It seems that France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is pushing to ban the burqa in his country. There are a lot of opinions on this subject and I took some time to mull them over. Is this a good thing for women, releasing them from a cloth prison? Or is it a bad thing, taking away a Muslim woman’s freedom?
It comes down to a matter of choice, I think – a call which Sarkozy has no right to make. According to CNN.com, in 2004, Sarkozy made similarly-biased legislation banning headscarves, Sikh turbans, crucifixes and Jewish skull caps from schools. In a day and age where tolerance seems to be preached on every street corner, France appears to be, by and large, one of the most intolerant countries in the world. I know many communist countries try to ban religion of any sort because they fear some unseen threat, but I’m surprised a European country has taken things so far – especially one that has deep roots in the Catholic faith.
Sarkozy may have the best intentions at heart. In a press conference this summer he said, “We cannot accept in our country women trapped behind a fence, cut off from social life, deprived of any identity. This is not the idea that we have of a woman’s dignity.”
He seems to view wearing the burqa solely as a prison that a woman is forced into, but as Bruce Crumly, of Time magazine asked, “What about the rights of Muslim women who honestly feel faith-bound to voluntarily don a burqa … Why is no one ranting about nuns’ habits being “degrading” … just as no one lashed out at creeping extremism when then-First Lady Bernadette Chirac covered her head during Vatican visits?”
Sarkozy cannot be the one to make the call over what a woman can wear. It may be essential to her religious beliefs and practices and therefore it would be an injustice to take that right away. While I agree that some women may be forced to wear it by their husbands or fathers and not like doing so, there is no way to easily determine who is being forced and who chooses and therefore no law should decide for them. Taking that right away is the same as banning Muslims from praying five times a day or Christians from carrying their Bibles in public. If countries are going to have a multicultural community they have to learn to respect the differences between people that come with it.
Upon researching the topic, I found a great blog, which I thought gave a lot of insight into why some women may like wearing a burqa. Frank Skinner, an English writer and comedian, compared his experience of wearing a Thrush mascot costume for 55 minutes to being similar to wearing a burqa. He talked about how at first he smiled and waved in every picture he had to take with little kids, but after a while grew tired and started scowling instead. “This was a truly liberating experience,” Skinner said, “and it suddenly made me realize why many Muslim women are reluctant to give up the veil. It can be truly joyous to pass unseen through the outside world with no obligation to smile or look interested – hidden in your own secret place.”
While I will never wear a burqa, I can certainly see the appeal in this kind of liberation. Who is Sarkozy to take that away from women? CNN.com reports that the CIA estimates only 5 to 10 percent of France’s population is Muslim, which means roughly half of that are Muslim women. Why is Sarkozy wasting time trying to legislate bans that affect so few people? Aren’t there more important matters at hand?
In the end it all comes down to personal choice. Sarkozy should better use his time avoiding scandals and trying to fix France’s economy.
Hannah Kaase is a senior majoring in animal and dairy science. She can be contacted at [email protected].