One thing which emerges from reading discussions of the ‘burqa ban’ is (some) people’s failure to distinguish between finding something offensive and wanting to have it banned. While a few seem unwilling to believe that any women might be reluctant veil wearers, others are equally determined to cast all such women as oppressed victims. I found this assertion in an article written by Toby Young a few months back interesting.
A French opinion poll published in The Economist showed that a majority of Muslim women are actually in favour of the ban. Why? Because for most Muslim women it is not a free choice but something they’re forced to do by their fathers or brothers or husbands – and the consequences of disobeying can be a beating or worse.
But only about two thousand people in France wear the full veil – that’s less than 0.1 % of French Muslim women. Clearly most of those French Muslim women who support the ban (and I haven’t been able to track down the poll Young refers to) are managing to avoid wearing it themselves.
People wear the full veil for a variety of reasons. Norman Geras links to one interesting case here. Some may have political or religious motivations. Some probably are coerced. One commenter on Pickled Politics compared such people to women in abusive relationships, unwilling to face the evils of their situation. But a similar line of argument (‘it’s for their own good’) could be deployed by those keen to prescribe, rather than proscribe, Islamic dress.
