France has been debating the burqa and whether it fits in French society for some time. Last June, the President drew a line in the cultural sand when he condemned the offensive Islamic garment (Nicolas Sarkozy: burqa not welcome in France).
The BBC item caught my attention because an actual Communist official turned out to be a leader in speaking out against the cloth prison. That’s interesting and unusual since the far left frequently supports Islamic jihad against the West. Many commies must imagine that jihadists won’t head-chop the lefty infidels when their usefulness is over. Dream on.
The photo at the right shows a culture clash of clothing and values in Marseille.
Behind France’s Islamic veil, BBC, April 8, 2010
“Why should we find ourselves returning to medieval traditions?” asks Andre Gerin, the Communist member of parliament who chaired the parliamentary commission.
“To me, the full veil, the covered face, it’s a woman in a portable coffin.”
It was Mr Gerin who first started speaking openly about banning the veil when, as mayor of a suburb of Lyon, he says he noticed more and more women wearing it.
And he is convinced they are doing it at the behest of what he calls fundamentalists.
“These women are controlled,” the MP says. […]
The niqab, says leading feminist philosopher Elizabeth Badinter “is totally contrary to the three principles of the French Republic”.
Those principles – liberty, equality, fraternity – can be seen written or carved on the front of every French town hall.
By hiding your face, Mrs Badinter explains as she sips a small black coffee in her elegant apartment in Paris, you breach the principle of equality.
“She who hides her face is in a position superior to mine,” she says. “She sees me but she refuses to reciprocate.”
Then there is the strongly guarded idea of secularism in France, the absolute separation of religion and the state rooted in the 1789 revolution and enshrined in a century-old law.
“You can have whatever religion you wish,” says Mrs Badinter, “but it stays in the private sphere.”
The problem is that some French Muslims see that not only as a way of dismissing their religion but also of ignoring their presence in France.
It’s interesting to characterize the burqa in terms of violating social reciprocity. The idea is French but insightful nevertheless.
