BENTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — A Benton County Justice of the Peace was caught on video comparing face masks to a Muslim head-scarf.
The video is sparking debate online and with her political opponents.
In the video, current District 10 Justice of the Peace Michelle Chiocco is speaking at a Benton County Republican Women's meeting.
It was streamed live on the group's Facebook page Tuesday (June 16). Chiocco held up a niqāb and a face mask and said, "these two are not as far apart as you think."
The video quickly spread online causing a candidate running for her position to take notice.
“I was disappointed that anyone particularly, during a public health crisis, would say anything negative about wearing a mask,” said Kelley Boyd, Candidate for Justice of the Peace, District 10 - Benton County.
In a statement, Chiocco elaborated saying in part, "It was not my intention to compare religion, only the cloths that could be construed as a symbol of silence—of freedom of speech lost.”
Benton County Republican Women posted on its Facebook page defending Chiocco's statement saying, "This is America, and we support our member's First Amendment right Freedom of Speech."
Chiocco also said, "As free citizens, in a nation whose founding documents protect the right of free speech, we are facing government mandates to wear objects to cover our faces.”
She says she will not be running for re-election even though Boyd is running for the spot.
Below is Chiocco's full statement:
"I held up a niqab and a mask, and said, “These two are not as far apart as you think.” It was not my intention to compare religion, only the cloths that could be construed as a symbol of silence—of freedom of speech lost.
In our current environment, I have not been the first to draw an analogy to cloth face coverings that symbolize oppression and can be seen to stifle and chill speech. No rightful government has the authority to suspend our natural rights, but as our brothers and sisters of color have helped make us aware in the past few weeks, symbols of oppression have powerful chilling effects on the rights of the oppressed, and it takes loud voices and hard work to insist that our human rights
My comment referred to the totalitarian regimes where women are forcibly silenced and are required, with violent consequences for disobedience, to wear an object that covers their faces. The object that they must wear is a potent symbol of their forced silence. In the context of a women’s political meeting, I was also making reference to our shared experience of struggling to have our voices heard, and watching in horror as women in other parts of the world have their voices actively and violently silenced.
As free citizens, in a nation whose founding documents protect the right of free speech, we are facing government mandates to wear objects to cover our faces. Individual concerns, questions, beliefs, and values are being overruled. Those who exercise their free speech to raise questions and concerns about the scientific or legal validity of mask requirements are being ostracized or ridiculed.
In fact, other basic Constitutional rights such as the freedom to assemble, the freedom to gather for worship, and the right to file a grievance and petition our local government were all suspended in the name of the covid response.
I believe that we are facing an urgent ethical question whose symbolism goes far deeper than the “face” of the issue: are we a nation that respects the choice to wear or not to wear a mask (as we should respect anyone who chooses to wear or not to wear religious garments); or are we a nation that shuns and invokes legal punishments against those whose individual needs or convictions lead them not to cover their faces?
As a woman, I recognize the amazing amount of challenges we have had to overcome throughout our history. We have fought for the right to be heard, the right to vote, the right for equal pay, and to speak our minds without fear of threat. The MeToo movement has continued recently to work tirelessly for that equality.
Again, I did not mean to offend, it was a passionate comparison of a cloth versus a cloth and the potential loss of our freedom of speech.
Respectfully,
Michelle Chiocco, Justice of the Peace District 10"