I would like to be able to support the right of a group to dress as they choose, but that is really the problem itself. This is not about individual choice at all.
It is all about a group demanding that its members conform to the rules of the group. Cults all do it for the same reason. It establishes a system of control over the members that can then be exploited by the leadership elite.
Fortunately, for most historic religious groups this has not been too troublesome although often leaders will step over the line enough to raise an eyebrow.
With the Burqa, we have something much more difficult to accept. These are new citizens who we expect to make an effort to integrate with our own society as we all have.
This has never meant making citizenship secondary to anything else. The burqa is a statement of outright rejection and its emergence comes at the instigation of the more rabid Islamists who want to accelerate their control.
Our society is accepting and respectful to a lot of exposure in general and certainly to face and hair. It also demands such exposure for normal recognition.
It took a long time but we also provide women the full rights of citizenship including the right to make informed choices. We may not like their choices but we have learned to get over it.
The burqa and the veil have been about ignorance and the diminishment of women’s rights. Such a symbol has no more right to acceptance than the swastika.
A more mischievous answer to the debate is to simply demand high school level matriculation in our school system in order to be licensed to wear either.
Should America
2010 APRIL 27
All across Europe , government leaders are deciding whether to fine, restrict, or ban the Islamic veil. France Belgium
What’s the fuss all about? Isn’t the West committed to tolerance—even towards the intolerant? But aren’t we also in favor of women’s rights, human rights, and the right to pursue our individual destinies?
Wherever there are burqas, there are also radical Islamists who believe in polygamy, arranged child marriage, cousin marriage, militant jihad, and in the subordination of Muslim women and infidels. Also, please understand that the full Islamic veil means sensory deprivation, social isolation, and various Vitamin D deficiency diseases for its wearer. And don’t discount the effect the full veil is meant to have on infidels and other naked-faced women (this is how we are described); it is meant to terrify us, like the sight of a severed head on a pole, or of a prisoner publicly chained for years to a stake.
Then, there is always the security aspect: A common thief can hide a gun, a homicide bomber can hide an explosive device under such flowing garments—and “she” can just as easily be a “he.”
Thus, it is no coincidence that the French woman who was just fined for wearing her niqab while driving turns out to be one of four wives all married to the same Algerian-French man, who has fathered twelve children. If not this polygamist then the next polygamist will turn out to have ties to an Islamist group or will be indoctrinating his French citizen children into Islamism. This French polygamist is also a welfare fraud since all four wives collect government subsidies as single mothers. And, no surprise here, our polygamist is also leading the drive to build a mosque.
And, by the way: The veiled women are not only victims. Yes, of course, they are “choosing” not to be honor murdered or rejected by their communities. But, they are also proudly, aggressively, defiantly marking out Islamist territory in infidel countries; the fact that they have been brainwashed or not given a free choice makes no difference. These Veiled Crusaders view themselves as superior to an allegedly (and often truly) “racist” infidel population. They are choosing a glorified group identity as opposed to an unknown, difficult, lonely, or dangerous individual identity. Finally, as I’ve explained in Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman, women are empowered to break the spirits of young girls and female rebels. Even more than men, women are conformists who are supposed to keep other women in line.
I wish to acknowledge the important work being done by “Esther” at her blog Islam in Europe.
