Nicolas Sarkozy is a controversial dude by his own admission - the multi ethnic son of aristocrats has never had what we consider a day job but considers himself a champion of job creation , he's praised Islam in some speeches and railed against it in others , he promotes large incentives for religious organizations , but limits the expression of those religions . He's accused of being both a hardline right-winger and a socialist lefty by opponents . He's a wee bit of a strange cat , but the French voted him in and so be it .Now , Nicolas Sarkozy has opened a new can of worms by calling for the bans on wearing Niqabs and Burqas under the guise that they are oppressive . It takes some balls , but what is the real solution? It's not like these ladies are doing anything wrong themselves , but his argument is that the existence of the garments facilitates sexist pricks in subjugating women . There are cries that Burqas are "cultural" as opposed to Islamic and extremists who figure religious Muslims are all bastards who should be deported from Western nations .
Now , I am not a pro-Mohammed cat whatsoever . I believe it is absolutely revolting that people pray to a decadent paedophile who married little girls (his favoured wife was 6 and had been promised to him from birth. He discusses in the books how he got excited by her playing with her dolls in detail numerous times.) , raped women in front of their husbands and fathers and butchered foreigners and countrymen alike in some of the most horrifying ways imaginable. I have even blogged at length about the barbarian sickos who founded the religion and why they invented it in the first place. That being said , while we may disagree with facets of a faith , adults have the INALIENABLE RIGHT to believe (or not believe) whatever they wish provided they are law-abiding folks. And that's the thing - these people are adults who are free to worship or not in their own interpretation , but not just that , wouldn't forcing a person to uncover him or herself in public after they have been covered in a specific fashion for the bulk of their lives be akin to assaulting their decency? I mean , I get not wanting to see 6 year-old kids in Burqas because there's obviously a consent issue there and it personally offends MY sensibilities , particularly in public education systems - France does have state-mandated secular education , which I absolutely agree with since you can always send your kid to a religious school should you so choose - but when it comes to regulating the everyday appearance of adults , i think we should leave people be .
If we take Sarkozy's lead and ban Burqas and Niqabs , we should also ban traditional people of numerous faiths from wearing turbans or wigs , force people to shave , make Hutterites wear bright colours , cut the payess off of Jews , schedule Christians to work on Sundays , force Buddhists to eat meat and burn the tattoos off of Aboriginals .
Did I cover everybody?!
Sarkozy contradicts himself so often it's hard to keep up with him, but the point he makes about Burkas is valid. No one should be forced to wear one. The problem is determining wether the woman wants to wear it or if she is being forced to by family and social constraints.
ReplyDeleteHere in Fl. we had a couple of teens who were booted off a soccer team for wearing head scarves,(faces weren't covered)and had to fight to get to play. Schools now are dealing with this issue too.
Another factor is security.Again,here in Florida, a few years back, a woman sued the state to be allowed to keep her face covered in a driver'slicence photo; you can't see what a person may or may not be concealing under a Burka, or even if it's a female. We were at Disney a few weeks back, and just found myself wondering how these women survive in the heat.
When it comes down to it, there are no clear solutions, but Roofer is right in that if we take one groups garb, then we must take all, and that would sure be a slippery slope to start down.