headscarf a "totalitarian symbol" similar to "the Nazi swastika".
And a DPP member of the European Parliament, Mogens Camre, said Abdol-Hamid "needed psychiatric treatment".
Abdol-Hamid was recently designated by her party as a candidate for the Copenhagen constituency ahead of the February 2009 general election, and polls show she is well-placed to win a seat in the national assembly.
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