Burka prohibition

[noracharles]

It's horrible that it even got that far in the Spanish parliament, but I'm glad that respect for women narrowly edged out the islamophobia, and wearing the burka was not prohibited by law in Spain.

If you think islamist men are forcing their female family members to wear the burka, and that that is wrong - how can you defend the state mandating how women can dress?

I'm not a fan of any sort of socially mandated "modest clothing" or religiously symbolic gender-specific clothing. But you know, Spain: You have an awful lot of nuns wearing restrictive habits to be starting with the Muslim women. Just saying.

Comments

[annmarieri]

Issues like this have always made me incredibly angry, because it's just as you said: I'm not a fan of any sort of socially mandated "modest clothing" or religiously symbolic gender-specific clothing. But you know, Spain: You have an awful lot of nuns wearing restrictive habits to be starting with the Muslim women. Just saying.

I guess I know too many women who choose to wear the burka and are proud of it, but my anger at the state for trying to step in and tell women what they can and cannot wear pretty much robs me of coherency. So thank you for putting a bit of it into words for me. :)

[noracharles]

I'm glad I wrote it, then :-)

It's a difficult subject, because who's to say any of us freely chooses what to wear. We're all influenced by social mores and the opinions of people close to us. The state should definitely stay out of it, though, that much I know.

[annmarieri]

Well, and then there arises the question of whether or not societal pressure is always a bad thing, which I believe depends on whether the people enjoy or don't enjoy the things society expects them to do. But I just spent eight hours straight standing and painting a little girl's name on her wall, so I don't really want to write up an essay on the subject. -_-

[kaz]

Go Spain!

Add in the fact that there is the distinct possibility (probability?) that those women being oppressed and forced to wear the burka will end up not allowed to leave the house. Yeah, *that's* sure to help them.

[noracharles]

I know right? How can anyone think punishing the victims is a good way to stop injustice, and why must we assume that women wearing the burka are victims in the first place?

The only way to go is to fight islamophobia and give Muslim women access to information and resources appropriate to their circumstances, because then they'll have free choice. Putting people between a rock and a hard place isn't a good idea.

[kaz]

Exactly! And give them the tools to integrate into society and support and help them access the same resources wrt getting out of abusive relationships and women's shelters and so that the native women use. It's, the fact that this is a perpetual problem means that you have to do *more* to integrate people, not less.

[noracharles]

Amen.