Posted on 06/19/2009 12:30:50 PM PDT by george76
FRANCE may introduce a law banning full burqas if a parliamentary commission finds the growing number of women wearing them have been coerced into doing so.
Nearly 60 legislators signed a proposal on Wednesday calling for a parliamentary commission to look into the spread of the burqa in France, a garment that they said amounted "to a breach of individual freedoms on our national territory".
France, home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, is strongly attached to its secular values and to gender equality, and many see the burqa, which covers the wearer from head to toe and hides her face, as an infringement of women's rights and is increasingly being imposed by fundamentalists.
The country has been divided by fierce debates about how to reconcile those principles with religious freedom.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has not yet spoken on the subject but promised to address the issue in a speech on Monday to members of parliament.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Do it!!!!!!!!!!
How about a law requiring them to shower regularly?
Come on France, get up off your knees and show us your better side again.
Europe still hasn’t figured out that freedom thing. Nor have many on the FR. Maybe there should be a competing “Regulatory Republic” website.
Was it an Air France jet that went down recently?
OMG, how f’n hard is it to take a 10 minute shower once in awhile, and they wonder why nobody likes them, eeewwwwwh!
I’m torn on this issue. Religious (or, really, any) oppression should be fought wherever it is found. But what happens when France decides that Christians wearing cross necklaces or Jews wearing yarmulkes are being “oppressed” and forbids them from wearing articles of their faith? If women are truly being forced to wear these articles of faith, find ways to heavily punish those forcing women to wear them. But does France know where to draw the line between protecting people and suppressing expressions of religious faith? To orthodox Muslim women, forbidding the hijab would be like “liberating” women by forcing them to walk around in bikinis.
Exactly.
The French are as tough on Moslems as they are on Catholics.
whoa....maybe the French are about to shock us by showing a spine here
When France does, they’ll all head this direction.
Oui, oui, mes amis!
Honestly, I'm torn. It's a complicated issue. There was a case, perhaps several, recently where a woman on the east coast wanted to take her driver's license picture wearing her face covering hijab. I believe the state's supreme court finally ruled that they had to reveal their face for identification pictures.
I think France actually has good, legitimate intentions, but we all know about intentions and that road to hell. Also, France (and most European countries) doesn't have the same ubiquitous First Amendment protections that Americans enjoy.
I think that in some very specific, isolated places, a ban on full-face hajibs or burqas is probably appropriate. After all, try to walk into a bank with a ski-mask on and see what happens.
It sounds like France has climbed up a sh*t-pole with its Muslims and can find a good liberal way back down.
Go for it! And if the Muzzies don’t like it they are free to return to the Islamic paradise from whence they came.
Its been a few years since the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed by caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and many others taken down over the centuries.
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