It seems that, with a few notable exceptions, people in the Netherlands have been accustomed to the headscarf. The burqa or niqaab however is a different matter. As did his fellow social democrat Aboutaleb a few years ago, current mayor of Amsterdam, Cohen, stated that women with a burqa should not be allowed to receive benefit. By politicizing gender in relation to Islam, women become the core of the struggle between Muslims and native Dutch people over the control of the Muslims in the Netherlands. They have become the embodiment of the Islam debate and integration debate as well as many internal Muslim struggles.