France to ban Burqas/Niqab in Public?

[Ahmeds Girl 0]

eliminating another person's choice to wear whatever they want is every bit as wrong as forcing a person to wear something they don't want to wear. both are unacceptable assaults on personal freedom

Women should have choice... I agree. EVERYWHERE!

I'd like to see people speak out for the rights of women all over the world. France offers a level of equailty and respect for women's rights that regimes like SA and Iran deny. Let's get some proportion here. Governments dictating to ALL women what to wear is a reality for many women in the world. Religious police enforce rigid, unfair and inhumane codes of dress on ALL women in some countries. The French President isn't sending police out to strip veiled women... he was opening debate. The wisdom of doing so, I question.

One could argue that banning niqab is like a form of positive discrimination ... a necessary evil which would help those women forced to cover following pressure from family or a husband. Personally, I have doubts about the effectiveness of this. It may be counterproductive. It's a tricky issue and one which I believe the European Court For Human Rights would ultimately rule on. I feel that France would be on a slippery path if it attempted to stop women veiling, but I understand the arguments for doing so. Amongst women forced to cover will be women who choose to. Should their rights be denied? Until women everywhere are free to dress as they please, veiling will always be controversial.

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

I for one would appriciate the banning of baggy jeans in public.

Some towns in the U.S. have tried that actually. Just another example of the wrong way of going about trying to solve a larger problem.

YesI knew about that and this reminds me of that debate. That's why I said it.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[mahboula 11]

I for one would appriciate the banning of baggy jeans in public.

And the low cut jeans with the g-string hanging out in the back.

[doodlebugg 10]

Is the hideous legacy of colonialism the reason that Egypt is crazy about anything French, from hideous French Provincial furniture stuffed into flats to school children required, by the government, to learn French? Who, actually, were the "native populations"? Weren't they, themselves, subject to thousands of years of war, or were they all Islamic from Day One?

Didn't France only stay in Egypt for like 3 years? My husband never had to take French. He took German.

[doodlebugg 10]

I for one would appriciate the banning of baggy jeans in public.

And the low cut jeans with the g-string hanging out in the back.

with the tramp stamp on top of it all!

[100% Al Ahly Fan 53]

LOL, Silly gal!

[HLM 1]

Perspective of a Muslim woman:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-...ed-streets.html

"Why I, as a British Muslim woman, want the burkha banned from our streets"

By Saira Khan

24th June 2009

Shopping in Harrods last week, I came across a group of women wearing black burkhas, browsing the latest designs in the fashion department.

The irony of the situation was almost laughable. Here was a group of affluent women window shopping for designs that they would never once be able to wear in public.

Yet it's a sight that's becoming more and more commonplace. In hardline Muslim communities right across Britain, the burkha and hijab - the Muslim headscarf - are becoming the norm.

In the predominantly Muslim enclaves of Derby near my childhood home, you now see women hidden behind the full-length robe, their faces completely shielded from view. In London, I see an increasing number of young girls, aged four and five, being made to wear the hijab to school.

Shockingly, the Dickensian bone disease rickets has reemerged in the British Muslim community because women are not getting enough vital vitamin D from sunlight because they are being consigned to life under a shroud.

Thanks to fundamentalist Muslims and 'hate' preachers working in Britain, the veiling of women is suddenly all-pervasive and promoted as a basic religious right. We are led to believe that we must live with this in the name of 'tolerance'.

And yet, as a British Muslim woman, I abhor the practice and am calling on the Government to follow the lead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and ban the burkha in our country.

The veil is simply a tool of oppression which is being used to alienate and control women under the guise of religious freedom.

My parents moved here from Kashmir in the 1960s. They brought with them their faith and their traditions - but they also understood that they were starting a new life in a country where Islam was not the main religion.

My mother has always worn traditional Kashmiri clothes - the salwar kameez, a long tunic worn over trousers, and the chador, which is like a pashmina worn around the neck or over the hair.

When she found work in England, she adapted her dress without making a fuss. She is still very much a traditional Muslim woman, but she swims in a normal swimming costume and jogs in a tracksuit.

I was born in this country, and my parents' greatest desire for me was that I would integrate and take advantage of the British education system.

hey wanted me to make friends at school, and be able to take part in PE lessons - not feel alienated and cut off from my peers. So at home, I wore the salwar kameez, while at school I wore a wore a typical English school uniform.

Now, to some fundamentalists, that made us not proper Muslims. Really?

I have read the Koran. Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a woman's face and body must be covered in a layer of heavy black cloth. Instead, Muslim women should dress modestly, covering their arms and legs.

Many of my adult British Muslim friends cover their heads with a headscarf - and I have no problem with that.

The burkha is an entirely different matter. It is an imported Saudi Arabian tradition, and the growing number of women veiling their faces in Britain is a sign of creeping radicalisation, which is not just regressive, it is oppressive and downright dangerous.

The burkha is an extreme practice. It is never right for a woman to hide behind a veil and shut herself off from people in the community. But it is particularly wrong in Britain, where it is alien to the mainstream culture for someone to walk around wearing a mask.

The veil restricts women. It stops them achieving their full potential in all areas of their life, and it stops them communicating. It sends out a clear message: 'I do not want to be part of your society.'

Every time the burkha is debated, Muslim fundamentalists bring out all these women who say: 'It's my choice to wear this.'

Perhaps so - but what pressures have been brought to bear on them? The reality, surely, is that a lot of women are not free to choose.

Girls as young as four are wearing the hijab to school: that is not a freely made choice. It stops them taking part in education and reaching their potential, and the idea that tiny children need to protect their modesty is abhorrent.

And behind the closed doors of some Muslim houses, countless young women are told to wear the hijab and the veil. These are the girls who are hidden away, they are not allowed to go to university or choose who they marry. In many cases, they are kept down by the threat of violence.

The burkha is the ultimate visual symbol of female oppression. It is the weapon of radical Muslim men who want to see Sharia law on Britain's streets, and would love women to be hidden, unseen and unheard. It is totally out of place in a civilised country.

Precisely because it is impossible to distinguish between the woman who is choosing to wear a burkha and the girl who has been forced to cover herself and live behind a veil, I believe it should be banned.

President Sarkozy is absolutely right to say: 'If you want to live here, live like us.'

He went on to say that the burkha is not a religious sign, 'it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement... In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity.'

So what should we do in Britain? For decades, Muslim fundamentalists, using the human rights laws, have been allowed to get their own way.

It is time for ministers and ordinary British Muslims to say, 'Enough is enough'. For the sake of women and children, the Government must ban the wearing of the hijab in school and the burkha in public places.

To do so is not racist, as extremists would have us believe. After all, when I go to Pakistan or Middle Eastern countries, I respect the way they live.

Two years ago, I wore a burkha for the first time for a television programme. It was the most horrid experience. It restricted the way I walked, what I saw, and how I interacted with the world.

It took away my personality. I felt alienated and like a freak. It was hot and uncomfortable, and I was unable to see behind me, exchange a smile with people, or shake hands.

If I had been forced to wear a veil, I would certainly not be free to write this article. Nor would I have run a marathon, become an aerobics teacher or set up a business

We must unite against the radical Muslim men who love to control women.

My message to those Muslims who want to live in a Talibanised society, and turn their face against Britain, is this: 'If you don't like living here and don't want to integrate, then what the hell are you doing here? Why don't you just go and live in an Islamic country?'

I was born in this country, and my parents' greatest desire for me was that I would integrate and take advantage of the British education system.

That's HER own personal experience...It doesn't give her the right to advocate what others should do! What about the ones who enjoy it and see their FREEDOM AND LIBERITY in it? How come that's not oppression on her side asking everyone to take it off because she doesn't like it!

France claims to be a secular country and doesn't mix religion with politics...which something neither SA nor Iran ever did!! They were clear on the laws of the land from day one then France is a hypocrite not them! Also "live like us" like how exactly? I don't get it!! Does france have a certain way of life?? I would like to know plz.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

seems more like a catch 22... screwed if you do, screwed if you dont. im good at throwing my 2 cents in so heres my own opinions about it. I personally look at it like its a choice. However, if its only a choice and not forced thats ok. I cant stand it when some women are forced to wear them and I DO KNOW a few women in Atlanta that are made to wear them by their husbands. thats the shame to me.

If its a womans choice to dress to that extreme in modesty and they are honestly a good person, who cares so be it, why should it be banned from all the women? but I do think there should be some limitations IMO ... example.... I dont think it should be used for drivers licenses at all.

I rather see someone dressed extremely modestly than the ones that was stated above with their butts hanging out their pants and their boxers or g-strings up in your face.

While I do see it as a choice as stated above... i personally find it really extreme modesty and not necessarily a requirement for women but only as a choice for women.

[amysaid 9]

But my question is, is it just the niqab that he would outlaw? what if this women got creative and just started wearing... I don't know, George W. Bush masks around when they go out, would that be better?

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

But my question is, is it just the niqab that he would outlaw? what if this women got creative and just started wearing... I don't know, George W. Bush masks around when they go out, would that be better?

GWB is over with, they would go around wearing Obamas facemask since its peoples fav picture everywhere...

[amysaid 9]

But my question is, is it just the niqab that he would outlaw? what if this women got creative and just started wearing... I don't know, George W. Bush masks around when they go out, would that be better?

GWB is over with, they would go around wearing Obamas facemask since its peoples fav picture everywhere...

Yeah, I guess I said GWB because I find his face to be kind of idiotic and comical

[Meriem_DZ 37]

I for one would appriciate the banning of baggy jeans in public.

And the low cut jeans with the g-string hanging out in the back.

with the tramp stamp on top of it all!

I remember the day when thongs meant the flip flops you wear in the shower.

[MrsAmera 41]

I guess you can look at it like depravation of rights everywhere. I just dislike when people on here think all the ME countries are "right" in their approach to life and preserving their way of life however when other countries do the same thing people are aghast. If this is French law then that's the law. I think it's idiotic that you have to wear a chador in KSA or that women can't drive, and that you have to veil in Iran, or are acid attacked in Afghanistan for showing an ankle. How come no one is outraged at that? Women are more free in France or just about any other country on Earth than those two places. And as I previously said if they don't like French laws France isn't holding them hostage.

[Staashi 371]

I guess you can look at it like depravation of rights everywhere. I just dislike when people on here think all the ME countries are "right" in their approach to life and preserving their way of life however when other countries do the same thing people are aghast. If this is French law then that's the law. I think it's idiotic that you have to wear a chador in KSA or that women can't drive, and that you have to veil in Iran, or are acid attacked in Afghanistan for showing an ankle. How come no one is outraged at that? Women are more free in France or just about any other country on Earth than those two places. And as I previously said if they don't like French laws France isn't holding them hostage.

That is so true. I always looked at having to wear a niqab as being so oppressive...to heck with not being able to see around you with no perepheral vision, I couldn't stand the heat. I would suffer. Hijab I could probably handle.

Oh and another thing, this past weekend, we were in Atlanta, where it was 100+ degrees...saw my very favorite ironic thing: Hijabis in beautiful tunics (with matching hijabs) pushing heavy baby strollers, while their husbands wear tank tops and bermuda shorts walk 3 paces ahead of them. Pizzed me off!

Edited June 25, 2009 by Staashi