Banning the Burqa
France's lower house of parliament recently approved a bill to ban the wearing the burqa in public. I've posted a bit flippantly about this before, but in fact it's an issue about which I'm genuinely deeply conflicted. I loathe the burqa with every atom of my being, the more so because I live in Turkey and can see exactly what the garment means, every day--not only for the women who wear it (very few, here), but for the women who don't. They, too--or perhaps I should say, "we, too," since I live here as well--are gravely affected the culture that gave rise to the notion that this garment is a terrific thing. But I just can't be insensible to the religious freedom arguments. Martha Nussbaum recently made what I think is the best case that can be made against the ban. She responds to her critics here.
Do you find her arguments persuasive? If not, why not?
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Re: Banning the Burqa
Or to be more fair and precise, in many cases the women themselves don't want to uncover. And it is an important point, one not to be dismissed, that if you come from a certain cultural background, you will feel shamed, naked, exposed and immodest if you uncover your head. The government's insistence that you do will feel as tyrannical and monstrous to someone who feels this way as a government decree that you must go topless in the name of sexual equality would to most Western women.
May '10
Re: Banning the Burqa
Here's another scenario for you... Can you imagine a social workers in Dearborn, Michigan or Minneapolis venturing into Islamic neighborhoods to determine if burqa'd women are freely submitting? No, I can't either.
Re: Banning the Burqa
Claire has resumed this conversation here.