Sarkozy: Burqa not welcome in France

June 23, 7:40 PMPortland Humanist ExaminerMicha J. Stone

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced burqa's are not welcome in France. Sarkozy used the first presidential address to a joint session of France's two houses of parliament in 136 years to declare his support for a ban on burqas. "In our country we cannot accept women who are prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity," Mr Sarkozy told the special session in Versailles. Sarkozy went on:

"That is not the idea that the French republic has of women's dignity.

"The burqa is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience. It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic,"

The French Parliament Tuesday created a commission to study the burqa, which could lead to legislation officially banning the garment.

France is proud of its secular traditions. The increasing number of Muslim women appearing in public wearing conservative Islamic dress is disturbing to many. French lawmakers believe a ban may be needed to protect the civil rights of Muslim women. Many believe the women are forced by male family members and the larger Islamic community to wear the body covering shrouds.

The burqa is a metaphor for the culture clash between Islam and the West. At issue is a collision between concerns for religious freedom and women’s equality and civil rights. The very idea that a woman may be forced to cover her entire body in public against her will, living in total submission to the men in her family, treated little better than a slave, is repugnant.

Yet many Muslim women claim they choose to wear the burqa and to cover their bodies as a pious display of their faith, their personal commitment to God.

The dilemma is real. How does a secular and tolerant society deal with obnoxious religious symbols that debase and demean half the population? To be frank, any sort of dress code is simply abhorrent, an enemy of personal expression and basic liberty. Nevertheless, it is hard to see the burqa as more than a tool of oppression.

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