The (In)Visibility and Hyper-Visibility of Muslim Women: The Experience of Niqab-Wearing Women in Canada

About Natasha Bakht
Natasha Bakht is an associate professor of law at the University of Ottawa where she teaches family law, criminal law and multiculturalism issues in the law. She was called to the bar of Ontario in 2003 and served as a law clerk to Justice Louise Arbour at the Supreme Court of Canada. Her legal scholarship explores religious freedom and equality issues faced by Muslim and other marginalized women in Canada. Her research on the niqab analyzes the unwarranted popular panic concerning Muslim women who cover their faces, and explores systemic barriers to inclusion perpetuated by Canada’s legal and political system. One of her articles on the rights of niqab-wearing women was cited by the Supreme Court of Canada in the case of R v NS, 2012 SCC 72. Natasha’s legal activism includes involvement with the National Association of Women and the Law, the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Together with her friend and colleague Lynda Collins, she recently stretched the legal boundaries of family by becoming legal co-mothers of their son, though they are not in a conjugal relationship. She is the current English Language Editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law (CJWL) and an Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer.