A Question of Habit
http://www.speroforum.com/a/36606/Expert-on-Islam-welcomes-French-ban-on-burqa
This month the so called “burqa ban” went into effect in France, the first European country to enact such a restriction. Women wearing burqas (or any other garment that veils their faces) are now subject to hefty fines of around US $200; men charged with forcing a woman to wear burquas may face a fine of US $43,000. Yes, forty-three thousand dollars!
Some critics of this law suggest that it has racist underpinnings and little to do with the security concerns or women’s rights offered up by its proponents. While racist or anti-Muslim sentiments may have a role in the ban’s enactment, I have to admit to feeling less unhinged about this trespass on a woman’s right to choose how she dresses than I might under other circumstances. Quite simply, it’s difficult to see the burqa as anything but yet another instance of women being given the age-old responsibility as their brothers’ keepers—keepers that is of men’s sexual choices.
French President, Nicholas Sarkozy described the burqa as “a sign of enslavement.” Extreme? Perhaps, but when I think about driving, going out to eat, or trying to exercise under all those folds of cloth, the term doesn’t strike me as all that inappropriate. How odd it is that the modesty for which the Koran advocates could have ended up being interpreted as a burqa. And for a moment I wondered what it might be about Islam that would manifest in such restrictive, if not bizarre to the Western eye, dress codes. Then I got to thinking about this and the demands made on women by a variety of religious and social dress conventions:
Nun’s habits are among the numerous socio/cultural demonstrations of how religious dictum is used to prescribe “appropriate” female dress. And yes, the above represents dress requirements for only a specific group of Christian women, but these requirements exist nevertheless.
These fashion imperatives that insist women smother certain body parts, and in the case of the burqa every body part, are propelled by unsavory notions about the corruptive quality of women’s sexuality, and if the sole result were interesting habits and veils for me to blog about, then this would be okay. But the inference, embodied by the insistence that women dress “modestly” leads to far more serious consequences, and one is that women do in fact feel responsible for men’s lascivious acts, even when they are acts of assault and violence against those same women. Evidence of this misguided sense of responsibility is reflected by women’s shame about reporting sexual violations.
According to a 2002 report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, only “36% of rapes, 34% of attempted rapes, and 26% of sexual assaults [in the U.S.] were reported to police” between 1992 and 2000. This is a cruel, and undue burden placed at the feet of women— accountability for men’s sexual behavior—and perhaps this is the “enslavement” most concerning about burqas and other prescribed forms of dress that ask women to bear responsibility for men’s response to them.
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I have to say that I am appalled by this new French law, and it is yet another indicator of the elitist mindset of the west. There is no country in which there doesn’t exist social rules that dictate the way women should dress. In countries like the United States, women are obsessed with fashion, hair, and countless other accessories that we think indicate some form of attractiveness, social status, or even gender role. I actually admire the fact that these useless obsessions do not exist to such an extent in Islamic countries.
Additionally, the majority of “westerners” have no comprehension of the actual purpose or meaning of burqas to the Islamic society. There are multiple ways that it can be interpreted, and our western interpretation has no superior value than that of the Islamic people.
Women in the United States have no more of a choice in their attire than Islamic women do. Islamic women believe it is right, they believe in their rules, and they believe in their way of life. They believe they have a choice just as much as women American women believe they have a choice. I can understand the creation of a law that prevents one human from forcing norms on another. But, I don’t understand where such a self-claimed “progressive” government could find the audacity to believe that it is okay to tell women what they can and cannot wear. How is this any different from a religion telling women what they can or cannot wear? It is hypocrisy to the extreme.
In Islam women cover themselves with burqas (for a number of different reasons depending on the location and the culture). In the United States women prance around half naked. We here think we are better because “we choose to prance around naked”. No, we believe that it is okay to prance around naked, and so we prance around naked. In Islam, women believe that it is right to wear a burqa, and so they wear burqas. Religion is no more of an authority than society is. Believe it or not, women in the US have just as little choice in what they wear as Muslim women do. Some ask, what about the muslim women who don’t want to wear the burqa? Well, we have just as many women wishing they could reject the culture that has been forced upon them and go to work in sandals instead of heels, or walk around without their nails painted, or not have to endure uncomfortable processes like shaving and tweezing. I always advocate rejection of culture simply because of the independence that encompasses it. And I support providing avenues for those who wish to do so. But this normally results in the embrace of another culture. So at what point are we not puppets in a puppet show?
At the end of the day, women everywhere are not reporting sexual assaults. Clearly, the problem is not the burqa or the “freedom” to prance around naked.
Now that Muslim women in France cannot wear burqas what are they going to wear? Who is next in line to dictate they way they dress?
The burqua is a garment mandated by a culture, not a religion. Islam does not mandate wearing the burqua.
The wisdom of this French law is questionable to those not living there, but the motivation is clear. Here in the UK, the burqua is more common than in France. I don’t like seeing women wearing them on the street, in the car, in the shops, etc. I think it’s horribly unfair to them. When outlawed, will these women be forced to stay home and become isolated? Probably. But does it make me feel safer to live in a place where no one can conceal their identity? YES. If I lived in my neighbourhood and I could see the faces of everyone, would I be happier? YES. Most of my Bengali and some of my Pakistani neighbours wear the full burqua every day. And I’m especially saddened when I see a mother with her daughter, the daughter dressed in normal kiddie clothes. When is she going to be told to cover up? That she can’t wear what her brother wears because her body is the cause of temptation or sin? Yes, I agree. What rubbish. But my need to feel safe and secure comes before my outrage at someone else’s cultural habits.
There are legitimate security concerns living in Europe that will eventually force other governments to consider such a law. Yes, it’s a means of concealment, just as motorcycle helmets, balaclavas, and hoodies are–and all of those are outlawed in public places, while driving, etc.
Again, as a garment of culture, not religion, it may be that the burqua becomes something that needs reconsidering when migrating and assimilating into another culture.
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