It seems like the French are drunk over their notions of secular freedom. A law approved by the French Senate earlier today bans the wearing of any veils covering the body, specifically aimed at protecting women from the burqa and hijab. The French Parliament gave the following justification,
"Given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice, even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place,"And this law apparently has the support of a majority of the French population.
The French back the ban by a margin of more than four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a survey earlier this year. Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved…Clear majorities also backed burqa bans in Germany, Britain and Spain, while two out of three Americans opposed it, the survey found.Shame on the French. They may be trying to battle religious dogma, but in the process are undermining a basic right of women – to wear whatever they want to wear. It is common for Muslim women to choose to cover themselves in a veil. One may never win the battle against religious oppression by restricting the freedom of expression – that is simply altering the type of oppression, not combating it. Subjugating women is something religious fundamentalists are good at - the French are simply following in their footsteps.
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Correction - The law does not ban the hijab. I misread it for the niqab ("a face-full veil that leaves an opening only for the eyes"), that has been banned
4 comments:
I think the particularly alarming part of the issue is that women are losing a basic right in an attempt to put an end to an offense committed primarily by men. From what I've heard on RFI, the ban is largely to prohibit male jihadists from dressing as women to conceal explosives.
i agree with becca .. its not an issue of expression or anything .. its a security issue ..
From another perspective: One of the arguments against the Burqa (the Hijab is not banned, btw) is that men intimidate women in their communities into wearing it.
The French tradition of laïcité has historically been used to restrain the power of the Catholic Church in the country, and has only lately turned to freeing women from the prison of Islam. France is an avowedly secular state, as opposed to the US's posture of neutrality, and it seems to work for them.
The Council of State (the top administrative court in France), has deemed that this law has no legal basis, though I doubt they can do anything about it. But they have addressed all your points very clearly -
On security -
“Public security cannot be a basis for a general ban on only the full veil, since no specific inconvenience is associated with it as such. A limited ban on the full veil would be fragile in terms of the principle of non-discrimination, and probably difficult to impose.”
On the same note, it has also said,
"However, the Council of State believes that public security and the fight against fraud, reinforced by the requirements of some public services, would be likely to justify an obligation to keep one’s face uncovered either in certain places or in performing certain procedures.” However, note the specificity of 'certain places' and 'performing certain procedures', which is contrary to an all-out ban.
On laïcité -
France’s trademark laïcité cannot be used as a legal basis to ban full veils in public, because it applies only to the relationship between public services and religions or followers of religions ... the argument that full veils violate a woman’s dignity and the principle of equality between the sexes “could hardly apply in this case, even if they both have solid constitutional foundations and very strong jurisprudential applications”.
http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2010/03/30/frances-burqa-ban-and-the-sarkozy-shuffle-to-shape-it/
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