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Original poster

Women arrested for wearing burqas in France... what do you think?

307 replies

steamedtreaclesponge · 11/04/2011 13:27

Here

I'm not really sure what I think about all this. On the one hand the veil is used as a tool of oppression in many countries, and I'm generally against it on the grounds that if men can't control their lust at seeing women's faces, they should stay inside, rather than making women cover up.

But then, it doesn't sit right with me that women who wear it out of choice are being arrested. Or is it comparable to the choice to become a stripper, in that it may be an OK and not-so-harmful choice to make for the person doing it, but is something that harms other women by encouraging anti-feminist or mysogynistic attitudes?

I'd welcome some more informed views on this...

OP posts:
Goblinchild · 11/04/2011 14:06

If a woman is wearing a burqa, how can you know if it is by choice or not?

stripeywoollenhat · 11/04/2011 14:03

trying to deal with a bad idea by coming up with a worse one, that's what this is. because even if i think that the choice to completely efface yourself to the point of covering everything including your face is as clear as, at minimum, internalised misogyny can get, being forced by the security forces in your state to uncover yourself against your will seems even worse. and it won't contribute in anyway to a loosening of the strictures within which such women may be living, it'll just basically create an unofficial state of house arrest for them...

ElephantsAndMiasmas · 11/04/2011 13:55

I am also torn about this. The main part of my brain is saying, fucking-A, another way for men to police (literally in this case) women's clothes :(

When will women's clothing become no-one else's business but their own, for god's sake? There's MASSIVE focus on our clothing, and next to none on men's - why is that? Obviously because we are the sex class and our bodies are public property, so everyone should have a say. Angry

frantic51 · 11/04/2011 13:41

I think, live and let live. If women want to cover themselves, then it should be their choice. However, in situations where it can impact on safety, such as border controls, the country in question should have to power to insist that burqas (sp?) are removed. Anyone, male or female could hide behind them. Not sure how I can justify this stance though, seems to infringe personal liberty/national security whichever way I look at it! Hmm

Portofino · 11/04/2011 13:39

The were arrested for taking part in an unauthorised protest NOT for wearing veils. That "crime" comes with a fixed cash penalty and a citizenship class Hmm People who force women to wear veils can be imprisoned.

BleachedWhale · 11/04/2011 13:38

And this law has given men (if the majority of gendarmes in France are men) another function in the humiliation and criminalisation of women.

BleachedWhale · 11/04/2011 13:36

This was bound to happen as people, understandably, react to being told by the government what they may or may do with a bit of cloth.

The police should give protection to women being forced to cover their heads, or any other form of opression, against their free will, but it is an abuse of government power to tel woemn what they may or may not do when it is of no direct harm to any other person.

The whole point of being in the free West, rather than an Islamic dictatorship, is to use your free will insofar as it does not harm someone else.

Draping a Darth Vader outfit over your head hardly harms anyone else.