Racism veiled as liberation

[earwicga]

IMO, this is a brilliant article today by Madeline Bunting - an excerpt:

"The veil debate is making it entirely legitimate to pillory, mock and ridicule a tiny number of women on the basis of what they wear. French politicians described the full veil as a "walking coffin"; on comment threads online there is contempt and sneers for the full veil and those who wear it ? "hiding under a blanket", "going round with a paper bag over your head". In France it is estimated there are only 2,000 women who cover their faces with the burqa or the niqab out of a Muslim population of five million. The response is out of all proportion.

Let's be clear: the niqab and burqa are extreme interpretations of the Islamic requirement for modest dress; few Islamic scholars advocate their use, and many ? including Tariq Ramadan ? have urged women not to use them. They are as alien to many Muslim cultures as they are to the west. And yes, there are instances of patriarchy where some women might be encouraged or even forced to wear a full veil by their husbands or fathers. But generalisations don't fit. Increasingly, young women are choosing to wear the full veil, seeing it as a powerful statement of identity.

Invoking the full weight of the state to police dress codes in public is an extraordinary extension of state powers over an aspect of citizen behaviour which is largely regarded as your own business. Provided you are wearing some clothing, western public space is a free-for-all, and across every capital in Europe that is strikingly self-evident"
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jul/14/forced-into-freedom-france

One example of a young French woman's reaction to this can be found here: bit.ly/aBVa4x

What do MumsNetters think? Seems to me that if we condemn those who dictate as to women's clothing in Sudan for example (see Lubna Hussein) then we must equally condemn those who dictate as to women's clothing in Europe.

Alternatively, all that is happening is that all the focus and debate is on what a woman is wearing, as opposed to far more important issues like domestic violence, right and access to education etc etc. Yes, a burqa can be used to control women, but there are far worse tools: Female genital mutilation, sexual, emotional and physical abuses.
Some women wear the burqa by choice, others do not have that choice. If burqas are banned, that will only create fewer opportunities for certain women to be able to leave the house unaccompanied, therefore restricting access to education, health and social care - as well as just socialising.
I don't agree with the burqa, but I am completely against banning it.

why shouldn't women be pilloried and mocked for wearing a burqa? - it is something that fully deserves to be pilloried and mocked. It is ridiculous in the extreme. They are pilloried and mocked for wearing the burqa NOT for being Muslim. It is not racism to point out the ludicrousness of it. Just like it is not racism to point out that the celibacy of priests as required by the Catholic church is ludicrous and also no more than a convenient misogynistic interpretation of religious texts.

Choosing to wear a burqa in a Western secular society is wrong because it legitimises the culture that forces in on women in other countries

It also sends out a message that is totally incompatible with equality and democracy and it is counter to the fundamental principles of our society.

People talk about banning the burqa in terms of telling women what to wear and what not to wear - but a burqa is not really an item of clothing - it is a mobile enclosure designed to keep a female out of sight of a male. It is a tent much more than it is a piece of clothing.

I believe it is my right not to be subject to the visible message that I should be defined by sexuality, and inferior to, and owned by, the male sex. That is the message of the burqa and it should not ever be accepted.

"If burqas are banned, that will only create fewer opportunities for certain women to be able to leave the house unaccompanied, therefore restricting access to education, health and social care"

Only in the short term. Nobody can keep an adult locked up forever.

Trust me, they can.

"oh wait, thats not freedom...."

Surely you would agree that you are never completely free to do whatever you want. In some countries, you cannot kiss in public. In others, you cannot leave the house without a male escort.

Each society defines what is acceptable and what is unacceptable within its borders. In France, it is acceptable to wear tight clothes and high heels because sexuality is not considered something to be ashamed of. It is not acceptable to wear burqas because they don't want anything to do with the mentality that women are temptation and should be hidden away.

No, they can't. The women in question will revolt eventually.

Even if they don't, they will come to the attention of what passes for social services in the UK. I believe sequestration is a crime.

Banning the burqa forces this change. It is not a bad thing.

Let us try to remember that burqa is not a part of Islam. It is not what Quran preaches.