Surprise candidate: Mark Latham will announce businesswoman Emma Eros as One Nation’s candidate for the seat of Hornsby
A Muslim woman will run in the upcoming New South Wales election as a One Nation candidate, and has thrown her support behind the party’s ‘ban the burqa’ platform because ‘people need to show their face’.
One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham will announce on Sunday that Sydney businesswoman Emma Eros will be One Nation’s star candidate at the state election in March.
The 39-year-old businesswoman and daughter of Lebanese migrants grew up in Sydney’s west and runs a plumbing and construction business.
In an exclusive interview, Ms Eros said many women give ‘lame excuses’ for wearing the traditional Muslim head coverings.
‘I am a believer that one needs to show their face,’ she said, backing Mr Latham’s new policy to ban the burqa in government buildings, banks and airports.
‘Any government building, anything like that, that’s relevant to identification then yeah, bloody hell, remove it’.
Ms Eros, who is Muslim, will run for Parliament as a One Nation candidate, throwing her support behind the party’s ‘ban the burqa’ platform because ‘people need to show their face’
The mother-of-two has been recruited to run for the seat of Hornsby in an attempt by One Nation to claw conservative voters away from Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s Liberal government. ‘
Ms Eros herself is a former lifetime Liberal voter who feels ‘Liberal has become Labor’. She has long been outspoken about her opposition to the burqa – resulting in her receiving death threats telling her to ‘hang yourself’.
Daily Mail Australia put to Ms Eros the argument that some women wear a niqab or burqa because it makes them feel more devout and stops unwanted male attention.
Ms Eros slammed that reasoning as ‘lame excuses’ and ‘bulls***’, citing conversations with women who wear the dress.
The mother-of-two has been recruited to run in an attempt by One Nation to claw socially conservative Liberal voters away from Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s government
Ms Eros has long been outspoken about her opposition to the burqa and has even received death threats telling her to ‘hang yourself’ over her advocacy in the past
‘They’ve said to me, ‘I don’t have to do my hair”. Well, you’re completely lazy.
‘Some have said, “it brings me closer to God.” Well, I’m sorry, God is everywhere.
‘You don’t need to cover your face to make you closer to God. Again, lame excuses’.
Ms Eros said the burqa was not a religious requirement, but a ‘cultural thing’.
Ms Eros’ mentor, Mr Latham (right with Pauline Hanson) led Labor to the 2004 federal election and was an acolyte of reforming prime minister Gough Whitlam
She claimed women who attend the Hajj in Mecca are required by law to show their faces in public.
‘If the birthplace of Islam is not demanding a full face covering by wearing the burqa then why should it be expected or demanded to be worn here?’ she said.
I don’t care if they wear it at home, if they wear it to their family’s house, driving somewhere
She said Australia should be ‘proud’ of its equality and ‘if one wants equality, then you need to form part of a greater tapestry of Australian society, and the covering of the face does not go hand in hand with this’.
She does not mind if people wear the Islamic garb in private – just not in places where they need to be identified.
‘I don’t care if they wear it in their home. I don’t care if they’re wearing it going to their family’s house, driving somewhere,’ she said.
Ms Eros called One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson an ‘inspiration to many women’.
‘That’s up to the police to pull them over if he wants to see their face then they should respect the police officer and show their face and their licence.
‘I just don’t think it’s necessary to abuse the freedom of religion when it’s not a religious obligation to cover your face.
‘People are abusing that freedom of religion that we have in this democratic country.’
Ms Eros said she has only worn a headscarf when required to inside a mosque. She said ‘when you go to a country and it has laws, you respect those laws’ and said the same principle needs to applied in Australia.
Her mentor, Mr Latham, led Labor to the 2004 federal election and was an acolyte of reforming prime minister Gough Whitlam.
Ms Eros’s views will likely go down well with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who wore a niqab into Senate Question Time in 2017 to make a point about security
Late last year he announced he was running for a seat for One Nation in the NSW Upper House.
He detailed his burqa ban plan last week, arguing the Islamic covering is sexist and left-wingers should be up in arms about its repression.
‘It is sexism and in an era of #MeToo, wouldn’t you think all the lefties would be jumping up and down about it trying to get rid of the burqa,’ he told 2GB.
‘Well, they don’t say anything and what they’re really doing is putting Islamic rights ahead of women’s rights.’
Ms Eros’ views will likely go down well with One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who wore a niqab into Senate Question Time in 2017 to make a point about security.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is seen wearing a burqa into Senate Question Time in 2017
The Islamic dress has been a hot topic in the state where Ms Eros is running for Parliament.
In 2017, a District Court judge refused to allow a woman to give evidence in her niqab because her face was covered.
That woman, Moutia Elzahed, the wife of a convicted terrorist recruiter, also failed to stand for the judge because she ‘only stands for Allah’.
In response, the NSW government passed new laws creating the new offence of ‘disrespecting a court’. Elzahed was found guilty of the offence last year.
New South Wales voters go to the polls on March 23.