The BBC reported today that. "A French parliamentary committee has recommended a partial ban on women wearing Islamic face veils. The committee's near 200-page report has proposed a ban in hospitals, schools, government offices and on public transport. It also recommends that anyone showing visible signs of "radical religious practice" should be refused residence cards and citizenship."
Presumably this "visible signs of "radical religious practice" would equally apply to Orthodox Jewish men who wear their hair long, Mormon women with head scarves, and possibly any cleric in religious robes as arguably any religious view is radical (what's the point if it isn't?!)
The net effect of this likely ban is to keep Muslim women off public transport, out of hospital and excluded from all forms of government either as an employee or a petitionner (eg they can't collect any form of social security from government offices).
I'd be interested in others' views.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Banning Muslim Women from Appearing in Public in Veils
by Jonathan on Tuesday, January 26, 2010
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6 comments:
My problem with the niqab and the burka (which caused me irritation in my job in Karachi) is that they impede face-to-face communication. I was tempted in retaliation to put my hand in front of my face when I was speaking to a woman so attired.
What happens when such a woman approaches the immigration officer checking passports at an airport? Did not one of the men eventually convicted of a London terrorist attack originally escape from the scene disguised as a woman wearing a niqab?
I have the same issues as you with the niqab and the burka. The question for me is how to deal with it - by discouraging it or banning it outright.
I don't buy the counter terrorist argument that men can disguise themselves as women wearing a veil. They can also disguise themselves wearing red jackets, blue trousers, baseball caps - indeed anything to change their appearance. No need to hide behind a veil. Explosives can be hidden under a burka - but they can also be hidden in bags. Should bags be banned in public too.
Every restriction of our freedoms to cater to anti-terrorist laws and rules is another victory for terrorists.
I believe we should look at dress generally rather than the burka. Western women's dress is often designed to sexually attract men, the burka is the opposite. Which is better? Or is it a cultural issue\/ Why can't women dress as they want to. Hastings Banda forbade trousers for women, and skirts in Pakistan suggested sexual attraction to men.Let the burka be.. Mum
I have been playing table tennis in Llansilin this evening, it would be impossible to play in a burka.
I think there is an inherent contradiction between allowing individual freedoms (the right to wear a burka/bikini) and public offence (ref burka/bikini again).
My own feeling is that the existing laws prohibiting offensive language and dress as well as public decency are probably sufficient to discourage and prohibit the worse offences of indecency and public offence.
The issue for me is much more about getting liberals to dress conservatively than getting conservatives to dress liberally.
Our facial expressions are an extremely important way in which we communicate with each other. Covering them completely or partially creates divisions and does nothing for social harmony.
These outfits also serve to oppress women - stopping them from expressing themselves in the clothes they may choose to wear or in how they relate to people.
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