The burqa is causing heated debate in Europe. A French parliamentary commission has spent months deciding how the burqa can be banned in public buildings and, if necessary, on the street. The report called on Tuesday for a ban on the full Islamic veil, saying Muslim women who wear the burqa were mounting an "unacceptable" challenge to French values.
Correspondent Frank Renout went out and about to gauge public opinion.
Samira Hayat is 23 and lives in Paris. She wears hip trainers and faded jeans – but you can’t see much of them. Samira is covered from head to toe in a chador, the long robe which allows only the face and the hands to be seen.
But not for long. Samira has been shopping in Paris and has just bought a large black garment which will in the future cover her whole face.
“I wear these clothes for Allah, for our God,” she explains. “The prophet’s wife was also fully covered. I want to follow her example. I do it for God. We all serve God, and so everything I do is for him.”
Street ban
However, if French politicians get their way, Samira will soon not be able to appear at school, in hospitals and possibly not even on the street covered up like this.
French MPs are almost certainly going to come out against burqas and niqabs, the clothing which only allows a woman’s eyes to be seen.
This could be followed by legislation outlawing the burqa in public buildings, with some MPs wanting a total ban on wearing the clothes in public. The parliamentary leader of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party has proposed a 750-euro fine for women caught wearing the burqa in public.
Not welcome
Mr Sarkozy is clear about his own position on the issue:
“The burqa is not welcome in France. We can’t accept that women should walk around on French territory imprisoned behind their burqas’ eye grilles, cut off from social life and without an identity. That goes against what we in France understand by the dignity of women.”
Europe-wide action
Similar views are increasingly being heard throughout Western Europe. The debate is raging in a lot of countries about the burqa and its place in society. The argument is even being widened to include the influence of Islam on society, raising issues including the segregation of men and women in swimming pools and whether male doctors should be able to treat female Muslim patients.
Governments are beginning to take action. Local authorities in Germany and Belgium have introduced measures targetting the burqa and in the Netherlands it is banned in schools.
France appears to be going one further. Parties on the left and the right have agreed that the burqa is not a good thing for the country. But, for some, national measures are not enough. The prominent French feminist and philosopher, Elisabeth Badinter, is calling for Europe-wide action.
“The European parliament should adopt a resolution, if possible unanimously, condemning the burqa on principle and on moral grounds."
Western values
She believes the burqa constitutes an attack on the equality of the sexes, one of the principle values of the West. She says Europe should stand up for and defend its own standards and values. A European resolution would be purely symbolic, but would, she argues, send a signal to the women who wear burqas and the men who force them to do so.
And, she has a simple message for those who don’t care for such a resolution. If you don’t like it here in Europe, you can leave.
Photo: Dude Crush (Flickr CC)
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