Over the summer, I took a brief vacation to Paris. The biggest problem I have when I vacation is leaving my day job behind, and as a religion scholar with particular interest in the place of Islam in modern Europe, my hijab and burqa radars were on high while in France. After all, the debate over the wearing of veils in France is followed throughout the world.
After spending three full days walking the streets of Paris, including a significant part of one day in the neighborhood around the Grand Mosque of Paris, I tallied up the number of burqas I saw. The total was zero. Well, make that one if you include niqabs (similar to burqas, but they leave a slit around the eyes). The evidence is certainly anecdotal, and my visit all too short to get a better picture, but on the surface, it really didn't seem as if France had a major burqa problem.
Most estimates of the number of burqa-wearers in France, approximately 2,000 (if that many) out of five to six million Muslims, reinforce my observations. This is not a common garment worn by Muslim women, and yet the government's campaign against burqas and niqabs in public places, culminating in Tuesday's ban, has been aggressive. This is reminiscent of Switzerland's ban on minarets last November, even though the country has only four minarets, none of which is used for the call to prayer. A trend is emerging in parts of Europe when it comes to banning Islamic symbols that, depending on the region, scarcely exist to begin with.
What is the motivation behind these bans? In the case of France, why ban burqas if they are hardly even worn? The ostensible reason, according to government officials, if not many in the non-Muslim population, is the preservation of republican values, particularly equality of the sexes. The burqa symbolizes the oppression of women. As President Nicolas Sarkozy stated last year, the burqa is "a sign of the subjugation, of the submission, of women."
On one level, I don't deny the sincerity of the French government or many in France to want to safeguard women's rights and women's equality. But the real quandary with this new law and with the overwhelming sentiment against Islamic veils of any kind is that the very attempt to protect women's freedom ultimately results in an infringement upon this freedom.
I do believe that in those instances in which Muslim women are forced to wear a burqa or niqab, the law should protect them and preserve their freedom to choose what to wear and what not to wear. This law does just that, imposing a severe penalty on anyone who coerces a woman to wear a burqa. The guilty party could be fined a maximum of €30,000 and could face up to one year in prison.
But what about those Muslim women (and again, there are not that many) who choose to wear a burqa or niqab? To take one example, Kenza Drider, a French citizen of Moroccan heritage who wears a niqab and insists that it "symbolizes my freedom of expressing my religion." She adds, "The niqab is my dignity, my spirituality and my submission to God." The new law strips her of this freedom. Should she refuse to abide by the law, she would face a smaller fine (up to €150), but it would be a penalty nonetheless. And she might be required to take government-sponsored courses on "republican values" to remedy her behavior. The question that remains, of course, is whether the free exercise of religion can still be included as one of these values.
While many in France may have genuine concerns about equality of the sexes, the burqa ban is really less about preserving women's freedom and more about the underlying discomfort that many in France have over the growth of Islam and the increasing assertion of Muslim identity in the public sphere. The greater the visibility of Islam, the greater the perceived threat to French identity, because the operating assumption is that the two identities cannot be reconciled. One is French first; religious identity must take a back seat. This applies particularly to Islam, though as the 2004 parliamentary ban on religious symbols in public schools revealed, Judaism (no yarmulkes) and Christianity (no prominent crosses) must also make way for French identity. But with Islam, the threat is considered greater because of commonplace essentialist definitions that characterize it as inherently violent, oppressive, and anti-democratic.
France, like much of Western Europe, is suffering from an identity crisis, and the political response increasingly is to restrict the free exercise of religion so as to preserve an identity that is defined against Islam. But banning burqas or attempting to push Islam out of the public sphere will not strengthen French identity. The ban will only reinforce France's reputation as an intolerant country whose leaders appear unwilling and incapable of engaging in sincere dialogue with Muslim citizens or building bridges between a largely secular population and Islam. And it will coerce some 2,000 Muslim women to adopt a behavior and lifestyle that conflicts with their deepest religious convictions.
France's reputation for setting fashion trends has existed for centuries. The new burqa ban is yet one more attempt to shape attitudes on what people should and should not wear. But if endeavors to integrate France's Muslim population are to move forward, the French government needs to spend less time dictating Islamic fashion and more time listening to its Muslims citizens articulate their own understandings of what it means to be loyal both to Islam and to the republic.
Burqa Is Banned in France - WSJ.com
France moves one step closer to burqa ban - CNN
France approves burqa ban – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs
France BURQA BAN: French Parliament Approves Ban On Face Veils
France Moves Closer to Banning the Burqa - TIME
France votes on the burqa | Sara Silvestri | Comment is free ...
Anyway I support Sarkozy right down the line. If he let this continue, there could have been men dressed up in burqas purporting crimes of all sorts...
Vive Sarkozy, vive la France
SO how is wearing a Naqib or Hijab a law breaking event or action.... and "If he let this continue, there could have been men dressed up in burqas purporting crimes of all sorts..."
I know right rather then wearing oh say Ski masks, paper bags with holes, jackets and a rag over mouth please dont try to hide your bigotry racism and hate with this flag waving patriotism BS
So a democratic nation has no obligation to listen to is citizens but is happy taking there tax money sounds like something else then a democracy . The French first; religious identity is that of a nation that welcomes all religions beliefs and culture or its not a democracy its a theocracy much like Taliban Afganistan . What french was 100 -200 years ago" christian majority" is not the same anymore because there are people of difference country and nations that have came to France.
This prosperity is only possible when regressive Weltanschauung these cult members espouse is vigorously resisted.
The campaign vy the liberal-Islamnist alliance against the ban was far more aggressive. Hnece the above article, isn't it?.
French politicians who voted for this ban and its supporters are accused of every sin known to humankind.
Supporters of the ban are variously accused by the above alliance of: Islamopohbia, bigotry, xenophobia, Hitlerism, Nazism, primitivism, stupidity,colonialism( this is the funniest), political opportunism, neo-conservatism, hatred, ignorance, naivette, desire to expel every Muslim from Europe, desire to close every mosque;anti-Islamism; oppression, regression, cultural imperialism, and countless other sins and transgressions..
I support and many others support the ban as a reasonable effort to get rid of the culturally offensive visual blight from the streets of France And I hope entire Europe follows suit ( no pun intended).
We' ve bent backways ( pun intended) trying to adjust to various religious minority's predispositions. Time they returned the favor.
What is not understandable is that the reporters and others from our own country wear head coverings when in Middle Eastern countries as a sign of respect for the Islamic culture but the women who come to European countries and other countries whose primary faith is not Islam will not do without the coverings mandated by their culture (not religion).
When you immigrate to another country, you should assimilate and adopt their cultural mores. If you don't want to do that, then stay in a country where your culture prevails.
The only Roma expelled were the ones form couple of countries illegally squatting in France. No one else.
The ban on burqa is supported by the majoirty of the french, in not Europe. Including many progressive Muslims themselves.
Europe -wide ban should be next.
What about those punk rocker things with the spiked green hair and stuff and Goths oh my god.
There Oughta be a law !
Yes. they are not allowed to wear religiously identifying symbols to school. Neither Hassids nor Nuns are shrieking lawsuits demanding to be able to swim in public pools wearing their religiously prescribed clothes
there is Catholic monastery equivalent of burqini.
Is there any law banning religious symbols on the public streets ( Public Places) that pertains to Christian and Jewish symbols ?
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France’s struggle with Islamic dress has moved into the swimming pool after a 35-year-old woman was banned from bathing in her “burkini”, a head-to-toe swimsuit.
The woman, identified only as Carole, was making her third outing in a burkini to the town pool at Emerainville, on the eastern outskirts of Paris, when the chief lifeguard ordered her to leave
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She was not forcing anyone to leave while she was in the pool she was wearing her burkini which is like a full body swimsuit and want to go for a swim and was kicked out... so
she cant swim with others
she cant swim by her self
So what should she do try in her bathtub ...but no this is a examtple of Muslims not assimilating to french culture she should of had a 2 piece on with a hajib maybe nothing at all then maybe she could be allowed to swim since that is "french culture"
Pornography is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission, of women
let's ban that too?
get real
western culture has commercialized sexuality and entrenched negative stereotypes of women and their place and purpose in the world as much or more than it has furthered their liberation in effect negating the positive aspects of that liberation
But your understanding of recent Biblical interpretation is insufficient. 1 Timothy has been eclipsed in Biblical interpretation by recent advances in women's rights in civil law and human rights regimes. I have heard of no mainstream Christian theology that holds to the standards of 1 Timothy.
I doubt that even conservative Catholics would kick out a female member for wearing a bikini at the beach.
As you said in an earlier post, why do Muslims immigrate to a country where the custom is so objectionable?
Europe is a very tolerant place and considers a wide variety of behavior to be acceptable. Niqab is outside the pale.
Also, it is perfectly reasonable for people to want to maintain their own social norms, mores, and customs provided that these do not impinge upon the freedoms of others and harm no one else. The majority can express as much disgust as it pleases, but there is no legitimate legal basis for discrimination against immigrants with different ways of being and doing.
Mormons were told that polygyny was unacceptable in America. Muslims are being told that niqab is unacceptable in France. Tolerance is a good thing, but each society gets to define its outer limit.
I have no doubt that your tolerance would not allow you to accept cannibals into your society.
Can do
Should do
Right to do
With his or her religion or what the religion dictates (with little to no knowledge of the religion) whats next Muslims cant pray 5 times they can only pray 3 times because we took a vote on it .
--Such women might be suffering something akin to "battered wife" syndrome?