The Burqa Ban in France

France and the Burqa Ban: Women’s Rights and being French

French reasoning insists that the burqa and niqab are both tools and symbols of women’s oppression in Muslim society and that these religious symbols are at conflict with French values and must be stopped. French Muslim women are not being defended by this legislation in spite of Sarkozy’s insistence that this oppressed sector are the true benefactors (The Times). French government is not interested in liberating French Muslim women. The motivations behind the ban on face coverings is the French government’s desire to establish values and impose them on a large minority of which the government is afraid. Predominantly Muslim nations don’t typically adhere to Western ideals of separation between church and state and the church often is the state. How can individuals coming from these kinds of nations become integrated into a nation that explicitly condemns religious symbolism in the public sphere?

By limiting the freedoms of Muslim women can the French force liberation? The main issue at stake here isn’t women’s freedom to not wear the burqa or niqab if they do not want to. If another nation started requiring western women to bear their breasts in public there would be widespread Western outrage over the indecency. The French have apparently failed to consider that for a Muslim woman her hair may be as personal as other areas on a French woman’s body. This is because the French have failed to consider Muslim women at all. While all this legislation was being passed did anyone bother to ask Muslim women what they wanted? What is their lived experience from behind the veil or within the burqa? We’re not sure. Muslim women were not assumed to have a meaningful voice. They were assumed to be victims of Muslim men at best and invisible at worst (New York Times). Member of the French National Assembly Jean-François Copé wrote, “the niqab and burqa represent a refusal to exist as a person in the eyes of others,” (New York Times) but how does France refuse to acknowledge the personhood of those wearing the niqab or burqa? My apologies to France, but a state that tells women what they are not allowed to wear because women are assumed to be unable to exist publicly is doing no more for them than a religion that dictates what they are allowed to wear so that they cannot exist publicly. Muslim men are assuming women need to be covered, France is assuming Muslim women need a state to tell them how to be “free.” In America women’s garb was a tool of liberation. Short hair, overalls, jeans, and make up have all been used to express rebellion, but the state never banned the high heel or skirt for our own good and a nation that would have done so would not have been an ally to women’s rights. France is not worried about Muslim women it is afraid of Muslims in general. The burqa is a visible arm of Muslim men’s reach and power in their communities and that is what this legislation is aimed at ending. However, making oppression less visible will not end it.

The French government might have good reason to be threatened by a growing Muslim faction. Muslim values are in conflict with what are considered French values and Muslim culture offers no belief in “laïcité” or secularism (Wikipedia). While Catholics can quietly remove their crucifixes the same is not so easily said for Muslims and their hijabs. The French government is scared of what this new group will do to France. It is scared of how Muslims will interact with their society, their government, and how Islam conflicts with the core values of French society. They also fear that Muslims will “recreate their Third World lifestyle at a European standard of living,” (The Australian). These fears may or may not be well founded, but the approach is wrong. France is saying that religion is acceptable as long as the French don’t have to witness it. However, Islam is not a religion that one leaves at home. The lines between culture and religion are blurred for this contingent. Islam does not enforce the wearing of a burqa and only suggests the use of a hijab (Relijournal). Muslim society chooses this garb not just as religious expression, but as a culture in which the religion is so deeply embedded that the distinction becomes nearly impossible. Telling Muslim women to adorn themselves as French women do is like telling Christians they must celebrate Christmas without trees. Who is to say that cultural and religious traditions can so easily be banned and that these bans will help Muslim women integrate into a new society? While the wearing of a burqa certainly wasn’t helping the banning of the burqa will serve to build animosity and division as well.

If France wants to defend Muslim women’s rights they should begin by not limiting their freedoms. The further they encroach on women’s ability to express themselves the more they put Muslim women at risk for becoming just as invisible to the government as their burqas make them to society. Despite what French politicians think, women with real voices do exist behind the veil and “tearing it off.” (The New York Times) will not bridge the gaps between Islam and France. While the French may have good reason to be suspicious of Islam and how Muslim women are treated, Muslims are in France now and the French need to figure out how they are going to integrate this population without stripping them of their rights in the process. The current political atmosphere is doing little to assuage fears. Prejudice and xenophobia exist in France, but the government is more interested in defeating the threat of covered faces than combating the hostilities and prejudices that come with a diverse and changing population. A focus on education and civic involvement would serve the country better than a focus on eliminating visible religious symbolism. French politicians still have as much to learn about Muslim women as Muslims do about what it means to be French.

Works Cited

Bremner, Charles. “Burka Makes Women Prisoners, Says President Sarkozy – Times Online.” The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. 23 June 2009. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6557252.ece>.

COPÉ, JEAN-FRANÇOIS. “Tearing Away the Viel.” New York Times. 4 May 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.

“Laïcité.” Wikipedia. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laïcité>.

Sheridan, Greg. The Australian. 4 Feb. 2010. Web. <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/frances-burka-ban-a-boost-for-equality/story-e6frg6zo-1225826508079>.

Soman, Ebey. “The Burqa: Facts and Issues.” Relijournal. 5 May 2008. Web. <http://relijournal.com/islam/the-burqa-facts-issues/>.