illegal headcloths
Friday 13 February 2004 at 04:20 am
I admit to being quite befuddled by this debate on banning the hijab in french schools - while my base sympathy is with the liberal line, the problem seems to be far more complex than the self-congratulatory liberal back-patting posse puts it across. yes, free religious self-expression is undoubtedly a good thing. insofar as the hijab is a freely adopted personal choice - all power to the wearer.
on the other hand: the hijab is often as much enforced as it is adopted - more even. male relatives beating non-compliant girls up etc. the female muslim vote in france is apparently pretty evenly split on the question of banning/no banning, with a slight majority favoring the ban (?).
the problem might be phrased as a tension between freedom from repression and freedom of expression. whether to tolerate repression and the threat of violence in the name of free religious expression - in a sense, the old female castration/circumcision crisis of cultural relativism all over again.
while I do think the french government is being excessively draconic about this - as an audience member on question time pointed out, a bid to steal precious and timely votes from the fascists - I am still not quite convinced that acceptance and celebration of the hijab is quite what it seems to be taken to be by those who celebrate it. i wonder whether instead it might be a way of hiding behind facile newspeak pomo moral principles - all cultures are equal - to avoid moral responsibilities that force difficult engagement - women should not be beaten, repressed, forced to hide their faces in public...
but then - the hijab is a complex
on the other hand: the hijab is often as much enforced as it is adopted - more even. male relatives beating non-compliant girls up etc. the female muslim vote in france is apparently pretty evenly split on the question of banning/no banning, with a slight majority favoring the ban (?).
the problem might be phrased as a tension between freedom from repression and freedom of expression. whether to tolerate repression and the threat of violence in the name of free religious expression - in a sense, the old female castration/circumcision crisis of cultural relativism all over again.
while I do think the french government is being excessively draconic about this - as an audience member on question time pointed out, a bid to steal precious and timely votes from the fascists - I am still not quite convinced that acceptance and celebration of the hijab is quite what it seems to be taken to be by those who celebrate it. i wonder whether instead it might be a way of hiding behind facile newspeak pomo moral principles - all cultures are equal - to avoid moral responsibilities that force difficult engagement - women should not be beaten, repressed, forced to hide their faces in public...
but then - the hijab is a complex