By Majed Iqbal-Not enough with banning the headscarf from government institutions and buildings including schools, colleges and universities, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy sparked off deeper controversies by calling for the burka to be banned.
The comments were aired in the first presidential address in 136 years to a joint session of France’s two houses of parliament where the French premier described the burka, a veil, worn by many Muslim women as part of their Islamic attire as a “debasement” of women – and not welcome in France.
He added: “In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity. The burka is not a religious sign. It’s a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement”.
“I want to say it solemnly; it will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic. We find it intolerable to see images of these imprisoned women when they come from Iran, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia.”
MEP Chris Davies from the North West added more fuel to the fire when he stated that the burka does not belong in 21st century Britain.
“In my experience, the burka acts as a mask, reducing identity and discouraging women from developing their own skills and personality.”
Europe has witnessed rising rates of intolerance against minorities which have most often been ascribed to right wing parties. However, many statements like the French Presidents have signaled a very fine line line between right wing parties and ‘mainstream’ ones in Europe especially related to tackling Islamic and Muslim related issues.
According to a survey of global opinion released in September 2008, it found that more than half of Spaniards and half of Germans said that they did not like Muslims and the figures for Poland and France were 46% and 38% for those holding unfavorable opinions of Muslims.
The survey mentioned “Opinions of Muslims in almost all of these (European) countries were more negative than are views of Jews,” analysts said. While Americans and Britons displayed the lowest levels of anti-Semitism, one in four in both countries were hostile to Muslims.
Despite the French premier glossing French Secular values as the ideal for any society, a quick track record at Frances record towards women is one worth considering before embarking on the debate of treatment of Muslim women.
According to 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices report, there was a 21 percent increase from 2006 to 2007 in the number of women killed by their spouses in domestic violence disputes (from 137 to 166) whilst current figures have shot to 400 a year. Approximately 38,000 women are raped each year in the country.
Sarkozy was keen to highlight how secular values must be the benchmark for France and seemed to gleam at the achievements made in France in ensuring equality for all.
However, despite laws which require that women receive equal pay for equal work the 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices report highlighted that there was a gender pay discrepancy of around 25 percent. According to a 2007 survey by the government’s statistical agency, fewer than 20 percent of private sector executives were women, despite comprising 58.5 percent of the public workforce.
French women comprised approximately 50 percent of cabinet ministers in the government and were generally underrepresented in the legislature and in other levels of government leadership.
The War on Terror has now re-defined its focus to addressing what are acceptable Islamic ideas and practices and what are not such that Muslim women are now being questioned on even their dress code and role in Society.
The unprovoked debate of the burka to be brought into the limelight only once again serves to show the efforts in the last years in many European countries actively pursued by governments to force feed secular values to Muslim communities which themselves are questionable and open to scrutiny and debate. Hence Sarkozy confirmed this when he said
“I tell you, we must not be ashamed of our values, we must not be afraid of defending them.”
It seems that the French Premier was towing a similar tone like the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did in 2001 when he cited that “Western civilisation is superior to Islamic civilisation”.
The French Premier talked about “Debasement” of Women who wore a burka but has yet to answer for the divide in gender opportunities, sexual harassment at the workplaces and the rising rates of domestic violence that are carried out by men against women in France to this day.
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