Muslim women immigrants in Western countries face multiple challenges daily. Not only do they have to adapt to a new social and cultural environment, they have to do it with the added handicap of their own lowly status in their own culture. Now you can argue all you want about how Islam is actually freeing women instead of forcing on them harsher rules than on men, but the unversally admitted belief is that Islam (and for that matter, all Judeo-Christian religions) is a religion that favours men over women, and since religion is the de facto law in Islamic cultures, Muslim women have very few enforced rights.
That's why I understand why so many Muslim women cling to the veil they are wearing, even in Western societies, as a protection and a right. They consider their veil as a mark of modesty as prescribed by their faith and a shield against male brutality and/or unwanted attention. To allow them to wear the veil when they are at home or in their community, then to ask them to remove it when they step outside of those environments is as absurd, in their eyes, as asking a turtle to remove its shell during its waking hours, for example. Once they are unveiled, there is no point in going back to being veiled again. How can we ask them to give up the one symbol of their power, albeit a very meager power in a culture where they have to yield even to a child, if he is male?
I also understand the exasperation and the impatience of Western countries (and for that matter, all non-Islamic countries) when faced with absurd situations where Muslim women demand to be able to keep their niqab and burqa when having their picture taken for official ID documents, when driving, when teaching to non-Muslim students, etc. in other words when they demand that their confort and preferences take precedence over a laic society's security, safety, peace and order.
In a perfect world, rationality and logic would guide our behaviour in society, as much as tolerance and understanding. In this world, can we at least settle for common sense?
More reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_veil_controversy_in_France
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil
2 comments:
I can understand the ID bit, but what's the problem with respect to driving (assuming the veil isn't like that in the picture, but one with a large cut out for the eyes - something that looks like a ninja mask to me - sorry, too much 80s cartoons in my past)? And wearing it while teaching? What's the big deal in that?
Hello d. The burqa is to be worn as illustrated, one cannot really modify it, for example by enlarging the eyes area or removing the mesh that covers that area. It is not made for activities like driving, where safety requires clear, unobstructed frontal and peripheral vision (http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0711/p20s01-wosc.html) and a firm grip on the wheel (the burqa does not have sleeves). As for wearing it at school, in the cases of teachers in Great Britain and in the Netherlands, the complaints were that the students could not understand the teacher because they could not see her lips or pick up non-verbal clues from her facial expressions; in one case of a primary class, the young children were afraid of the teacher's veil. For students wearing the burqa, the argument was that they could not participate in classes like chemistry and gym.
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