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BURQA BAN-AN APT STEP??

THE BURQA IS NOT A RELEGIOUS SYMBOL, BUT A SIGN OF SUBSERVIENCE AND DEBASEMENT"
-Sarkozy, the French prez.

So we see that according to the French President, Mr. Nicholas Sarkozy, burqa means something which “imprisons the women behind a screen cut off from the social world and deprived of all identity.” and that is how he justifies the ban on burqa in France as this is not the" French idea of freedom". Keeping apart what others have to say about this step of Sarkozy (that it’s a political opportunity for sarko), the outcome of this ban would be feminist and secular. Good for the women who are forced to wear them. After all if “all men are born free, how is it that women are born slaves??"- Mary Astell.
But on the flip side, lots of women willingly wear the veil. They see the veil as a garment liberating them from the male gaze. So it’s a bit unfit to assume that all women who wear the veil are being forced to do so. Many of them even do it as it’s in their religion.
Thus we see that the situation is extremely complex. As already the famous social commentator Faisal al yafai said last year,-
"Muslim women who choose to wear the veil (not all do) often claim that they are reappropriating their own bodies from the public sphere. The veil is complex. At various times it has been seen as both -an instrument of male oppression and of female liberation."
So we, the onlookers who are still deciding which side to vote for must realize that either we should totally eliminate the idea of feminism from our dictionary or we should forget about secularism where every religion is allowed to flourish without interruptions with all due regards. There exists no third option for such a problem, except WAIT, WATCH AND ACCEPT.

Comments

Ayesha Parveen said…
Hi Mahesh!

A thought-provoking post. I just want to bring up one point: why is it that only some women think they need to protect themselsves from the stares of men? Don't men too need to protect themselves from the stares of women?

Women, down the centuries, have been socially-conditioned to believe that they need to hide themselves. The burqha is a symbol of such lack of self-confidence, in my opinion.

A person, male or female, wanting to stay hidden from the world, denounces social life and becomes a hermit.

I know women who wear the burqha because it is a family-tradition and they do not have the courage or the means to go against a tradition they don't believe in .

I also know some women who wear the burqha but would do anything to get male-attention :)

So, why the sham by wearing the burqha?

Best wishes, and have a nice day :)

Ayesha
July 5, 2009 at 7:50 PM
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