French President Nicolas Sarkozy says that there's no place in France for the burka. Excerpt:
"In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity," Sarkozy said to extended applause of the lawmakers gathered where French kings once held court."The burqa is not a religious sign, it's a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement -- I want to say it solemnly," he said. "It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."
I understand where he's coming from, and I sympathize with his position. But in the end, this strikes me as unacceptable anti-religious discrimination. What about Catholic or Orthodox nuns who wear clothing that conceal their bodies almost entirely? You don't often see Catholic nuns wearing this kind of clothing these days, but Orthodox nuns dress very conservatively. It's not a burka or a niqab -- you can still see their faces, which I suppose is the main thing Sarkozy objects to (the way the burka and the niqab annihilate a woman's personality). Again, I share Sarkozy's objection to the thing, and his objection to the attitude toward women it represents. But in the end, I believe religious liberty in this instance is more important.
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The burka is not a religious garment, so its suppression is not a supression of religious expression. The burka is a cultural garment. There are a number of Muslim countries (Turkey, for one) where burka-wearing is well outside the norm.
The berqua should be banned in every western nation!!,
If muslims cannot conform to liberty, then kick them out.
If a woman chooses to wear a burqa, it should be her right. We don't need more men telling women what they can or cannot wear.
I think the more important issue is that, in an age of random terrorism, it would be awfully easy to hide weapons under that burqa. And how do we know it is a woman, anyway? There could be a whole army of burqa clad men.
Of course, I'm joking. But those are the underlying fears that create the kind of chauvinism that demands the right to tell women how they must dress.
Leave these poor women alone. I may not agree with them, but I'm just about ready to put on a burqa myself, just to defend their rights to wear it if they choose.
i dint like it no its not right
Margaret said "If a woman chooses to wear a burqa, it should be her right. We don't need more men telling women what they can or cannot wear.
I think the more important issue is that, in an age of random terrorism, it would be awfully easy to hide weapons under that burqa. And how do we know it is a woman, anyway? There could be a whole army of burqa clad men."
Say it like it is Margaret!, for a start the berqua is a symbol of islamic suppression of woman, and secondly that should be random ISLAMIC TERRORISM!.
Those islamics just blew up two hotels in indonesia, killing more westerners, i might add!!, the day cant come soon enough to rid the west of these monsters!.
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