Claim: Donald Trump defended the burqa after being “impressed” by Imran Khan’s remarks about Muslim women’s veils in the past, particularly when the latter said that “girls use hijab as a weapon”. The US president also stated, “Veiling is more appropriate than wearing make-up. If I were a woman, I would also wear the veil.”
Fact: Trump did not defend the burqa but criticised America’s interventionist foreign policy in Afghanistan. He made the comment in 2015, well before the remarks by Khan in 2019, making it impossible for the former to be “impressed” by the latter. Moreover, Pakistan’s former PM did not say that girls wear the hijab as a weapon but denounced how it is seen as a weapon in some western countries.
Amid the 2024 US election season, multiple social media posts in Pakistan went viral showing President Donald Trump talking about the burqa, a full-body cloth worn by some Muslim women that also covers the face. The accompanying captions claimed that he defended the veil against ridicule after being impressed by Imran Khan, the incarcerated founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a former prime minister, who previously made similar remarks about the hijab.
The accompanying caption reads as follows:
“عمران خان کے سنہری الفاظ ڈونلڈ ٹرمپ کو بھی متاثر کیا، ماضی میں قائد عمران خان نے ہر فورم پر خواتین کے حجاب پر بیان دیتے ہوئے کہا کہ لڑکیاں حجاب کو ہتھیار کے طور پر استعمال کرتی ہیں، اس کی تضحیک نہیں ہونی چاہیے! آج امریکہ ڈونلڈ ٹرمپ کابیان آیا ہے کہ افغان خواتین ہزاروں سالوں سے پردہ کرتی رہی ہیں وہ پردہ کرنا چاہتے ہیں تو ہم کیوں مداخلت کریں؟ میرے نظر میں پردہ کرنا میک اپ سے زیادہ مناسب ہے، اگر میں عورت ہوتی تو میں بھی پردہ کرتا تھا۔
[Imran Khan’s golden words have also impressed Donald Trump. In the past, [our] leader Imran Khan, while making statements about women’s hijab at every forum, said that girls use hijab as a weapon. This [hijab] should not be ridiculed! Today, Donald Trump has made a statement in America that Afghan women have been wearing the veil for thousands of years; they want to wear the veil. So why should we interfere? In my opinion, veiling is more appropriate than wearing make-up. If I were a woman, I would also wear the veil.]”
In the video, Trump can be heard saying, “It’s like… I saw somebody — I won’t even say because it’s embarrassing — ‘We want it [where] the women over there don’t have to wear the you-know-what.’ And then I said, ‘Oh well, that makes sense. That’s nice.’ Then I saw women interviewed. They said, ‘We want to wear them. We’ve worn them for a thousand years. Why would anybody tell us not to?’ They want to! What the hell are we getting involved for? [The] fact is, it’s easy. You don’t have to put on make-up… look how beautiful everyone looks. Wouldn’t it be easier? Bwah! Right? Wouldn’t that be easy? I tell ya, if I was a woman I don’t want to… Bwah! I’m ready, darling, let’s go! It’s true!”
Each time Trump said “Bwah,” he imitated the action of covering the face with a veil.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first observed the watermarked text in the video that reads “CNN Collection”, referring to the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned outlet’s archive of “footage that spans from the early 1980s to today’s biggest global and local news coverage”, according to its website.
Browsing through CNN Collection, we found the video of Trump’s remarks, made originally during a New Hampshire rally on 26 October 2015. Titled “TRUMP ON WOMEN WEARING BURQAS-DON”T NEED MAKEUP,” its synopsis reads, “Trump on burqas: you don”t have to wear makeup, it”s easier for women to get ready to go out.”
In the full video, which was posted on the outlet’s YouTube channel a few months later, on 21 July 2016, Trump spoke against America’s interventionist foreign policy, arguing that there was no need for the US to export “freedom” to countries that “don’t want” it, especially after its past efforts to bring democracy to certain nations.
He said, “We wanna give people freedom? We’re not gonna have our own freedom pretty soon, if we keep doing this. We’re not gonna have our own freedom. They’re not gonna- They don’t want freedom. It’s like… I saw somebody — I won’t even say because it’s embarrassing — ‘We want it [where] the women over there don’t have to wear the you-know-what.’ And then I said, ‘Oh well, that makes sense. That’s nice.’
“Then I saw women [being] interviewed. They said, ‘We want to wear them. We’ve worn them for a thousand years. Why would anybody tell us not to?’ They want to! What the hell are we getting involved for? [The] fact is, it’s easy. You don’t have to put on make-up… look how beautiful everyone looks. Wouldn’t it be easier? Bwah! Right? Wouldn’t that be easy? I tell ya, if I was a woman I don’t want to… Bwah! I’m ready, darling, let’s go! It’s true!” Trump added.
It’s important to note the context here: Trump did not defend burqas out of respect but made a joke about them in an insulting manner. His comment, made while on campaign trail for the 2016 US elections, was mainly a criticism of America’s interventionist policies in Afghanistan.
In fact, CNN’s own report also noted that Trump “joked” about how Muslim women likely prefer burqas as wearing one reduces the need to put on make-up.
Meanwhile, Khan only explicitly used the words “hijab” and “weapon” in the same sentence during his speech at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 27 September 2019. According to a video on the UN’s YouTube channel, an X (formerly Twitter) post by his party, as well as transcripts available on the Business Recorder and the PTI’s website, he spoke of how the hijab — not burqa — was often seen as a weapon.
His remarks from the video can be heard from the 11:05 mark to the 11:44 mark, wherein he says: “Muslim women wearing Hijab… It’s become an issue. It’s become an issue in some countries. Hijab is some sort of weapon! A woman can take off her clothes in countries but she can’t put on more clothes? How is this happening? Because of Islamophobia! And how did this Islamophobia start? After 9/11. And why did it start? Because certain western leaders equated terrorism with Islam… Islamic terrorism.”
In the transcripts available on the Business Recorder and the PTI’s website, as well as in the X post, the same sentence reads as follows: “Muslim women wearing Hijab has become a problem. It is seen as a weapon. A woman can take off her clothes in some countries but she can not put more on? And why has this happened? Because certain western leaders equated Islam with terrorism.”
In short, Khan commented on how the hijab was perceived as a “weapon”, symbolically or metaphorically, due to discrimination against Muslims in some countries. Nowhere did he say that “girls use hijab as a weapon”.
While Khan has made several statements about the hijab and women’s clothing — in context of Islamophobia and culture — and has been criticised for blaming the rise in sexual assault cases to how women dress, there is no evidence of him talking about women using “hijab as a weapon” in other instances either.
Moreover, Trump’s comments are from 26 October 2015 and came well before Khan said the hijab was seen as a weapon on 27 September 2019. Therefore, the US president could not have made such a remark after being “impressed” by the former Pakistani PM’s statement about the hijab.
The claim that he said he would wear the burqa if he was a woman or that he believes veiling is more appropriate than wearing make-up is also misleading in the sense that he was commenting on how, according to him, veiling is a quick and simple task; it does not seem like he made that remark because he respects the veil.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim posted here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
Conclusion: Trump did not defend the burqa but criticised America’s interventionist foreign policy in Afghanistan. He made the comment in 2015, well before the remarks by Khan in 2019, making it impossible for the former to be “impressed” by the latter. Moreover, Pakistan’s former PM did not say that “girls wear the hijab as a weapon” but denounced how it is seen as a weapon in some western countries.
Background image in cover photo: Elin Tabitha
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