What say you?......

newbreedbrian - 9-14-2010 at 02:28 PM

French Senate bans burka
Law to take effect in 6 months
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 | 1:42 PM ET Comments28Recommend26The Associated Press
The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favour of a ban on Muslim women wearing burkas such as the one worn by this woman at Trocadero square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on June 24, 2009. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters) The French Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a bill banning the burka-style Islamic veil everywhere from post offices to streets, a move that affects only a tiny minority of the country's Muslim women but has significant symbolic repercussions.

The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favour of the bill, which has already passed in the lower chamber, the National Assembly.

Dissenters have 10 days to challenge the measure in the constitutional Council watchdog, but that is considered unlikely.

Muslims believe the legislation is one more blow to France's second religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. Some women have vowed to wear a full-face veil despite the law.

The proposed law was passed overwhelmingly by the National Assembly on July 13. The green light from the Senate would make it definitive once the president signs off on it — barring amendments and an eventual legal challenge.

In France, the terms "burka" and "niqab" often are used interchangeably. The latter is a full-face veil, often in black. Unlike the burka, it does not obscure a woman's eyes.

The measure would outlaw face-covering veils in streets, including those worn by tourists from the Middle East and elsewhere. It is aimed at ensuring gender equality, women's dignity and security, as well as upholding France's secular values and way of life.

Kenza Drider, however, said she'll flirt with arrest to wear her veil as she pleases.

"It is a law that is unlawful," said Drider, a mother of four from Avignon, in southern France.

"It is ... against individual liberty, freedom of religion, liberty of conscience," she said.

"I will continue to live my life as I always have with my full veil," she told Associated Press Television News.

Drider was the only woman who wears a full-faced veil to be interviewed by a parliamentary panel that spent six months deciding whether to move ahead with legislation.

Muslim leaders concur that Islam does not require a woman to hide her face. But they have voiced concerns that a law forbidding them to do so would stigmatize the French Muslim population, which at an estimated five million is the second largest in France and the largest in western Europe. Numerous Muslim women who wear the face-covering veil have said they are now being harassed in the streets.

Identity crisis
Raphael Liogier, a sociology professor who heads the Observatory of the Religious in Aix-en-Provence, said Muslims in France are already targeted by hate-mongers and the ban on face-covering veils "will officialize Islamophobia."

"With the identity crisis that France has today, the scapegoat is the Muslim," he said.

'I'll exclude myself from society when I wanted to live in it.'
—Oum Al Khyr, Muslim FrenchwomanIronically, instead of helping some women integrate, the measure may keep them cloistered in their homes to avoid exposing their faces in public.

"I won't go out. I'll send people to shop for me. I'll stay home, very simply," said Oum Al Khyr, who wears a niqab that hides all but the eyes.

"I'll spend my time praying," said the single woman "over 45" who lives in Montreuil on Paris's eastern edge. "I'll exclude myself from society when I wanted to live in it."

The law banning the veil would take effect only after a six-month period.

Full veils 'not welcome': Sarkozy
The Interior Ministry estimates the number of women who fully cover themselves at some 1,900, with a quarter of them converts to Islam and two-thirds with French nationality.

The French parliament wasted no time in working to get a ban in place, opening an inquiry shortly after Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said in June 2009 that full veils that hide the face are "not welcome" in France.

The bill calls for the equivalent of $198.75 Cdn in fines or citizenship classes for any woman caught covering her face, or both. It also carries stiff penalties for anyone such as husbands or brothers convicted of forcing the veil on a woman. The $39,750 fine and year in prison are doubled if the victim is a minor.

It was unclear, however, how authorities planned to enforce such a law.

"I will accept the fine with great pleasure," said Drider, vowing to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if she gets caught.

© The Canadian Press, 2010

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/09/14/france-burka-ban.ht...

Six66Mike - 9-14-2010 at 04:13 PM

Legislating what people wear is beyond ridiculous and I hope those who actually want to wear it will keep doing it. And for those forced to wear it by husbands with obscure views of Sharia law, well this probably won't stop the husbands demanding they wear it either.

Pointless victory for French government I suppose. Anyone breaking the law would get my support. What's next, fat people & wife beaters?

morgan - 9-14-2010 at 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Six66Mike
Legislating what people wear is beyond ridiculous and I hope those who actually want to wear it will keep doing it. And for those forced to wear it by husbands with obscure views of Sharia law, well this probably won't stop the husbands demanding they wear it either.

Pointless victory for French government I suppose. Anyone breaking the law would get my support. What's next, fat people & wife beaters?

I refuse to give up my wife beater.

Discipline - 9-14-2010 at 05:16 PM

I can't say that I agree with telling people what to wear. The only time I have an issue with people not showing their faces is when voting or getting picture I.D. As long as people show their faces for pasasport, health card, or drivers licence photos I cool. I bring that up because it has become an issue in Canada.

JawnDiablo - 9-14-2010 at 05:35 PM

Is the veil / face covering mandatory for all Muslim women or are there different versions of the faith?
I used to deal with a company who were owned by people from the middle east, who were Muslim but very Americanized in their dress style. Hell these guys had the sickest exotic cars I ever saw and dressed to the 9s. They didn't have beards either.
I'm figuring there are different practices as there are different versions of the Christian faith.

random - 9-14-2010 at 05:44 PM

Nothing says freedom and women's equality like legislating what those stupid bitches can wear and keeping them in their fucking place.

(And please understand the sarcasm there... please!)

Johnny_Whistle - 9-14-2010 at 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by juandiablo
Is the veil / face covering mandatory for all Muslim women or are there different versions of the faith?
I used to deal with a company who were owned by people from the middle east, who were Muslim but very Americanized in their dress style. Hell these guys had the sickest exotic cars I ever saw and dressed to the 9s. They didn't have beards either.
I'm figuring there are different practices as there are different versions of the Christian faith.

Exactly. Just like there are Reform Jews, Orthodox Jews, Catholics, Baptists, Episcopelians, etc., there are several different denominations of Islam. What they wear depends on what particular strain you believe in.

BDx13 - 9-14-2010 at 09:41 PM

the french are fuckin up with this.
oh, and deporting the roma REALLY ain't gonna work.