BURKA MAKES WOMEN PRISONERS, SAYS PRESIDENT SARKOZY
President Sarkozy threw his weight behind attempts to bar French Muslim women from covering their faces in public, calling their full-body dress a “debasement of women”.
Mr Sarkozy made his attack on a small but growing number of fundamentalist women in a “state of the nation” speech that was the first by a French President to both houses of Parliament since 1873.
… “In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” Mr Sarkozy said to applause in the Parliament’s ceremonial Versailles home.
“The burka is not a religious sign. It is a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement,” he added. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.”
Mr Sarkozy was adding his voice to a strong consensus that has emerged this month against women in France’s five million-strong Muslim community who wear the full or nearly-full cover of their bodies and faces…
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:21PM
My natural disdain for the French has diminished a bit….
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:52PM
Since UD often comments on international issues, she might like to expand her reach by subscribing to University World News:
http://www.universityworldnews.com/
It’s kind of like Inside Higher Ed, but with a global focus, and with news storie published weekly rather than daily. They don’t seem to have an RSS feed (surprisingly), but their weekly email summary is very good. Lots of fodder for commentary — heck, the first headline at present has both "scandal" and "university" in it, so UD should feel right at home.
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:49AM
Thank you, RJO. I’m going there now.