France Introduces Law To Ban Islamic Veil
The lower house of French parliament has approved a law banning wearing Islamic veils, called burqas. The lawmakers consider that this practice is against the French ideals of women’s equal rights and the country's secular tradition.
Finally, a western Government has shown courage against oppressive Muslim practices of forcing their women to wear “burqa” and “niqab” in the name of Islam. I commend President Sarkozy for this initial success, for he was the one who first declared in June 2009 that the burqa is “not welcome” in France.
Muslims are increasingly demonstrating their ignorance of their own religion by adhering to practices that are discriminatory against women and not even ordained by their holy book, Quran. Take, for instance, the statement of Egyptian Islamic scholar Abdelmotie Bayoumi, who said, “The niqab has no strong legitimacy based on Quran or in examples from the Prophet's life that makes it a religious imposition on women.” Then why are women forced to wear those veils?
The mainstream French Muslim organization agrees that such dress code is not suitable in France, yet they worry that the ban will stigmatize all Muslims. However, perhaps it wouldn't if they did their part to educate their community to treat women as equals, and stop treating them as chattel.
During the National Assembly debate, the Greens lawmaker Francois de Rugy commented that conservatives “are throwing oil on the fire — you are reviving tensions just to win votes.” I say, how long will the civilized world condone medieval practices in the name of religion?
Berengere Poletti, a member of Sarkozy’s party, said that the face-covering veils “are a prison for women; they are the sign of their submission to their husbands, brothers or fathers.” Absolutely: this is the truth and the only truth.
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