epilogue

France is already in a heated debate over the ban on head scarves in schools and public buildings since 2004. At the same time, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin made his remarks in India, where he faced severe opposition over the issue regarding the Sikh community wearing turbans. After talks in New Delhi he had promised:

I am sure we are going to find a solution that will be satisfactory for the Sikh community in France.

This only happened because several dozen Sikhs and Muslims held protests in the Indian capital ahead of Mr De Villepin’s talks with his Indian counterpart, Yashwant Sinha, at which the new law was discussed. Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh maintains that we are in talks with France. However, there has been no visible solution so far.

Coming back to the burqa, French President Nicolas Sarkozy sparked another debate off-late by calling the burqa, a head-to-toe Islamic garment, “a sign of subjugation… of debasement” that is “not welcome on French territory”. Sarkozy’s comments came after a recent win for UMP in the EU elections and André Gerin’s, a Communist, call for a parliamentary inquiry into the wearing of the burqa, with the view of a possible ban. The French Parliament has launched a cross-party mission to report back in six months.

While it can be argued that the burqa is a “dated custom”, but I believe women in France are empowered enough to resist donning it by force. However, if they are doing it to show faith in their religion, it becomes an entirely different issue altogether. The French State should have no right or reason to govern what a citizen should, or for that matter, should not, be wearing.

I feel Barack Obama was right in his recent speech in Cairo where he said:

It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practising religion as they see fit—for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear.

I am sure there are more important issues for France at hand than muslim women wearing burqas. It is time Mr Nikolas Sarkozy shed his blurry burqaesqe and non-liberal view. It is time he woke up and smelt the coffee.

You may also want to read:

1. To France – from India with love As 400 Indian troops march along Champs-Elysees today, Nicholas Sarkozy...
2. Ban Shri Ram Sena Organizations like Shri Ram Sena need to be banned. Around...