La Voile
France has just banned wearing a Burqa/full headscarf in public. This legislation is a marked departure from occidental religious freedoms and the integrity of government is largely at fault.
The Pew study cites that four of every five French people were in support of this ban. This begs further explanation. I am sure that four of every five people are not so blatantly racist as to interfere with women’s religious freedoms such as that. Not from a country that I have so admired socially for so long.
The above image is, of course, not one of the illegal vestiments.
There are two fundamental ideologies behind la voile— that of religious integrity, and that of feminist outrage. The former is the Western standard- the freedom of the peuple to practice as they see fit- right down to the headcovering of their choice. The latter is that of the outraged female- often times not Muslim but simply onlooking- who believes that women forced to cover their bodies should no longer be forced into it. The question, of course, is whether or not the women wearing burqas and headscarves actually believe in their purpose. If they do not, then they too would be, at least secretly, in support of this amendment. However, for those who are truly devoted- and it is those of whom the government should have been concerned- then this new law is a defiance of basic human rights that everyone should be granted.
La gouvernement has made a decision they should not have the power to make. The women who are subjected to la voile, even those who felt persecuted, are not the issue here. They required an alternative approach. They required an ideological leader and a movement— but it was not one that should’ve been enacted by one of the largest democracies in the world. That enactment now boils to nothing but religious persecution, further estranging the movement, and making France a violator of human rights.
France, I know your love of la manifestation, but on this one, you fucked up.
