Veiling the right to choose

The debate about religious codes of dress and their place within the public realm is not something new within European countries, but during the last few years it has arguably become more prominent. France in particular attracted global media attention in 2004 when it passed La Lois Stasi; which legislated that the wearing of “ostentatious religious symbols” was to be banned in State schools. The government now appears to want to take similar action with regard to the wearing of the full-body veil outside of the home.

In a historic parliamentary address, the President claimed that the body and face covering Burka was not a religious symbol, but a representation of gender inequality and oppression, and that this is what he will seek to address in the near future, with the implied hope of limiting this religious attire to the private home. It seems worrying and furthermore contradictory, that such oppressive measures may be taken to counter the apparent problem(s). In instances where a State dictates what a woman can or cannot wear in the form of mandatory head-to-toe covering, it is rightly seen as authoritarian, and yet the French government feels justified in considering the same course of action to “free” women of the “imprisonment” that is the Burka.

Those who wear the Burka may disagree with Sarkozy when he refutes it as a symbol of religious belief, although that is not to say that it cannot be a symbol of anything else. The wearing of such attire can represent the social conditions and attitude within a community or State and it can demonstrate both choice and a lack of choice – all depending on context. To simply denounce such clothing as the epitome of “debasement and subservience” smacks of typical western arrogance.

Is it possible that other motives lie behind this apparent concern for the identity and equality of (Muslim) women? Perhaps the government wishes to exercise greater control over a section of society that doesn’t always conform to the values of the State and moreover instils a degree of uncertainty among those who are intolerant or ignorant of Islam?

If the French government is genuinely concerned with tackling the blatant inequalities that many women face in France as well as the world over, then there are surely other ways of doing it. Enforcing employment laws on the equal payment of women and men, enforcing stricter penalties for those who discriminate on the grounds of ethnicity, gender or religion (Muslim women are potentially affected on all counts) or working to erode dominant gender stereotypes such as who can constitute the housewife or the breadwinner may be a better strategy for dealing with gender inequality.

What would the consequences be of a ban on full body coverings such as the Burka? Sarkozy seems to believe that the Burka is responsible for depriving Muslim women of their identity and of a social life. Whilst these may be part of the struggles that some Muslim women face, they are not necessarily brought on by the wearing of a full body covering. For some it may be that wearing a Burka when in public is the only way of going out in public. If this is the case, the banning of Burkas in public spaces may only succeed in keeping those who feel the need to wear the Burka indoors; further isolating them from French society.

If the debate leads to proposals that are pushed through, it will be yet another example of the State encroaching on people’s rights of choice and expression in conjunction with further alienating a marginalised section of the French populate.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6557252.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/22/islamic-veils-sarkozy-speech-france