Mick Hartley

Politics and Culture

A Sign of Subservience

June 23, 2009

So the arch-secularist Sarkozy has come out in favour of a ban on the burka:

“In our country we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” Mr Sarkozy said to applause in the parliament’s ceremonial Versailles home.

“The burka is not a religious sign. It is a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement,” he added. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.”

Mr Sarkozy was adding his voice to a strong consensus that has emerged this month against women in France’s five million-strong Muslim community who wear the full or nearly-full cover of their bodies and faces. The latest French controversy over Muslim dress, which follows the 2004 ban on head-cover in state schools, began this month when 60 MPs from both sides of the house demanded action against the burka and the niqab.

I can't argue with his sentiments, and I find it interesting that the majority of commenters both here at the Times, and at the Guardian, seem to be in general agreement with the little Frenchman. But really, you can't have governments legislating on how people dress. Still, I admit to being quietly pleased that he's said what he's said, even if I don't necessarily agree with his conclusion.

As I've argued before, this is a feminist issue. I look forward to the time when I come across a group of sisters stopping a be-niqabed or burka'd woman and explaining to her exactly why they find such attire deeply offensive. Some day….

Posted in Uncategorized

6 responses to “A Sign of Subservience”

Gibson Block

June 24, 2009

I agree with you. How can a government tell someone what to wear – even if we agree that it is awful.

LikeLike

Reply
Dom

June 24, 2009

Someone — and you may have posted on it — once pointed out that many Muslim women, and especially young girls, may be looking for an excuse to come out from the veil. It’s a shaky idea, I know, but it is how I justify the fact that I like what Sarkozy has done even if it borders on a denial of rights.

LikeLike

Reply
Nicole S

June 24, 2009

The French have less of a problem with being authoritarian than ‘les anglo-saxons’. In this case, a jolly good thing too.

LikeLike

Reply
Nicole S

June 24, 2009

Agnès Poirier is good on the cultural difference: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6565064.ece

LikeLike

Reply
Mick H

June 24, 2009

Yes, I read that. I was slightly put off by the air of French triumphalism – “Britain could never debate the burka like France”, and so on. The reason why her friends in London might be shocked by Sarkozy’s remarks isn’t so much that we’re all wimps over here, terrified of offending people, or that we lack the robust secular culture of France, but – something she never quite gets around to dealing with – that we don’t think it’s any business of the government to legislate on what people should or shouldn’t wear.
But yes, it’s an interesting look at cultural differences.

LikeLike

Reply
DaninVan

June 25, 2009

This has absolutely NOTHING to do with raiment and EVERYTHING to do with the anti-social and repressive intent of hiding the identity of the individual hidden under the disguise.
If you or I walk into a bank with a balaclava over our heads, we’ll be damn lucky to leave without getting shot.

LikeLike

Reply