Epigraph: And say to the believing women … that they disclose not their natural and artificial beauty except that which is apparent thereof, and that they draw their head-coverings over their bosoms, and that they disclose not their beauty save to their husbands, or to their fathers, or the fathers of their husbands or their sons or the sons of their husbands or their brothers, or the sons of their brothers … (Al Quran 24:32)
‘The veil covering your eyes is much more dangerous than the veil covering my hair.’ A woman wearing a tricolor headscarf makes her point in Paris. Photograph: Alamy
By Angelique Chrisafis for The Guardian, Monday 22 July 2013 13.37 EDT
With rioting breaking out in Paris over the weekend, the row over Muslim headwear has erupted again. Will it lead to a new law against women wearing headscarves? And could that fan the flames of a French identity crisis?
When Youssra’s three-and-a-half-year-old son started nursery school, he really wanted his mum to come on a school trip. So she signed up to help out on a cinema visit. She buttoned the children’s coats outside their classroom and accompanied them to the front hall. But there, she was stopped by the headteacher, who told her, in front of the baffled children: “You don’t have the right to accompany the class because you’re wearing a headscarf.” She was told to remove her hijab, or basic Muslim head covering, because it was an affront to the secular French Republic. “I fought back,” she says. “I brought up all the arguments about equality and freedom for all. But I was forced home, humiliated. The last thing I saw was my distressed son in tears. He didn’t understand why I’d been made to leave.”
The French charity worker is now part of the protest group Mamans Toutes Égales, or Mothers All Equal. Based in Montreuil outside Paris, it has blocked school coaches, boycotted outings and staged street demonstrations in protest at the growing number of mothers in headscarves being barred from school trips. “This is an attack on freedom and democracy in state schools. They seem to want to wipe Muslim women off the landscape,” says Youssra, 36.
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It amazes me, how a civilization in Europe, based on several centuries of struggle for improving human rights, freedom of speech and religion, development of scientific method, at the peak of technology in human history, is scared to death of a small piece of cloth, serving as head covering of the Muslim women, which is shown to be worn by Mother Mary, in all drawings or paintings that can be found!
Why?
Would a Frenchman or lady care to answer, please?
Whoa … well put Zia saheb.
I dont think they do it out of fear of the cloth. It is fear that in the modren crusade between two cultures the culture of the immigrants might prevail.
Congratulations to the Muslim women of France for their courage. I wish the men as courageous and wear their head gear. That would double trouble for the French government. It would be interesting to see if they would put a band against turbans, jinacaps topies etc.
I will be more courageous for women to wear Burqa and men to wear turban at the time when they apply for immigration and appear for interview.
In my opinion laws of the land should be respected and obayed as long as the basic tenants of faith are not prohibited. In such extreme case one should migrate to some other accomodating county.
There is no harm in taking legal actions against such operessive laws
It is too invasive of governments to dictate what people should wear and what not!
lets see how long did it take mankind to learn how to make garments and cover up since he came out of the cave and become civilized and how long will it take them to undo it , first the scarf ,then the collar, then the sleeves , then the pants , then the whatever is left and what do you have left, well I hope they grow fig trees in france , cause they are gonna need a lot of leaves to cover up their shame.
It is amazing how France doesn’t realize how much its actions resemble that of the Taliban.
Perhaps they are not so clueless…perhaps they want to carry on this persecution simply to force the Muslims out of the country and to discourage further immigration. It would have been much more polite just to ask the Muslims to leave. It would be more humane to make laws preventing future immigration. It would have been more honest and much less insulting to hijab wearing women like me, than this fiasco at least.
I had plans to visit France for a day or two with my children in an upcoming trip to the UK, but have changed my mind after reading this article. It has made me sick to my stomach.
Agree. its just a matter of time when Asians will have to pack up and leave.
The problem is not Muslims per se, but the fact that many do not adapt to any extent to their new environment and they are not very popular. Those who do adapt are usually readily accepted in most instances, and that doesn’t make them less believers. There is nothing shameful about the human body, it is a question of how it is displayed,and modesty should be the guide, not extremes as advocated by the likes of the Taliban.
So true