comment by dublinben

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dublinben · 4397 days ago · link · · parent · post: One year after the french burqa-ban

“Anyone who covers their face ends up severing themselves from society. It creates a barrier and hinders participation in public debate."

This kind of quote (from a Muslim women's activist) is exactly how I would summarize the situation. The ban wouldn't be necessary if people weren't excluding themselves in such an oppressive manner. Domestic abuse used to be considered a "private matter" that was ignored by the authorities, and now we know better. I see no difference here.

"I don't want to spend the rest of my life here. I have plans to move away, because I don't want to live like this,"

For better or for worse, this is the exact result that the French government is looking for. They want to pressure the extreme minority of people who wear the full niqab to either drop it and join French society, or move to a country that supports the practice.

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speeding_snail · 4396 days ago · link ·

Moving away to another European country won't really help her case. Firstly, she will have to learn another language (yay for Europe), which isn't all that easy, especially when your first language is french. Furthermore, there are similar feelings in Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark at the very least. I can't say that I am opposed to religion, but I myself get a bit nervous when I see someone wearing a full niqab, just like I get a bit nervous when someone covering his/her face otherwise.

+discuss+discuss

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dublinben · 4396 days ago · link ·

I doubt there's anywhere in Europe she'd be welcome, which shouldn't be surprising. She could move to Morocco and still speak French. The easiest change would be to wear a less restrictive headscarf, or none at all, in compliance with the law.

+discuss+discuss

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speeding_snail · 4396 days ago · link ·

Which is pretty much what you would expect from someone who lives in a western country. There are people who really don't like muslims, but my guess is that for most people the problem lies with the immigrants not wanting to adapt. For example, when the first work-immigrants came to the Netherlands, they expected to move back to their country of origin within considerable time. And as such, they didn't immerse themselves in the dutch culture. However, they did not leave and let their wives and kids come over. But since they didn't know otherwise, they just did what they have always done. They lived their lives according to the costumes in their homeland. They didn't learn dutch etc. Most people now have adapted, however, there are still some who think that it is their right to live their lives the way their parents used to, because they were born in the Netherlands. It is their country too. This brings some rather hard problems with it and because of the 2 extremes (natives and second generation immigrants who don't want to adapt), the problems still aren't solved.

Just a bit of background rambling.