Well you can blame the French for lots of things but not for ducking some difficult social situations – they’re about to ban women from wearing the burka (pictured) and good on them.
In France’s secular society many religious symbols are banned including kids wearing crucifixes at school so it was only a matter of time before Sarko decided to do something about Muslim women wearing full face veils.
What the real reasons were we may never know. Was the wearing of a burka really a ‘challenge to the (secular) Republic’ or was it the fact that the majority (57%) of French people wanted it banned or was it the fact that whatever the origins of the burka, it does look threatening?
Whatever, the proposal for a full ban (i.e. the wearing of the burka anywhere in public),was backed by 190 MPs but rejected by a cross-party commission, which handed a list of compromise proposals to parliament recommending a ban of the burka or niqab in state facilities but not in the street.
The ban would apply to public places, including all schools, hospitals, public transport and government offices. The commission described the face-covering veil as an unacceptable "challenge to our republic" but after six months of hearings, the commission stopped short of outlawing the veil in the streets, in shopping centres and other public venues, due to doubts about the constitutionality of such a move.
Good on them but I think the reasoning of a ‘constitutionality’ argument is more likely to be a fear of a backlash from the 5 million strong Muslim community in France, Europe’s largest, despite the fact that only a very small proportion of women are in the Muslim 'sect' which demands the wearing of a burka.
Anyway, as I was writing this shortish post, I flicked onto the website of the Daily Telegraph to check something and there flashing on the right hand side of the page was …….. an advert for Muslim Brides – if you want one go to the link below:
http://www.muslima.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment