Good morning, Val, and happy New Year to you, Malc, your family and the menagerie.
In response to your question, I would oppose the burqa ban if I had any say in the matter. As a newly-arrived English person in France, I accept French laws and in most instances agree with them. I agree wholeheartedly with the view given in the recent post on TAG which said that it is up to us immigrants to conform to French laws. However, what about the rights of French Muslim women? In the country with the largest number of Muslims in Europe, have they no say in the matter?
The ban on burqas seems to me to be a ban on monsters under the bed. We don't like the look of a burqa, don't know what the person looks like or what their intent is, possibly don't like their religion, think there might be something sexist going on, etc. etc., but ban them? Really? Has any TAG-online reader actually been harmed by a person wearing a burqa? What happened to the notion of tolerance? If I were the Lord of Bans, my vote would be to ban fat, topless, boozed up lager louts and not women dressed modestly, behaving modestly.
Nabila Ramdani, a French Algerian journalist, puts the argument much better than I can in articles such as http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/21/dont-ban-veil-in-uk and http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/23/france-veil-ban-burqa, written before the ban came into force in France.
All the best.
Sarah
Val says that is so well argued Sarah that I need to think more about it and may change my opinion. That is the good thing about discussions, you can change your mind.
Val says that is so well argued Sarah that I need to think more about it and may change my opinion. That is the good thing about discussions, you can change your mind.
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