French legislators
are moving closer to banning "full face veils" from many public places.
Gerin, who also is mayor in the working-class Lyon suburb of Venissieux, said his parliamentary commission will present formal recommendations for legislation Jan. 26. They will probably urge a nonpartisan parliamentary resolution condemning full-face veils in principle, he said, to be followed by targeted decrees or laws banning veils in public facilities such as town halls, and then a general law prohibiting full veils in as many places as possible under the French constitution. As Gerin described it, that law would bar fully veiled women from, for instance, walking down the Champs Elysees.
The proposed ban is backed by anti-immigrant groups and feminists:
Women's advocacy groups, some of which include Muslim women, have strongly endorsed the proposed legislation to ban the full-face veil on grounds it offends women's dignity and symbolizes oppression by men.
I think this is a little crazy.
3 comments:
Well, I'm not sure how to respond to this--it's something, however, I have given a fair amount of thought to, coming from a different vector.
I deeply dislike being driven home from the Twin Cities airport in a taxi. The drivers are almost 100% Somali Muslim. There have been ongoing issues of drivers refusing to carry blind people and their guide dogs and those openly carrying duty free liquor--maybe once every six months there's some little news piece on the topic.
Personally speaking--and I've never seen any report that addresses the issue--I have difficulty traveling in a cab alone, or with my children, along with a man who refuses to talk to me and basically treats me as though I am unclean.
For "I have difficulty" read:
"I don't like it."
Not that I feel an instant need to attempt to legislate that I be treated more respectfully. But it's certainly a thought I turn over and over in my head, as I sit through the ride, stewing.
I am sure that women live in Marseilles, and other European cities with large Muslim populations, suffer many similar slights, and that these build up into a lot of resentment. But I am not sure what banning face veils accomplishes. In the US we have a legal rule that laws limiting people's freedom have to serve a legitimate public purpose, that is, they have to make things better for somebody. And what legitimate public purpose does banning face veils serve?
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