The hypocrisy of burqa banning
NS August 19th, 2009
Yes, I’m talking to you, Nicolas Sarkozy.
The French President says the burqa has no place in modern French society because it is “not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women.” He goes on to say: “…it is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity.”
A French minister responsible for families expressed concern that some women would not be allowed out of their homes if they were banned from wearing the burqa and how this would further isolate them. I think her fears are justified. What does a ban on a type of clothing common to religious fundamentalists who use their power to oppress an entire class of people do, exactly? It isolates and humiliates the very people it’s meant to protect and enrages the oppressors. Rarely does a ban enacted under the guise of protection do anything but make the people doing the banning feel better about themselves. Rarely do those doing the banning help come up with viable alternatives or proposed exceptions, or make real attempts at diplomatically discussing the issue to explore why the activity is objectionable to some people in the first place.
However, despite protestations, Sarkozy seems intent on defending “French values” wherein women have the right to dress how they want. No matter that the way many women in France dress is prescripted by a male-dominated society that puts pressure on them to appear thin, beautiful and youthful for as long as possible. If men didn’t like the way the way high heels looked on women, would anyone wear them? If men weren’t obsessed with big breasts, would women get implants or wear uncomfortable, underwired, push-up bras?
Undoubtedly, many women claim to “like” high heels and that their implants were put in “for them” but because of the value Western society places on long legs and big breasts, it is impossible to know if these women truly do these things because they prefer them or because they have been conditioned to believe they are necessary for their self-esteem and helpful in attracting and keeping the kind of partner they want (i.e. by appearing thin, beautiful and youthful).
Therefore, to ban the burqa because it subjugates women is not a good enough reason because a) it is impossible to tell whether a woman is wearing it freely or not; b) in cases where extreme subjugation is taking place, the woman in question will likely be further oppressed and isolated; and c) it is entirely hypocritical of a Western society that also puts pressure on women to look a certain way for the benefit of men and passively allows (if not actively encourages) practices that subjugate its own female citizens, to pass judgment on another culture’s method of oppression.
As uncomfortable as it may make us to see women remain invisible behind the burqa, the wearers’ true selves are not necessarily more hidden away and denigrated than a woman with a face caked with make-up who walks down a British, French or American street in her short skirt and impossibly high heels, hoping someone (likely a man) reaffirms her right to exist and be noticed.
Consequently, banning the burqa (or miniskirts and makeup, for that matter) would merely be attacking a symptom of a disease, not the cause of it. Second class status and impossible beauty standards are the hacking cough and streaming nose of the virus called Patriarchy. And no woman, no matter in how “free” a society she lives, can avoid being contaminated by it.
