This is a pertinent question in France at the moment but it has far reaching consequences for other countries too.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is adamant that the burkha — the head to toe garment worn by Muslim women which has a mesh over the face area for seeing and breathing purposes — is a symbol of domination and oppression of women and he believes it should be banned.
France is home to over six million Muslim women and therefore this would have quite an effect on the country. If this were to be implemented in Ireland there would be fewer people affected, but I predict that the consequences would be similar in that it would spark outrage from the Muslim community.
However, if we were to think about it, when we go abroad to Muslim countries we respect their culture. We cover our feet, our legs, our arms, and whatever else is required of us (mostly because we will be arrested if we don’t ) in a bid to abide by that country’s laws. We understand that this is how Middle Eastern countries live and if we are visiting them — it is with the understanding that we must obey their rules, however insane we think they are.
But then when Muslim people come to Ireland, we pander to their cultural requirements and allow them to wear what they would normally wear at home. This doesn’t seem fair.
I have often heard Irish people claim that they feel intimidated by the full burkha, which I also think is a rather intimidating garment. It is what it stands for that is intimidating — the historical patriarchal society that to this day treats women as second or even third class citizens in many cases. Many of these countries give more respect to male children than they do the mothers of these children, and this for me is a problem
It is hard to know how Islamic women really feel about being shrouded in a heavy cloth. They have been brainwashed for centuries that this is the correct way for women to look and it is very difficult to change centuries of conditioning, particularly if women are frightened.
This week a Sudanese woman escaped 40 lashes but was jailed for a month for wearing trousers and refusing to pay the fine handed down in lieu of the lashes. The Sudanese Islamic law is very strict on women being ‘appropriately’ dressed and the woman’s counterparts, who were also wearing trousers in a restaurant when arrested, all received 10 lashes. I wonder will they attempt to bring this into European countries for women who don’t wear their burkha?
Any religion brought to the extreme can be frightening for people, but Islamic fundamentalists have terrorised society for many years now and unfortunately, it is easy for all Islamic people to be tarred with the same brush — particularly when they are dressed in a burkha and stand out from other people in a crowd.
Banning the burkha in France may not be the way to go considering the outrage that it will spark, and who knows what the global reaction from fundamentalists would be. But surely it is time that women were at least given the right to choose if they would like to wear it or not. I think over time and with temperatures in France leaping to over 40 degrees in the summer, women might take the more comfortable option.
