Burqas: When Religion Trumps Citizenship

Perhaps even more than America, France insists on the separation of church and state. France also strongly defends women's rights. Today, these two principles happen to coincide: girls in public high schools are not allowed to wear headscarves, female excision is outlawed, and so, too, is bigamy (although many Muslim immigrants manage to bring along two or three wives and numerous children).

The allegation that France has persecuted and segregated its Muslim population must be countered with this question: do the Muslims in France really want to integrate? And to what degree? Many have achieved a good education, gainful employment, and even public office. But many Muslims openly defy French customs and French law, such as the woman who would not remove her burqa during her civil wedding ceremony. The mayor refused to perform the ceremony.

Unlike the chador (the headscarf), the burqa is not an ancient Islamic commandment: nowhere is it mentioned in the Koran. Rather, it is a cultural and political invention given this religious justification: the mere sight of women arouses men's lust! Thus, it is purposefully designed to make women disappear entirely.

After coming to power, the Taliban brutally enforced the burqa in Afghanistan (and decreed that girls' education stop at the age of eight). A covering similar to the burqa -- the niqab or abaya, with mesh over the eyes or a metal band over the face -- is prevalent in many states in the Persian Gulf.

In the West, Muslim women in burqas often refuse to show their face for an ID photo, or when going through passport control. They have medical exams while still wearing their full burqa. Whether they are forced to do this by their families, or shamed into it, or brainwashed, these women have lost their identity and their autonomy. They are not being "protected"; they are being marginalized.

Of course, the paradox is that by hiding a woman and shielding her sexuality, you are actually drawing more attention to it! Freud would have a field day analyzing this counter-denial behavior.

I recall a cruise I took to Dubai several years ago. Our ship pulled into port and ten adorable little girls were lined up to greet us in song, wearing colorful costumes and shiny trinkets in their hair. Silently crouched in a row behind them were their mothers -- swathed in their black robes, peering through slits. That is what these little girls would grow up to be.

There are serious questions of equality and security and sanity involved here, which a free, democratic society must address. Following President Sarkozy's remarks, the French government will be examining the issue. I hope they will agree with him that "the burqa is not welcome in France"....nor anywhere else where human dignity, sexual equality, and social coherence exist.

Comments

[elaygee]

People who believe in imaginary friends who are omnipresent, know all and extorts them into certain behaviors by threatening everlasting doom need anti-psychotic medications.

[bismillah001]

Feel smarter now?

[davidmww]

It's often hard to catch the eye of a woman wearing the niqab, but when I do I like to smile and give them a big ol' friendly wink. I'm sure it makes them feel more integrated.

Everyone should do it. Wink at a burka today!

[jhanawalt]

I think another important point is that pretty much all states legislate dress in some way or another. I couldn't walk through Boston commons in a thong because of indecency laws. If France has decided that the burqa is indecent because it violates its official secularism (which applies to all religions in France), I think that's within their rights. They're not stopping anyone from being Muslim.

This was a topic of discussion in a comparative politics course I took last semester; and something I found really interesting was a series of public polls in European countries. French Muslims identified themselves as French citizens first and Muslims second as much as four times more often than Muslims who lived in countries with weaker secular policies. So in a way, I think you can argue that this strengthens social cohesion.

Also, I couldn't walk into a mall, bank, or DMV wearing a ski mask and duster-length trenchcoat for any reason.

[Atcha]

Do you know who made that poll jhanawalt, I'd like to find it

[Josee123]

Whether French Muslims identify themselves as Muslims or as French first doesn't say much. They still have integration problems that are very complex with little to do with religion but more with sociaeconomic issues.

Each country has the right to decide many things, but I think that we (hopefully) are beyond the "majority trumps minority" and have realized that respecting minority rights is also part of democracy.

France, has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Freedoms which protects freedom of religious practice. Thus, unless there's a real issue (e.g. people NEED to show their face for their passport, or for security issues) then there's no right to restrict it.

Finally, in Canada & US you can go around a mall with your face covered. In Canada I go to the bank wearing niqab, and the friends I have accross the US who wear niqab also go to the bank wearing niqab. There's never been a robbery by someone pretending to be a niqabi in Canada. In many places in Europe you can bank with a niqab. So while I know that the "ohh wearing niqab at a bank,etc. is a security threat" is a popular reason, it is simply not a reality. The few friends who were asked not to go to the bank with their faces covered simply send their husbands... I wish my bank would say that, God knows I hate standing in line! Getting my husband to do that wouldn't be a bad idea :)

[Josee123]

"In the West, Muslim women in burqas often refuse to show their face for an ID photo, or when going through passport control. They have medical exams while still wearing their full burqa. Whether they are forced to do this by their families, or shamed into it, or brainwashed, these women have lost their identity and their autonomy. They are not being "protected"; they are being marginalized."
I love it how everyone speaks on behalf of "Muslim women" yet they have NO CLUE about their lives.
So, let me make it easy for you:
First, I think you should read up on Islam a little bit more. Then you would know that Muslims (at least the vast majority) use different sources of jurisprudence: the Quran, the sunnah (as reported in hadiths), qiyas (analogies), statements of the companions, etc, etc. Just because something it's not in the Quran it doesn't mean that it has nothing to do with Islam. The 5 daily prayers, which are considered a pillar of Islam, are not described in the Quran, however you will not find many Muslims who don't see them as obligatory. The same thing with niqab: while it's not in the Quran, there are many sayings of the prophet in which women were covering their faces, and also statements of the companions where women covered their faces. So because of this, some Muslims believe that niqab is obligatory, some believe it's recommended and some believe it's neither recommended nor obligatory.
(CONT1)

[Josee123]

(CONT1)
This is not something that's exclusive to Islam. Some jews believe that they have to keep kosher, others don't. But I don't see people saying that keeping kosher is not part of judaism just because they don't believe they have to keep kosher.
Secondly I am a Muslim woman born and raised in the West. I am a medical doctor, who is also about to finish my PhD in public health research. Given the fact that I went through med school, residency and a PhD program, I assume I must have at least an average IQ.
I run 10K 3 times per week, I do yoga 2 times per week, during the winter I snowboard. I go to the movies, I have friends (both Muslim and non Muslim), I work, I pay taxes, I volunteer.
No one in my family covers their face, or their head for that matter, however, I have chosen to wear niqab (face cover). It started almost as an experiment and then, due to the positive effects it had on my spiritual life, I continued using it.

So please let me clear up some misconceptions for you:

- I am not "marginalized", whatever that is supposed to mean. I am a full member of society with friends and I am appreciated and respected by my colleagues. Whatever I wear or they wear is of no concern to each other. (CONT2)

[Josee123]

(CONT2)
- I hope you don't believe that one person's identity is based on their choice of clothing. If not, everyone that buys clothing at the GAP should be considered "indentity-less". I, as every one else, am a complex being with multiple layers. My individuality isn’t manifested through my choice of clothing; that sounds quite shallow to me. My individuality is expressed through my values, dreams, likes and dislikes and much more. And yes, my individuality is also expressed through my choice of dress. While we might all look alike to you, we do have our own styles of wearing niqab.

- The VAST majority of Muslim women who cover their face, DO uncover their face for a medical exam (esp. since usually they choose a female doctor for their checkups), and DO uncover their face to take ID pics (again they usually choose to get it at places where a female takes their pic). How else do you think we get passports? And we all uncover our face to go through security or else we're not allowed to go through it.

People love making stories up about "Muslim women" and how they refuse XYZ, but the truth is the VAST majority don't make a fuss about it and go on about our business and uncover when needed by law. Yes, there the exception here and there (which makes it to the front page of the news) but being "rebellious" or “difficult” is not exclusive of Muslims.
(CONT3)

[Joan Z. Shore - Huffpost Blogger]

Just wondering -- what do you wear when you run, do yoga, or snowboard?

[Atcha]

The Salafists find it obligatory, most muslims in the West consider them as dangerous extremists

[arvay]

"The allegation that France has persecuted and segregated its Muslim population must be countered with this question: do the Muslims in France really want to integrate? And to what degree? Many have achieved a good education, gainful employment, and even public office. "

"Many" is a wonderfully inexact pseudo-number . Let's try some real numbers:

Fifty percent of France's unemployed are Muslims, according to Zinedine Houacine, president of the Arab/Muslim Union of Seine St-Denis. Discrimination against Muslims is widespread and widely acknowledged.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/articles/000/000/001/435tebxi.asp?pg=2

And how to explain the relative success of Muslims in America? To the horror of their immigrant parents, many are Americanizing quite nicely.

Answer: although we have some anti-immigrant know-nothings, most Americans are, at worst, indifferent to their new neighbors. In the predominantly Republican, middle class town where I live, you can see a few women in hijabs and their kids socializing in playgrounds with "standard" Americans. (Yawn.)

Banning burqas will do nothing to more thoroughly integrate French Muslims. Probably some Muslim teenagers will start wearing them a a rebellious gesture. It's just a spiteful gesture by a highly stratified, basically tribal society that disdains outsiders-- and it's meant as a "stay out" signal to potential migrants.

Since the riots, Sarkozy has distinguished himself as a particularly nasty bigot. Le Pen would embrace him, except he doesn't consider him really French. They deserve each other.

[Atcha]

And how to explain the relative success of Muslims in America? Hmm, by the fact that the conditions to immigrate in the US are more stringend than those that have been applied in France and that a very different demographic (educated, professionals with qualifications in demand) has immigrated to the US, as opposed to the unqualified migrants that came to France to work in factories, and found themselves jobless when they closed down? Educated migrants succeed quite well in France as well btw...

[arvay]

They keep refusing to post this:

There are numerous Muslim taxi divers, factory workers and other poorly educated Muslims who succeed here -- or at least live peaceably and do not suffer the kind of systemic discrimination Muslims face in the fundamentally tribal European countries such as France.

Their children -- sometimes to their parents' horror -- usually become Americanized in the same way as others before them.

That's the real difference -- in spite of people like Lou Dobbs, Americans in general don't really care who you are as long as you can earn some money. Crass, but serves to open opportunities. The only real exception to this is our long and sad history of racial hostility to blacks, the fruit of slavery and exploitation. That is changing, too slowly, but it's also changing.

France is blind to is own prejudice, refuses even to count "others." A French textbook distributed to Senegalese students when the place was run by France, which tried to persuade them to be French, began with the words "Our ancestors, the Franks..."

Such virtually genetic noblesse oblige is very difficult to cure, and speaks volumes about those who feel that way.

[jhamm1]

Good for the French!

Admittedly, for months, I often felt stumped when confronted by so-called counter-arguments advocating the "freedom" to cover-up, and ironically a quotation from Magnum PI provided the perfect rebuke, in that: "It rather defeats the purpose of freedom if one 'freely' chooses to be enslaved."

When the American Civil War ended, many former slaves became reluctant the leave the plantation, if only on account of having never known a lifestyle outside that of all-out oppression or simply having been brainwashed into considering themselves as "worthless".

So clearly, a woman who "freely" chooses to don a Burqa betrays symptoms, not of a true excercise in free choice, but the extremity to which they have been brainwashed into accepting the limitations of third-class citizenship.

[arvay]

And you're going to set up a national Psychological Service to determine which women wear the garment willingly and those who are brainwashed?

Amazing!

As for the Magnum PI quote (haven't heard his other statements on world cultures and events, I'm sure he's published in all the leading journals) -- it's a perfect excuse for an aggressive, interventionist foreign policy, or a police state that "knows" who's "choosing to be enslaved."

Personally, I find the concept voiced by HL Mencken much more attractive:

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

[Atcha]

Mencken's definition misses the fact that the common people often have diverging wills, democracy is therefore the rule of the majority of the people...and if the majority are offended by woman masking their faces...

[Merlin7]

What a bizarre position to take about France, a nation dominated for centuries by the patriarchal Catholic Church. It seems churlish for the French to ban the religious nonsense espoused by others when it has plenty of religious nonsense of its own to overcome. In any case, the argument is lost on most residents of the U.S., where religion is not only tolerated but imposed by our government through inscriptions on our money and public buildings, church-taught courses in public schools and even "faith-based" (i.e., superstition-based) offices in our White House, fully funded by our "progressive" president, Barack Obama. And our tax dollars are confiscated to pay for all this while superstition-based groups enjoy generous tax breaks.

Considering all this, we should leave the French alone to solve their own problems -- and to contemplate the foolishness of accepting large numbers of foreign immigrants.

[larry278]

A great # of Muslim immigrants have skills that Americans don't have. They fill the technical jobs that Americans can't do. There are immigrants who fill jobs that Americans don't want to do. I'm thinking of slaughter houses, the needle trades & other low wage, or dirty, or physically demanding jobs.

[Atcha]

Secular rules in France are obviously a reaction to centuries of church rules, you seem to have missed the fact that there has been a revolution in1789. I'd be curious to know what religious nonsense the french government has to overcome in your view