Scotland allows head scarf, too, to attract minority women into force.
Scotland allows head scarf, too, to attract minority women into force.
Hoping to boost recruiting of Muslim women, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is allowing its officers to wear hijabs as part of their uniforms, the government said Tuesday.
“The commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently approved this addition to the uniform,” public safety minister Ralph Goodale’s spokesperson Scott Bardsley said.
“This is intended to better reflect the diversity in our communities and encourage more Muslim women to consider the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a career option,” he said.
The RCMP officer’s uniform — a red serge tunic, leather riding boots and wide-brimmed felt campaign hat — is an iconic Canadian symbol.
It dates back to the 1800s, when the RCMP’s forerunner, the frontier North-West Mounted Police, spread law and order to the wilds of Canada’s western provinces and Arctic territories.
The RCMP faced a public outcry in 1990 over a decision to allow Sikh officers to wear turbans as part of their uniforms.
The hijab or the headscarf has been made optional part of Police Scotland’s uniform in an attempt to attract more women Muslim recruits to the force, which currently has less black and Asian representation.
Previously officers could wear the religious headscarf with approval but it is now formally part of the police uniform.
Police Scotland said it is working to make the force “representative of the communities we serve”.
A report showed just 2.6 per cent of applicants to join Police Scotland were from ethnic minorities.
