Veiling, Burqas and Western Feminism

Martina · 05-05-2010, 09:59 AM

i just saw this. It's by a French politician, trying to justify to Americans why they feel the need to outlaw veils that cover the face. i do not believe it for a moment. It is cultural. And i sympathize with that. i do. But still.

You know that London is the city most covered by video surveillance in the world. i cannot believe that that is acceptable to them, but it is. i work in a high crime area. i have been the victim of crimes. But this stuff just brings out the unreconstructed civil libertarian in me.

There's an article in this week's Nation, i think, by Katha Pollit -- about Berlin. They have had some form of public health insurance since the late 19th Century. And so on. i too envy a lot of the public institutions that some European countries have. But i would not give up the right to dress and worship as i please for any of them. Maybe that is a privileged person speaking, one who has usually had health insurance.

i am not jingoistic about the U.S., but the day will never come in this country when it is illegal to wear the veil. It's impossible to imagine. And i am very happy to come from THAT tradition. There definitely are things about the U.S. that i like, and this is one of them. That feeling IN ME that, by god, the day they pass a law like that, i will be on the streets to defend a practice i find personally abhorrent. And i know lots of people -- conservative and liberal -- who would feel the same.

05-05-2010, 09:59 AM	#15
Martina Senior Member How Do You Identify?: * Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: * Posts: 4,999 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 13,409 Thanked 18,286 Times in 4,167 Posts Rep Power: 21474854	i just saw this. It's by a French politician, trying to justify to Americans why they feel the need to outlaw veils that cover the face. i do not believe it for a moment. It is cultural. And i sympathize with that. i do. But still. You know that London is the city most covered by video surveillance in the world. i cannot believe that that is acceptable to them, but it is. i work in a high crime area. i have been the victim of crimes. But this stuff just brings out the unreconstructed civil libertarian in me. There's an article in this week's Nation, i think, by Katha Pollit -- about Berlin. They have had some form of public health insurance since the late 19th Century. And so on. i too envy a lot of the public institutions that some European countries have. But i would not give up the right to dress and worship as i please for any of them. Maybe that is a privileged person speaking, one who has usually had health insurance. i am not jingoistic about the U.S., but the day will never come in this country when it is illegal to wear the veil. It's impossible to imagine. And i am very happy to come from THAT tradition. There definitely are things about the U.S. that i like, and this is one of them. That feeling IN ME that, by god, the day they pass a law like that, i will be on the streets to defend a practice i find personally abhorrent. And i know lots of people -- conservative and liberal -- who would feel the same.