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The law would impose a fine of 150 euros (some $220) on women who wear the burqa in public places. Men found to be forcing women to wear the veil would face much harsher penalties: $43,000 and a year in jail.
France has the largest Muslim population: some 5 million of the country's 64 million people are estimated to be Muslim. Ordinary headscarves are common, but only some 1,900 women are believed to wear the face-covering veil.
The issue has been hotly debated in Europe ever since 2004, when France outlawed the wearing of the veil in French public schools. In 2009 President Nicolas Sarkozy declared in 2009 that ¨the burqa is not welcome in France.¨ Now Spain and Belgium have similar laws in the works, and the Netherlands is seeking a country-wide prohibition as well.
The burqa is an all-enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions in order to hide the female body when out in public. A woman removes her burqa only when she returns to the sanctuary of her household, out of the view of men who are not her husband, father, brothers, uncles, sons or grandsons.
Proponents of the ban say that they respect the freedom of religion, but that the burqa is a prison for women and a symbol of their oppression. For them, burqas have no place in a liberal democracy. One French lawmaker described the traditional Islamic garment as a ¨walking coffin.¨
Proponents of the ban say that they respect the freedom of religion, but that the burqa is a prison for women and a symbol of their oppression. For them, burqas have no place in a liberal democracy. One French lawmaker described the traditional Islamic garment as a ¨walking coffin.¨
Opponents counter that it is not the burqa, but its prohibition, that goes against women's freedom to wear what they please and where they please. ¨I think this is against international law,¨ said Anissa, a French Muslim woman living in Paris who has worn her veil for two years. ¨But personally speaking, removing my veil is against my conscience, and I won't take it off.¨
In essence, the debate comes down to visions of freedom that are diametrically opposed: ¨freedom to¨ vs. ¨freedom from.¨ On one side lies the freedom to express your beliefs; on the other the freedom from coercion by men who would impose religious practices on subservient women.
What do you think? Should the burqa be forbidden or allowed in public? I look forward to your comments.
Wishing you a great summer (or winter, as the case may be--after all, I like to think of myself as a cross-culturally savvy guy),
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Cultures in my view only clash when a culture changes it's geographical identity to slowly but surely ( depending on numbers) take over or impose itself on an existing culture. Within that existing culture where I experience my freedom , that 'new' culture is a threat, if it were only for my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI'm therefore FOR this law against the burka.
Separation of church and state was adopted in France in 1905 and religion was replaced by “laïcité”, a concept of a secular society.
ReplyDeleteIn 2004, after scuffles and fights happened in schools, a law was promulgated forbidding wearing “ostentatious” religious signs, such as stars of david, catholic crosses or muslim head scarfs.
The burqa ban is in line with those laws. It is also designed to alleviate fears of non muslim French population confronted to a massive influx of very foreign culture.
Integrating foreigners in France has neither been an easy nor a soft process: Italians, Poles and Spaniards were not liked nor welcomed when they immigrated to France before WW2. Their languages were different but as their cultures were quite similar they finally blended in.
Questions remain about how to integrate the 10%+ muslim population in France considering that:
- muslim population has grown, in the last decades, through immigration of very underprivileged people coming from the poorest sahel countries, with no cultural proximity to French society or European way of life and with very different family structures;
- for the past 25 years, French governments have abandoned control over areas where muslim immigrants massively reside: “no law zones” (low rent high rises building around French cities suburbs) where only dealers and imams rules prevail.
The burqa ban is the tree which hides the forest.
The law ASSUMES that any woman who wears a burqa must be forced to do so by a man, or at least by a male dominated culture. Is it possible that a woman would wear the garment of her own volition? That she is comfortable with and embraces the restrictions of her culture of her own free will and in good conscience?
ReplyDeleteThis is not a law to protect a few women from bad men, pass that law when you have gotten every prostitute out of the clutches of her pimp. This is a law of xenophobia. The most blatant emblem of a little understood mystery in our midst is outlawed so that we won't have to be reminded every day that it exists. As such, this law is WRONG. That being said, I support the ban because I believe that two vastly different cultures cannot live peacefully side by side. Either the two cultures integrate, or they constantly distrust one another. I personally - with a foreign wife and mixed race child - am all for integration, but the more a minority culture holds to the symbols of its previous homeland, the slower it is to integrate. Burqa wearers should integrate or go back where they came from. I dont mean to sound hateful, but I believe that if they want to hold on to their culture, it is best to be where that culture thrives.
I attended an employment law conference recently, where a gentleman who calls himself a "culturalist" claimed that the Germans laugh at Americans for their "political correctness" when it comes to diversity issues. I had to point out to this speaker the irony of using Germany as the benchmark for diversity, and Europe in general, and used the burqa ban as an example. I don't think I am sufficiently familiar with the history of this decision to comment, but as an American I can observe that our "melting pot" culture appears better adjusted to absorption of different forms of expression. Having said that, as a transplant from the North to the South, I have personally observed the ignorance that accompanies the lack of familiarity with ways that vary from the "norm."
ReplyDeleteWrong! What about cultural tolerance Europeans are talking so highly?
ReplyDeleteSarkozy latest coup is the discrimination against Sinti Roma (Gipsy’s).
What's next? Letters on Arab Shops, telling us "Don't by from Arabs"? Do we remember what happened when went in this direction 80 years ago?
thank you all for these rich comments. to the history i would add that the mass immigration of muslims to europe was an unintended consequence of post-world war ii guest-worker programs. foreign workers, who were supposed to stay temporarily, benefited from family reunification programs and became permanent. (see robert s. leiken, ¨europe's angry muslims,¨ foreign affairs 84:4, 120-135). successive waves of immigrants became a sea of descendants (called ¨secondos¨in switzerland and since recently also in germany).
ReplyDeleteeuropean revulsion against nazism and colonialism translated into compassion for religious minorities of whatever stripe. a european liberal orthodoxy welcomed muslim guest workers and saw them generally as victims lacking rights. some countries, e.g. the netherlands and the united kingdom, spawned a comprehensive type of multiculturalism. (london's version verged on separatism.)
france has taken a harder line ever since it sought the extradition of the organizer of several bombings in the paris metro in the 1990s.
this stance is consistent with france's past nationalism of systematically making ¨peasants into frenchmen¨ through three institutions: the schools, the church (despite the separation of church and state that jean-claude correctly mentions), and the army.
now muslims are the majority of immigrants in many western european countries, including belgium, france, germany, and the netherlands, and the largest single component of the immigrant population in the united kingdom.
some estimates predict that the european muslim population will almost double by 2015, while the non-muslim population will shrink by 3.5%. others are skeptical, saying that the muslim birthrate will decline with rising living standards and that european countries will limit muslim immigration.
to tim in seattle: is your comment not contradicting itself? on the one hand you say that ¨this is a law of xenophobia¨; on the other, you support the ban. doesn't that mean you call yourself a xenophobe?
ReplyDelete