Jean-Francois Copé, “majority leader in the French National Assembly and the mayor of Meaux” attempts, in the pages of the New York Times, to explain.
… The visibility of the face in the public sphere has always been a public safety requirement. It was so obvious that until now it did not need to be enshrined in law. But the increase in women wearing the niqab, like that of the ski mask favored by criminals, changes that. We must therefore adjust our law, without waiting for the phenomenon to spread.
The permanent concealment of the face also raises the question of social interactions in our democracies. In the United States, there are very few limits on individual freedom, as exemplified by the guarantees of the First Amendment. In France, too, we are passionately attached to liberty.
But we also reaffirm our citizens’ equality and fraternity. These values are the three inseparable components of our national motto. We are therefore constantly striving to achieve a delicate balance. Individual liberty is vital, but individuals, like communities, must accept compromises that are indispensable to living together, in the name of certain principles that are essential to the common good.
… [I]n both France and the United States, we recognize that individual liberties cannot exist without individual responsibilities. This acknowledgment is the basis of all our political rights. We are free as long as we are responsible individuals who can be held accountable for our actions before our peers. But the niqab and burqa represent a refusal to exist as a person in the eyes of others. The person who wears one is no longer identifiable; she is a shadow among others, lacking individuality, avoiding responsibility…
May 6th, 2010 at 11:05PM
Not a very convincing argument, is it? France needs to outlaw the niqab because of the danger of niqab-wearing women robbing banks, like criminals wearing ski masks? That’s the best he can do?
And his second best is to go into some high-flying rhetoric about the need to balance the three parts of a motto?
Sheesh. If you’re going to take away people’s freedom to dress the way they like, can’t you at least come up with a better justification?
May 7th, 2010 at 9:50AM
Dennis, he’s the leader of the majority group in the Assembly. He cannot speak the truth.
The truth is that the majority took a beating in the last elections, that the economy is going bad, that the government is afraid that budget problems could lead to a Greek situation, that they are announcing cuts to services and tax hikes, in short that there are lots of real problems.
The truth is also that the National Front’s is bouncing back at the polls.
With this law, they kills three birds with one stone:
* They distract the public from the problems listed above.
* They please National Front supporters, and more generally the many among the French who dislike Islam or Islamic cultural mores.
* They embarrass the Left, which is divided on the issue.
Furthermore, this law costs little.
Remember that among the Left, there are many who are very much opposed to religion, or at least to religion not kept to being a private practice. Some support this ban as a stop sign against the growing encroachment of Islamic demands on French society – the same way that historically some in the Left supported laws reining in Catholicism.
In short, it’s all politics. Copé is an ambitious lawyer and politician, do not even begin to think he actually believes in what he says.
May 9th, 2010 at 8:10AM
Thanks, Professeur, for the political context. That changes the image of Cope from ignoramus to hypocrite. I’m not sure he’d regard that as a promotion.
May 10th, 2010 at 12:30PM
Repeat: Copé is an over-ambitious politician. How do you expect him not to be a hypocrite? 🙂
It is, I think, a mistake to think that if somebody supports misguided policies, that person is stupid or ignorant. I know that certain politicians support policies they know are stupid, for various reasons that have nothing to do with the best interests of society.
Please also note that Copé does not care one dime about what you think of him. You’re not a French citizen, presumably, so you don’t vote.