Burka Ban For Protecting Secularism and Equality
Captain Sasha July 5th, 2009
In a historic address to both houses of the parliament on 22nd June 2009, the French president Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy made strong comments that the burqa as an oppressive dress is not welcome in France and should be banned. The announcement was greeted with eqivocal applause rom both the political left and the right.
Video of Sarkozy address to the French Parliament, calling for a burka ban. For the english news video on the same, click here.
Despite the oppressive and isolationist nature of the burqa, not many western style democracies have been able to enforce a restriction or a ban on the said dress code, due to an apologetic attitude towards Islamic radicals. In United Kindom for example, justice minister Jack Straw had to withstand strong criticism and ridicule for a proposal that the burqa be banned in his constituency office. The move by France, which has the largest Muslim community in Europe, could be an example for other western democracties who are having difficulties in protecting their secular ideals from the religious hardliners.
The burka, a full bodied garment covering from the head to the toe, isolates women from the outside world. It is practically a mobile tent, intended to “protect women from lustful male gaze” (sexist in itself , implying that men have no control over their instincts). By closing up Muslim women from the outside world, their interactions with people outside their community is severely restricted, creating a cultural isolation. It also creates a breeding ground for intolerance, as women who have limited interaction to people outside their community tend to have self-righteous moralist views about themselves and their community. In France for example, Muslim women often tend to hold the belief that the mainsteam French society is immodest, morally decadent and self-destructive. Such views ultimately tend to get passed on to their children, who then find themselves culturally isolated when they attend secular public schools, universities or jobs.
Apart from the issues of cultural isolation, the burka is also oppressive to Muslim girls of school age, who are pressured (often forced) to wear it against their will. Schoolkids are particularly sensitive to differences and wearing of a religious attire marks them out to this difference (a case for having uniforms in school?). The situation of forced hijab on French Muslim women is so dire that the feminist organisation “Ni Putes ni soumises” was formed to protect then from being gangraped or forced to drop out of school for refusing to wear the hijab. When such cases are rife, the ‘freedom’ to wear burqas is false freedom. By banning the burka, the state upholds the right of such women to choose between a life of religious apartheid and a life as a mainstream French.
Sarkozy’s address did not come without any reactions from the French Muslims however. The head of the French Council of Muslim Religion, Muhammed Moussaui said that to raise such a subject in the French parliament “is a way of stigmatizing Islam and the Muslims of France”. On the other hand, the Muslim-born French housing minister Fadela Amara fully supported the ban, saying that the garment is a “a kind of tomb for women.” As a staunch defender of equalist and secular ideals, the move to ban burqa hasn’t been France’s first move against religious radicalism. In 2004, the French assembly banned all ‘conspicious’ religious symbols from being worn to schools and government offices, which included headscarves, crucifix, jewish caps and turbans.
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