Should Burqa's Be Banned?

[Soph0571]

It is a conundrum.

As a feminist I feel a level of ambivalence towards to the Burqa which I find difficult to reconcile.

On one hand, I know many Muslim women, born and raised in the UK, who have made a choice to be fully veiled. Personally, I am not a fan of the Burqa. On a practical level it creates a barrier between the wearer and the rest of society and can have a significant impact on life chances and life choices. However, the women I know have made that choice and they make that choice for a number of reasons, and, be they political or religious surely it is no-ones business if they have chosen such a restrictive attire? As a feminist I fully support another women ability to choose what she wants to wear, and do not need, want or desire any women to have to conform to a community ideal of dress, be it religious or non-religious in nature.

So far, so freedom of choice.

On the other hand, we are all aware of the fact that in many patriarchal Muslim societies and in some homes in the West, wearing a Burqa is not a choice. It is a uniform of purity and piousness that the men in the house use as a means of control and for the subjugation of the females in the family. Not good. Not good at all. As a feminist I want these women to be able to make choices about their apparel, in the same way I can, and all those around me can. For those women banning the Burqa may mean they never leave their houses again, purity and piousness is the name of the game after all. But if we do not challenge the patriarchal power structure at the root of this veiling how will things ever change?

Ban the Burqa and take away a woman's choice?

Ban the Burqa and help promote a woman's freedom?

Told you it was a conundrum!

Thoughts?

[Squinch]

1. If men were forced by their wives to walk around with bags over their heads with eyeholes cut

into them, would we allow that?

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. I agree.. It's a conundrum. But if I can only pick one, I say ban.

To me they are an ugly symbol of oppression.

In our society you can't walk around naked, either.

[still_one]

3. You cannot reconcile it without knowing if it is truely the woman's choice, or if she has been

indoctrinated by sexism prevalent in that way of thinking

[janterry]

4. I'm okay with a ban as well as

forcing ultra-religious parents to educate their children past 8th grade

(such as the Amish).

[shanny]

5. No.

[Chemisse]

6. I think yes.

I say yes because:

Burqas should be banned for safety reasons. People should be able to know who they are interacting with so they can behave accordingly.

The women who choose to wear burqas are influenced by the norms of their culture and religion, just as all of our clothing choices are. A woman is not going to choose to wear something that nobody else ever wears! If burqas are banned, and nobody else is ever wearing them in public, eventually they will no longer be a desired choice among those who currently use them.

We all have restrictions on what we can do or wear in public. Some people would prefer to be naked in public, but it is not acceptable in our society. People are still free to do what they'd like in private.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Complicated...

Burqas are at least much sociological and cultural as religious. Are they symbols of oppression? Probably, but no more then the rest of their society.

We seem to forget that the burqa is only one of the more extreme forms of defining the sexes by appearance. Orthodox Jewish women wear wigs, orthodox men wear all sorts of stuff. Christian women wear frilly hats at Easter...

And, lest we forget, Western men are stuck in suits and ties while we might actually prefer a skirt and light blouse on a hot summer day. Pass on the heels and eye shadow, though.

Western women have the freedom to avoid 5" stilettos and extreme makeup, but they are still pressured to hit the hairdresser and browse the cosmetics aisles. Girdles and the other requirements for foundations have loosened, but spanks and bra sales are still way up there. Weight loss is somewhat of an obsession, and it has little to do with health.

As was said many years ago-- "On a first date, women have to be beautiful, but the guy just has to be clean."

And, as was exclaimed by a trans acquaintance of mine while she was exploring the drugstore, "Damn, this shit is expensive! Do I really need it all?"

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Somehow a frilly hat at Easter -- and is that even still a thing?

is not even remotely like a burqa.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Did you not get the larger point?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. I don't think there's a larger point.

Women dressed all the time completely covered from head to toe is not remotely like wearing a hat once a year. Every single minute of the day you know what religion one person is, but unless the other one tells you, you haven't a clue what her religion, or perhaps lack thereof, is.

[Merlot]

8. Banned - yes. Conundrum - no.

There are many reasons, the one that stands out for me the most is young girls and boys seeing women being oppressed. There is no good way to explain that, especially to young girls.

Compairing burquas to othr clothes of religious observance is a non starter.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. Here's the real problem.

There are countries that require women be covered and don't give them a choice. So, if I go to Saudi Arabia and I have to be fully veiled, then a Saudi woman in this country needs to conform to our dress code. Which means no veiling. I even think the head scarves are stupid.

It is hard for me to believe that a woman actually freely chooses to be veiled if she has grown up in our culture, or even lived in it for any number of years. I guess childhood indoctrination really is nearly impossible to overcome.

[efhmc]

13. We can't ban them because we have so called relgious freedom.

What should be banned is the thinking behind them in all fundie religions, i.e.: that women are nasty and tempt men to stray so they must cover themselves. No matter whether the religions do it overtly by real physical coverings or by drilling it into their heads at an early age that women are inferior to men.