France bans burqas in public

Kind of surprising to me that this passed so handedly. As a 1st amendment loving american, it just feels wrong to me. I'm not for oppression of women, but what if they WANT to wear the burqa?

I'm also wondering if there will be reprisals in France. If threatening to burn a Quran caused riots, what will happen with an outright ban on expressing islamic culture? Will France be the new country to hate on for terrorists?

I think that it will only exacerbate the issue they're trying to solve. I think that if women can't wear their burqas in public, then they're just going to avoid going out in public.

Is the burqa an expression of Islamic culture or an expression of midieval tribal culture that assigns to women the status of objects of possession?

Considering the recent threats to bomb the Eiffel Tower, I'd say the terrorists already hate on France. That ranks them with hard line Republicans.

There has been a strong push on general secularization of the public space in France over the last decade. Many people here are pushing towards the total elimination of any sign of religion in the public space. I essentially support this movement.

But this law is a bit problematic, as it unilaterally targets Islam. Which I think is wrong. I would have been in favor of a general law disallowing the public display of any religious symbol from any religion, including Christian crosses, Jewish Kippahs, etc. We already have a law banning them in public schools. This law should be extended, limiting the display and practice of religion only to the private space and to specifically designated cult places.

I view religion as being something totally private, that has no place in public. Everybody should be free to do as he pleases within his own walls. But I personally think a totally secular (ie. religion free) common public space to be of higher value to society as freedom of religion. But this needs to be applied to all religions equally.

I was reading the local news the other day and came accross an article like this one where the police were basically encouraging store owners to adopt a policy of not serving customers that don't reveal their faces. Couldn't help but think of the whole burqa thing in France and feel a little jealous. They get to hand over their civil liberties in the name of religeous intolerance, preservation of culture, and women's rights complete with massive public discussion and debate on the whole issue where as we just jump strieght to doing it in the name of security.

Quote:

Original post by LessBread Is the burqa an expression of Islamic culture or an expression of midieval tribal culture that assigns to women the status of objects of possession?

Probably both. Which is a pretty good practical demonstration of the ramifications of protecting freedom of expression.

I'm no fan of religion and especially not of religions that treat women/homosexuals as second class citizens (Islam and to a lesser extent, Catholicism), by my personal feeling is that this is going about it the wrong way.

I am very uncomfortable with the notion of the state restricting freedom of expression on any grounds. I think the idea of banning any religious symbol in public is fraught with danger. I have a Slayer t-shirt with a cross on it. Does that count?

Instead of banning religious symbols, my approach would simply be to remove the protection afforded to religion. Want to wear a burqa in public? No problem. Want to come into my place of business wearing one? Not if I don't like it. And your religion is no excuse. It accomplishes the same thing without the state mandating a dress code.

This issue could be easily solved if Islamic nations allowed women to wear bikinis.

I visited a school in one of the North African countries (I was 5, so I only have pictures and home video plus anecdotes from parents), I think it was Tunisia.

The school wasn't a specifically Islamic school, but there was definately a religous slant to it (I think Catholic schools are the best comparison. A normal education with extra religous shiz thrown in.)

It was a mixed school and all the students walked about in western clothing, the girls wore short/mini skirts and had their faces on show. As in any group of teenage girls, most of them seemed to be competing for slut of the year award, 1995.

Now if quite strict Muslims (5/6 a day prayers etc) can accept that, why can't Muslims living in western countries accept it? How has this rule suddenly become SO important?

[Sarcasm]
Why should France stop at banning burqas? I am of the opinion that all clothing is religious garb to force their misguided deistic ideals of "decency" on us. We should give up the old bigoted religious days where people could choose to wear what they want and force everyone to wear nothing (unless they are cold then their clothes must be transparent).
[/Sarcasm]

Seriously though, what is the difference between a government forcing itself citizens to wear certain clothes, e.g. Burqas and a government banning certain clothes, e.g. burqas?

Both force unwanted ideals onto its citizens.


[Sarcasm back on]
With France's tendency toward forced secularization of public spaces, I have the urge to tattoo myself with every religious symbol I can find all over my body to the extent they force me to wear a burqa to hide all of them.
[/sarcasm]