France's Niqab Ban

Today France's law banning the concealment of one's face in any public space is being put into effect. Inspired by French fear of fronts to their "way of life," and a strong political effort by President Sarkozy to regain support on his popular stance, anyone intentionally concealing their face with just their eyes showing will be subject to the equivalent of a 200 dollar fine, and/or be forced to attend French "Citizenship" classes (aimed to teach them how to be better citizens).

Italy has a similar law, however, France's is unique from similar anti-Muslim laws in different European nations because it bans the Niqab in all public places, from the sidewalk to the mall. Much is being said about it, as groups of protesters in France (some wearing their Niqab) demand it's nullification because they believe it is an affront to their religious beliefs. 

Even so, French police have voiced how difficult it will be to enforce saying

"The law will be infinitely difficult to apply, and it will be infinitely rarely applied, unfortunately," Emmanuel Roux of the police union SCPN said on France-Inter radio.

He said police have been instructed not to use force to remove the veils, and that if a woman refuses to remove it, the police officer is meant to call the prosecutor for further legal action. Only in very extreme cases, he said, would a woman be jailed for refusal to remove a veil.

Allow me to break through the noise with some common sense:

Although a ban of the Niqab, France is famous for it's extreme interpretation of secularism. For example, state teachers are not allowed to wear a cross pin on their clothing, and Jewish men aren't allowed to wear the yammukah. 

The latest ban comes from a law that never uses the words: women, Niqab, or Islam but has politically been its purpose. President Sarkozy began pushing for the law for nearly two years, saying that it was a sign of repression that would not be welcome in France.

The President and others have also continued by describing the Niqab as an attack to French way of life, despite the fact that no more than 2000 women wear it out of France's 5 million Muslims. 

With such a small amount of women that choose to wear it, it hardly seems like an attack on anyone's way of life.

Quite possibly the worst argument, but most used on to destroy the rights of others, is that of safety: The Niqab poses a direct threat to public safety. Opponents argue that terrorists can use the Niqab to hide bombs, and convicts use it to mask their faces while they steal or kill, but how many instances have their been? Terrorists: Never. They more often choose backpacks. Robbery: Once. Clearly not a threat to society or anyone's safety. 

The ban represents an odd ideology in Western philosophy of freedom: That everyone should have the freedom to not wear what they want. This makes sense given that societies over time have become less conservative, and in their effort to break with tradition, younger generations endorsed more nudity: First with short sleeved shirts, then tighter shirts for men and women, then women's choice to wear jeans or anything they wanted, or nothing at all. It all seemed like the freedom in a country was measured by the level of nudity. 

Rarely is a women's (or man's) desire to cover herself seen as a form of empowerment. Choosing to wear more clothing seems counter-revolutionary. As societies keep pushing the lines of nudity, led my massive industries where "sex sells," covering oneself can easily become a sign of individuality and rebellion. It seems here that France believes that nudity equals freedom, but clothing is a sign of repression. 

I understand that the debate is deeper than that, as even Muslims disagree about the purpose of the Niqab, but it shouldn't matter if they do. Everyone should have the right to wear whatever clothing they want as an expression of their cultural or religious beliefs. THAT is the sign of truly free societies. In a sex-crazed world, the ability of any woman to demand respect based on her thoughts and not her looks should be applauded. Some may disagree with the extremity to which the Niqab does this, but different women have different means and interpretations of how to reach this goal. 

A creative protest by Non-muslim French women. It is meant to show that France will tolerate women freedom to show off legs, but not their choice to cover their faces. How would France react to these? Free enough to show their legs, but not to show their face?

We may not like what they wear, but they should always have the right to wear it. The Niqab is not a sign of repression as any Muslim women will tell you. Muslim women wearing it are not subconsciously oppressed into thinking that they should wear it (if they were the number of women who wear them in France wouldn't be so minute). As an LA Times article on the subject points out, of the veiled French women surveyed 28 out of 30 said that they were the first in their family to wear the Niqab.

Yes, there are women out of those 2000 in France that were probably forced to wear it, but how does a ban help in any way but restrict more women to their homes? For those forced to wear it, there should be more options of outreach to get government help aimed at getting them out of a possibly abusive house and more. A ban for all is useless and just part of the larger (misconstrued) ideology of what freedom is all about.

As the dynamics of a free society have changed (meeting the demands of earlier generations for less restrictions on enforcing dress code policies for women), so should the measure of freedom --As I like to say: 

Freedom should never be measured by how much thigh a woman can show, but by how much thigh she refuses to show for your lingering eyes.

You can get all these page updates by "Liking" the Facebook blog page! here : http://on.fb.me/hWYYmi or by following me on Twitter! http://bit.ly/fIU3d7 Please Share on your network, email, comment or subscribe!