Prime Minister Stephen Harper has suddenly discovered feminism. He is deeply concerned that Muslim women who cover their faces are wearing a garment that is "anti-woman". One presumes that he is of the view that they are being forced to cover themselves into submission, despite the fact that niqab-wearing women deny this allegation outright. Zunera Ishaq, the woman at the centre of the niqab-citizenship controversy has specifically said "It's precisely because I won't listen to how other people want me to live my life that I wear a niqab. Some of my own family members have asked me to remove it. I have told them that I prefer to think for myself."

A central tenet of modern feminism is that we listen to the voices of women. We do not assume that we know what is better for them. The prime minister has made up a fictitious threat to women's equality, essentially suggesting that niqab-wearing women have been duped. But there are real issues involving vulnerable women that need our government's attention. In the past two decades, more than 1,000 Indigenous women have gone missing or have been murdered in Canadian communities. This greatly disproportionate level of violence against First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and girls requires a specific and concerted response. But prime minister Harper has repeatedly rejected calls for a commission of inquiry by international and Canadian human rights organizations, including Indigenous women's organizations. When these women have asked for the government's help, Prime Minister Harper has ignored them. Apparently, he knows what's best for women.

Instead, he has wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars ($257,000 to be precise) to justify his discriminatory citizenship policy and plans to further challenge the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal that allows Zunera Ishaq, and other niqab-wearing women, to take the oath of citizenship in a way that respects their faith.

The prime minister knows that he will lose this fight because the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has always protected Canadians' rights to practise their religions, including by wearing religious clothing such as nuns' habits, Jewish Yarmulke's and Sikh turbans. Canada is a country built on respect for diversity and difference. We protect individual rights, minority rights, even when the majority may disagree with such perspectives. That's what makes this country so special.

Feminists are people who care about others. Canada has always been known as a compassionate country. But the prime minister seems determined to change all of that. In the face of the worst refugee crisis since World War II, Ottawa's response has been shockingly inadequate. Meanwhile at home, the prime minister has revoked health coverage for life saving medications, urgent mental heath care for traumatized children, prostheses and wheelchairs to privately sponsored refugees upon arrival in Canada. This abandonment of people in need is not what a caring person does.

In a country that owes its existence to the welcoming of new comers by its First Peoples, Prime Minister Harper insists on attacking a small, vulnerable group of women who are otherwise law abiding and harming no one. Niqab-wearing women are the latest excuse for Prime Minister Harper to drive a wedge between Canadians. Instead of uniting us, and coming together to assist where there is real need, he is dividing us, hoping that "old stock" Canadians will buy into his xenophobic and heartless policies.

-- Natasha Bakht is an associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa and the editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law.