There was an interesting debate yesterday on Twitter regarding the burqa. David Mitchell’s piece is here. I tend to agree with him. He says that its fine for us to disagree with everything that the burqa stands for but agree that people have the right to make stupid choices. And we can tell people so providing we don’t become rude or abusive.
Graham Linehan’s response was to argue from the alternative viewpoint that the burqa subjugates women and places them as second class citizens. I also agree with this viewpoint. My understanding is that Islam claims the burqa is connected with modesty. This seems pretty slim to me. Why was it that women had to be modest. Why not, as I heard on the Danny Baker show once, make ugly men wear burqas to? Graham’s argument seems to be that if you do ban the burqa then you free up a lot of Muslim women to break free from this oppressive tenet of their religion.
What is striking about this discussion is that it contains two genuine arguments which both come from a liberal or left of centre standpoint. David argues that it is illiberal to tell people what they can and cannot wear. Graham’s argument counters that women do not always have a choice to wear a burqa. They feel obligated to. My dilemma is that I find myself in agreement with both arguments. But eventually I have to side with David.
I don’t like the idea of the government telling people what they can and cannot wear. Furthermore I find the argument from the female emancipation viewpoint a touch paternalistic. There is a mention in the article about a 62% majority being in favour of the ban. If I could feel that this was because people felt that women were oppressed by it I would be encouraged. However I don’t think that it is. I think it’s based on Islamophobia.
I also think that banning the burqa is only going to exacerbate the problem of Muslim disaffection that we have in this country. However there is a lot to be said for the argument that this ship has really sailed since we illegally invaded Iraq. I am aware that this post is a touch rambling but I think this a subject that provokes just that reaction as the different liberal arguments collide in my head.
3 comments:
It's a tough one for sure. I'm not a fan of the burqa, I'd pretty sure I'd be extremely claustrophobic and unhappy wearing one. I think it tends to make Islamic women more of a target rather than giving them any safety. It gives them a readily identifiable uniform that marks them out as being separate from other women in society. Not such a good thing when integration is the best course of action for all.
Added to that, in England the old Sumptuary Laws that dictated what a person could and couldn't wear have been gone the way of the dodo for a very long time. It's not right for a body of any kind to dictate what should and shouldn't be worn, especially in the case of the burqa where it has no religious connotation but has become an adopted cultural regulation.
However, I do know a couple of Muslim women that swear by the burqa, they say it actually gives them more freedom. They don't have to worry about what clothes to wear, whether their hair is right, if the make up is on. They feel less obligated to 'do themselves up' and become, essentially, a slave to consumerism and buying into the whole sex symbol trade.
While I can see that point, I wonder how much the women under the thumb of the Taliban would agree...
The bottom line is there really should be a choice. If a woman wants to wear it, out of her own free will and not because she has been told she must be covered so as not to be a temptress to every man passing; or because of a fear that her cleavage may well cause the next earthquake, then fine. So be it, off you go, knock yourself out. By the same token though, to be told "No you can't wear that" smacks a little of not having the correct school uniform. If we do ban the burqa and see someone wearing one, do we arrest them? Give them detention with one hundred lines? Send them home and tell them not to come back in until they've got the right clothing on? How does it get enforced?
I agree with banning the burqa. I mean, what's with this crap about choosing to wear clothes I certainly would not wear if I was a woman. I would absolutely not want my wife to be forced to wear this, although her eyes are rather pretty.
But it should not stop there. It's obvious that most youths these days are criminal because of the hoods they wear. They may choose to do so, but they many of them are forced to wear these because of the areas they live in. If a youth wears a hood, this youth will have more chance of being accepted and less chance of being attacked by other hood wearing youths. This will undoubtedly lead to producing a knife carrying, drug taking, criminally minded whipper-snapper in no time. So ban them, this will solve the problem over time.
Coming to think about it, piercings and tattoos have got way out of control. one can't recognise these pin-faced walking graffiti walls from when they were fresh-faced decent people. This defacing you ones body is what leads to promiscuous sex an drugs. It's got to be also unhygienic and lets face it it's ghastly to the eye in general. Ban them all, or at least put a restrict piercings to a maximum of one per body sector, preferably not the visible areas, and one tasteful tattoo in selected areas that could be covered if necessary, for example, daytime.
Yes, lets make all these burqa-wearing, hood-using, holey-faced, walking graffiti-dirty offenders into what they deserve to be - CRIMINALS! Fine em, then Lock em up if they still don't get it. If we all pool together, we can build bigger prisons and free our streets of everything that we decide is not right for others. Why give them the choice? So what if they were innocent before the legislation comes in, they would become criminals.
Luckily we are not stupid enough to think of giving more help and support to the people who wish to free themselves from wearing these things and accepting the there may be some, however unlikely that would be, (god forbid!), who actually choose to keep wearing it. Why waste time, lets rip that barqa off the head, pull those piercings straight out of the face, cut off those damned hoodies (not sure how to deal with the tattoos yet, cost a lot of taxpayers money to erases them - I'll get back to you on that one).
Come on, lets do it I say, lets make more innocent people into criminals!
Well first of all I had no idea I had any comments left. I must update my e-mail settings.
Rachel your point is very well made. I can sort of see the point being made that it could free women up from all the consumerist pressure. However the Burqa sort of predates that doesn't it ? So maybe that's a new justification for wearing it. Its root still lies in a patriarchal theocracy that sees women as essentially put on earth to distract God fearing men.
Peter I am giving you the benefit of the doubt and guessing that is some Chris Morris style Irony. if so, well done, if not seek help.
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