The burqa has been a background story for awhile. To be sure, one country after another around the world has been restricting or outright banning this grotesque garment, and when each new law gets passed, there’s some press attention. But now that Sri Lanka, in the wake of the latest extremist atrocity, has banned them, the burqa’s on the front page again.
And what UD has long predicted – vanishingly few people and organizations are objecting to the ban – does seem to be underway, in Sri Lanka and around the world. So far, in all the articles and opinion pieces about it, UD has only found one attack on Sri Lanka’s new policy. More common has been acceptance without comment, or enthusiastic approval.
I’m not sure what’s taken the wind out of burqa-defenders’ sails – and maybe they’ll regain their energy – but I’m thinking the 2017 decision of the European Court of Human Rights not only to uphold but rather eloquently to defend Belgium’s burqa ban began the discouragement. Defenders were always up against large majorities of pro-ban citizens (85% of Swedes; 66% of Brits, for instance) in all countries in which the burqa is an issue, so… you know… democracy and all… And for all their talk of so few women wear it (not true; in England, which still allows them, numbers are going up) and it has nothing to do with national security and it’s perfectly possible to assimilate these women into our country as full citizens and it’s a religious obligation, a personal choice, and I don’t want to talk about the eight year old girls you see wearing them … for all of that, opponents just don’t seem to be making their case at all.
You can see the problem if you look more closely at Megara Tegal’s attack on the policy. Of course she shouts islamophobia, but given the sort of countries that now have bans – Denmark, for instance – it’s very very difficult to throw that one against the wall and make it stick. Eventually Tegal will have to call virtually every European country, along with increasing numbers of Muslim countries, islamophobic (Morocco; Algeria; Egypt’s close to banning them). So let’s see what else she’s got.
Muslim women who have covered their faces for over 20 years, are now afraid to leave their homes.
Think of it – there are women in the world who have never gone outside without entirely covering themselves in black. Even their digits; even their eyes (you’ve seen the get-ups that only give the wearer one eye-hole)! I’m afraid I don’t respond to this statement as an argument; I respond to it as a horror. Nor does what Tegal fails to mention – these women are very likely afraid to leave their homes because their husbands will beat them if they go outside uncovered – help her case. She’s up against the obvious – the burqa is an insanely blatant mark of the worthlessness of women within certain tribes.
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:26AM
[…] to there being only a few full-veilers: Are you kidding me? Rates of full veiling appear to be going up in England, as you might expect when countries normalize the […]