Mini Skirts, Yes. Burqas, No?

If France had a humane, democratic record in its treatment of Muslim immigrants, one might be bemused by Pres. Sarkozy's attempt to suppress the burqa. But the opposite is true. Arab immigrants are treated as second-class citizens, and the rightist politicians, including Sarkozy, are happy to keep them down. As a form of hyper-patriotism, controlling the dress of Muslim women is obviously unfair. Pres. Obama was right to criticize the policy.

Doesn't it seem strange that women in France have the right to wear mini skirts but not burqas? Both costumes are about sexuality, or if that seems too judgmental, both are about the issue of modesty. In the Arab world this is a religious issue, and it's not as though the Christian world is totally free of that perspective -- as far as I know, a woman will not be permitted inside the Vatican without covering her head. A secular society has no business making decisions based on religion, and that means in either direction. If God is neutral toward the mini skirt, he is neutral toward the burqa and chador, or the wig and head covering of orthodox Jewish women.

As for the argument that the burqa stands for the abasement of women, that is certainly true under the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the abasement revolves around forcing women to dress a certain way, taking away their free choice. Isn't France doing the same thing? In the name if fighting abasement, they are actually imposing another sort.

Finally, there is the simmering social resentment that occurs when a Muslim woman stands out in the crowd by her dress. In decades past, she stood out in an exotic and even appealing way. Since 9/11, Muslim dress is interpreted as a hostile statement. It's time we each become more mindful. The hostility is our own, a projection we impose on the innocent. Let Muslim women be as free to choose as any Western girl with tattoos and piercings. Beauty in this case is in the eyes of the wearer.

Published in the Washington Post

Comments

[gsteinum]

i applaud any government that strives to treat all of it's citizens as equal. where is your burqa mr. chopra, and why aren't you wearing one right now? are you trying to seduce all the saintly women of the world with the scandelous presentation of your flesh??? sinful! utterly sinful!

[gsteinum]

doubt this will be posted:
the burqa and mini-skirt are only connected by psuedo- intellectual flights of fancy. there is no religion that mandates the wearing mini-skirts. the mini-skirt is possibly an expression of free will. the burqa is not an option for women that are oppressed by misogynistic interpretations of the holy kuran. women are forced/coerced to wear the burqa. apparently, pat buchanan has no monopoly on outmoded ideology.

[Breakwind]

The Niqab (not as clumsy as a burqa) levels the playing field for ugly girls when boys are cruising about looking for a young lady to date. All the females look essentially the same (except for the real fat ones). It's a cultural norm for encouraging matrimony.

[sandgirl]

I don't think anybody should be allowed to wear the burka - or a ninja suit for that matter. I can't walk out fully naked, even if I feel like that is how my identity is best expressed, so why should other people be allowed to go out really fully clothed??
I also don't expect to be able to flip-flop around Ryad and Damascus in my shorts and tank tops. In fact, I would gladly choose a type of hijab to show respect for the people who welcome me there, even if as a foreign they would not force me to do it.
Burka is against social convention for most westerners, but most have no problem with other types of hijab. So let's face it, the ban is stupid, but in practical terms will be a blessing for young girls who are forced by their families to wear something that is not acceptable in a society - and at a time of their lives when - they are trying to fit in and feel welcomed in order to advance themselves.

[cavegal]

I don't know when the last time you were in Saudi Arabia was but if you are not covered enough the vice police will cane you. It does not matter that you are a westerner.

[Saleh-1986-]

So you are advocating that France should change its laws to be more fitting with those in Saudi Arabia?

The assumption that women in places other than the US backed Wahhabi state of Saudi Arabia are 'forced' to wear the Niqab is so degrading to the women who choose to do it. The niqabis I know of all choose to wear it, for people to deny their choice in that because they do not agree with it is an anathema to the apparently 'liberal' values of countries like France.

It is nothing but racism and discrimination disguised as concerns over religion.

[Suresh Kari]

Yes women have every right to wear burqa in France. They should also be subjected to Muslim personal law where her husband can divorce her by uttering talaq talaq talaq (divorce divorce divorce) three times. Her husband should be allowed to be polygamous ( as Allah ordained it). But hey if you do that , its not France anymore, it becomes Saudi Arabia!!!

[akifnizam]

The lack of perspective on this forum is disappointing.

The vast majority of muslims in the world live in a handful of countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria. In each of the countries above, there is no religious police, no laws for women to cover up and women are free to dress as they choose. I am originally from Pakistan and have two younger sisters. One recently took up hijab and the other one wouldn't think of adorning one in her nightmares. No one forced either one of them one way or the other.

The comparison of hijab to mini-skirts is absoultely apt. Both are mostly personal choices made based on social pressures and environment. There is no requirement in Islam to wear a burqa per se; just to dress modestly.

Personlly, I feel the burqa to be a anathema, even if worn as a personal choice. So, I do understand the outrage of so many people on this forum regarding this segregationist institution. Because obviously, we would never do and never have done anything that can be regarded as segregationist.

Oh wait !

[Doomestic]

Finally, a rational post for a change.

[kumarandharold]

Mr. Chopra, I think you are a decent and well meaning person. That is why you think that banning burka is wrong because it discriminates against members of one particular religion. However, you have to go beyond religious freedom---to simply freedom. I contend that majority of women who put the all encompassing robe are not expressing freedom of religion, but fear of reaction from their family, relatives or neighbours who want to see them all covered up. Do you think in the middle of summer, that is a preferred choice of attire? Do you think the life of a Muslim lady going to university is somehow enhanced by wearing Burka? Mini skirts are about choice, Sir. Chador, I contend, is not.

[AstridD]

Deepak would never wear a burqa/niqab.

However, all women should realize that their faces are basically vaginas, and should experience the healing empowerment of covering up those sexual organs. It's quite gratifying.

[tantrictim]

canada just recently decided to drop the provision that women remove the burqua when voting so that their identity can be confirmed, since there were no complaints made to elections canada in the last federal election, maybe france could use a lesson in tolerance

[Artemis34]

As Doomestice says: "Actually, there is no mention of the Burqa at all in the Quran, and there is one Hadith only that asks women to cover their hair, but leave their faces and their hands uncovered.

So technically, it is not Islamic."

It is not religious, it is cultural. And is also inconsistent with French culture.

It is amazing how willing so many are to tolerate sexism if it is disguised as "religion" or "culture."

I bet you wouldn't be so tolerate of a religion and / or culture advocating say castration of all males, not just the religions adherents. You probably even decry the domestic enslavement of men as intolerable.

Try turning it around and see how you'd like. Deepak, you wouldn't be here writing is it were turned around.

[ModernTimes1]

"It is not religious, it is cultural. "
Wrong.
Within Middle Eastern culture, NO ONE but Muslims wear bumper-to-bumper burqas.
Not Middle Eastern Christians; not Middle Eastern Jews; not Middle Eastern atheists.

ONLY Muslims wear burkas.
Next subject.

[Doomestic]

ModernTimes has conditioned himself into believing Muslims are the enemy. If you examine his debate strategy, if you can call it that, is that he accuses anyone he disagrees with as being Muslim, as though there is a problem with being Muslim. It is easier for him to dismiss the arguments levied against his if he can believe that the arguments are made by the "Enemy".

[Artemis34]

Let's take Benazir Bhutto, she choose to wear western dress while studying in the west.

She had education, work, money, power and influence in her own right.

I can believe that she was actually free to choose to cover her head, which she often did.

It is impossible for me to believe that those women who control nothing in their lives choose anything, including attire.

[dstanley]

Do all you guys who want to ban the Burqa realize how much you sound like John McCain? The pathetic insistence that force is the only way to change anything, repeatedly calling anyone that disagrees "naive", and the belief that you can stomp people into agreeing with you. What's going to be the punishment for wearing a burqa in public? What about repeat offenders? What if Muslims build burqa speakeasies where they can wear burqas away from the prying eyes of the law? Will there be raids? Actually the husbands will probably tell their wives to never leave home. She'll be less liberated, but at least your delicate sensibilities won't be offended by the sight of her.

[HPdevotee]

"Those Muslims who are moving to the west and continuing to wear hijab/jilbab (niqab, burka) are extremists and are the enemies of women’s freedom. They are not merely compliant moderate Muslims who like to cover up. They want to shroud women. I see such shrouding as dehumanizing and very antithetical to women’s freedom, even Muslim women’s Islamic-feminism style freedom."
http://apostate.wordpress.com/2009/06/24/french-ban-on-the-burka/#comment-26159

A very enlightening read from one who lives it.

[quindy]

I cannot disagree more. Burqas are directly connected to religion, which mini-skirts are not. Also, don't forget that women in the West fought to wear whatever they choose, whereas women in burqas have no choice. I do not believe for a second that any woman would chose to cover herself head to toe with only mesh to see through. It is oppressive piece of clothing and should be banned not only in Europe but every where else too. I am sick and tired of religious 'freedom' when it is the women who are being controlled and oppressed

[ModernTimes1]

Many people, including Mr. Chopra are unable to distinguish between freedom to choose with freedom to oppress.

[Doomestic]

"I do not believe for a second that any woman would chose to cover herself head to toe with only mesh to see through. "

Ask the women then. I do not choose to believe that God exists, that does not mean other people should not believe in the existence of God. Your blind assumptions are your failures, not theirs.

[WilliamL]

Being that this fundamentalist dress is directly associated with the terrorist end of the same religion, it is not the same as orthodox wigs and other attempts to justify.

There is an attire region of the world these folks can wander around in their coma and barbaric view of life and the world.

Like it or not, that body covering is directly related to the violence and death being generated by the gutless, evil, cowardly men who need to be hunted down like rabid dogs and left for the coyotes.

[Breakwind]

Okiay, okay! How about a mini-burqa?

[ModernTimes1]

It is covering of the face that we find somewhat barbaric, frankly.