Personally, I disagree with Wilders’ call for headscarves to be banned. I sympathize with his desire to speed the assimilation of immigrants and his support of women’s rights. However, I don’t think that that is the best route to take.
I’m also not entirely sure how to take some of the more belligerent things that he has said about the Koran (not because I support the Koran at all—but because I believe in freedom of religion).
At any rate, I strongly support the right of the Dutch people to secure their borders, preserve their culture and sovereignty, and keep their people safe from both terrorism and street crime. These are the issues that Wilders is fighting the hardest for, and I applaud him for that. (And it doesn’t hurt in my opinion that he is also pro-USA and pro-Israel—somewhat rare traits for a European politician.)
Wilders: "In some parts of these cities, Islamic regulations are already being enforced. Women’s rights are being destroyed. Burqa’s, headscarves, polygamy, female genital mutilation, honour-killings. Women have to go to separate swimming-classes, don’t get a handshake. In many European cities there is already apartheid."
Wilder's point is that women are being forced in many instances to wear a headscarf. I have lived a total of nine years in three Islamic countries as well as four years in Berlin, which has a large muslim (primarily Turkish) population. In many muslim countries, there is sexual apartheid and other oppressive measures against women, e.g., some can't drive, arranged marriages, etc.
Europe is not the US when it comes to assimilation of immigrants. Under the circumstances, I support Wilder who has said that one of the first things a PVV led coalition will do is introduce a ban on headscarves for civil servants and for all institutions, foundations or associations that receive municipal subsidies. Many muslim women would like to assimilate, but there is tremendous pressure from their communities to keep them in line, up to and including honor killings. There have been several in Berlin.
When Mustafa Kemal Ataturk introduced reforms into Turkey to make it into a modern, secular, democratic country, including such symbolic things as the Hat Law of 1925, which introduced the use of Western style hats instead of the fez and the Law Relating to Prohibited Garments of 1934, mandated modern suits instead of antiquated religion-based clothing such as the veil and turban. He liberated women by giving them an education and a right to vote. Ataturk understood Islam and his own people in terms of what measures needed to be taken to change the culture. It worked, but now fundamentalists are reimposing their own dress codes using social pressure.
Symbolism is important and it does have an impact on assimilation. In the Netherlands where there have been assassinations of Dutch citizens by Islamic extremists, I would venture to say that many muslim women are being forced (overtly or by various other pressures) to wear headscarves by the extremist muslim elements. A prohibition will remove such influences. The French are doing something similar with headscarves and school.
Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise throughout the world. It has affected countries like Indonesia where I lived and Iran where I personally saw dress codes changed overnight. And I witnessed the extreme in Saudi Arabia for five years. The more Westernized, Islamic countries are becoming more "Islamic" due to the rise of Islamic fundamentalists. And Western countries with large Islamic populations are being confronted by the Islamic fundamentalists in their own country to accommodate to Islam whether it is Sharia law, dress, social institutions, etc. Some were surpised that the Swiss voted to ban the construction of any new minarets on mosques. I was not.
I think it is a fantastic move. Radical islam places nearly all its enforcement of Sharia law around it.
For example it is the bases of the gang rapes. If a woman does not have a head scarf on she is morally acceptable target for rape. In Europe that is everyone except Muslims.