I know. It’s easy for me. I’m a man. I don’t have to wear the things. My gender is the one that has largely tried to dictate over the centuries how women should dress. I write what I am about to write with appropriate trepidation and guilt.
Strangely, I think both the Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy and the French bourgeois left are wrong in jointly mounting a campaign to illegalize the minority of Muslim women in France who wear body-covering clothes, the burqa or the niqab.
The one or two regular readers of this blog (you know who you are) I hope will know that I have a history of supporting the promotion of rights for women and of objecting to abusive religious practices. On the face of it I ought to be supporting the French move to ban dress practices which on the surface appear to subjugate and oppress women. However, I have (slowly) come to the conclusion that although I may object to the burqa and niqab for all sorts of reasons, I want to defend the rights of those who choose to wear them to make those choices.
Of course, I am aware that in taking that liberal stance I may be accused of being incredibly naive. It can easily be argued that many of the women who ‘choose’ to wear them may do so under some form of cultural ‘duress’. However true that may be, I think that, on balance, the better way to bring about cultural change is through long-term education and exposure to alternative practices, rather than enforcement which only cements resistance and creates martyrs.
The BBC carried a story this week in which Sudanese women were lashed for wearing trousers. I deplore such actions. I object to a ruling elite (all male) trying to impose ’standards’ of dress on other human beings (in this case, women). I would object to anyone telling me what I could or could not wear provided that the reasons had nothing to do with legitimate functionality or health and safety at work, And because of this, I object to the stance being taken at the moment by the French with regards to the burqa and niqab. To me, it feels racist.
Having argued the above, I am very happy to concede that there are times where the freedom to wear whatever you want cannot be an absolute right that is always yielded to. If the spread of infectious diseases is likely to be minimized by medical staff by not having their forearms covered with cloth, there is a compelling case for demanding appropriate clothing. If communication is an essential aspect of a job there may be a good case for requiring appropriate exposure of the face.
By all means let’s talk to people about their choices and express our views. But let’s use compulsion rarely.
What do you think?
I agree. I think that illegalising the wearing of these clothes is a very dangerous move. On the one hand, as you say, it’s an unnecessary curtailment of freedom; just as we should support people’s right to free speech, we should support their right to wear whatever they like (insofar as this doesn’t cause harm to others etc). Indeed, the very issue here is the right to wear whatever you choose; that is what is being denied certain women. And you can’t combat that by banning something that they’re forced to wear.
On a more practical level, of course, this may even encourage wearing of the burqa or the niqab in protest, and as a statement of identity.
This, in other words, is a heavy-handed, misdirected, and counter-productive response to a problem (the denial of women’s rights) that requires a careful and subtle answer.
I too find this quite hard. It seems to me that the burqa is something that women (and girls) are being forced to wear which is clearly a denial of human rights.
Use compulsion rarely, yes I agree. On balance I have to say use compulsion here to send a clear message that denial of human rights is fundamentally wrong and is not acceptable in our society.
In the spectrum it might not be as totally unacceptable as say Sharia Law but it’s not so far behind. Ban them both!
No, I don’t support a ban either.
I don’t have a great enough insight into the culture of the people who wear these garments to be able to comment on the degree to which they feel forced to wear them. But I do not think society should ban any form of clothing unless it is dangerous to others. I think there are arguments to be made in support of the need to see a person’s face in certain circumstances and I know people argue that motor cycle helmets are not allowed in supermarkets so why should any other form of face covering be allowed and I guess there is some sense in that. But in most situations I think these garments should not be banned. If I wanted to wear a Burqa then I feel I should be able to. I think the motives of the people who support the ban are probably good (in terms of the rights of the women who are “forced” to wear these things and in protecting French culture) but I think there must be other ways to deal with this. It sets a rather worrying precedent as much as anything.
I’m not a big fan of the burka. It screams patriarchal submission to me. Banning it will probably cause more problems. I think if the men wore burka’s it probably wouldn’t bother me so much. Let them wear them in the scorching heat, during pregnancy and their occupations. Might soon seem them disappear if that was the case.
garic
Thanks for dropping by. I liked your succinct summary: “Indeed, the very issue here is the right to wear whatever you choose; that is what is being denied certain women.” That sums the key point up nicely!
Neal O
I understand where you are coming from. I suppose a key point for me is that, strange as it may seem, some women want to wear these clothes, and I want to defend their right to do what they choose. Religious people give up rights all the time for the sake of their faith, and for some, this is just another expression of that.
Reluctant Blogger
We are agreed. It may seem odd to us, but some women would choose to wear these things for religious reasons, and provided no harm is being done to others, they should be allowed to follow through their choices. However, like you, I do think that that shouldn’t be an absolute right. The difficulty is, religious people tend to see things in absolutes and are often unable to bend when necessary.
Zoe
(he says with some relief).
Interesting idea - though I doubt it will ever happen
We belong to a free society so people should be free to wear what they feel is appropriate except for the following caveats;
Safety; where the wearing of something could impinge on other’s safety. A Burqa in an operating theatre might restrict vision and ability to communicate, for instance.
Ability to perform a job; again, the Burqa may limit a teacher’s ability to communicate properly with those being taught; might frighten younger children. How could someone with a Burqa command attention in a classroom where the pupils need to know who the teacher is looking at?
Offensive; wearing no clothes at all is generally deemed offensive in most scenrios, as an example.
Practical rules along those lines would allow people to wear what they want in all other circumstances. In any other circumstance it would be against the principle of a free society to ban any kind of dress.
I would say it such a banning is cultural elitism rather than racism.
I agree with the post and with the previous commenters. Clothing may be one of the least troublesome aspects of religion that we have to face. We need to focus on the things that matter, such as oppressive beliefs. Burkas, in most cases, probably don’t matter very much.
A Write Blog
Thanks for dropping by. I agree with much of what you say. I’m not sure I personally would want to include the ‘offensive’ category in the exclusion list. I think the reason for that is that different people would find different things offensive. It is less clear cut than the other two.
the chaplain
Nice point about clothing being the least troublesome aspect. I suppose it is because it is one of the things to hit us in the face that we are in danger of missing the bigger issues.
Sarkozy’s proposed ban on burkas is so obviously wrong-headed (I would say stupidly so) that I am surprised there hasn’t been a bigger uproar against it.
By itself, it will do nothing to liberate Muslim women and, given the fact that many Muslim women do themselves wear it out of conviction that to do so is right and proper, it risks alienating the very people it seeks to liberate.
Apart from the Muslim angle, I see it as a dangerous move against civil rights. Taking the power to ban a particular costume can lead to powers to prescribe costume. Is France going back to the Middle Ages when the common people could only wear certain colours and could be flogged for flouting the rules? Will certain styles of hat be outlawed? Will the French all end up wearing military style costumes as they did in China under Mao? Of course not, but the principle is surely obvious.
I doubt whether this will happen but if ever the ban is enacted, I would like to see all women of all races and creeds take to the streets of France dressed in burkas as a protest and to make the law unenforceable.