Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
@Oberon,
And there you already have gone into the trap. The Burkha is not the issue - the mindset behind it making women wearing it, the sexual repression at home pushing them into that role - that is the problem. Where are your mentioned civil liberties there? Equality of men and women, in your societies at least? Equality before the law? No child marriages? Do you think this sexual discrimination comes to an end just because Burkhas get banned - or replaced with a Hijab or an al-Amira? 
Like I say so often, the mindset, the content, the attitude of Islam is the problem. And that does not get tackled by banning certain clothing, or replacing clothing, or issuing a paper with an official stamp on it. The mindset stays to be there, in this case based on both patriarchalic cultural tradition as well as religious demands of Islamic ideology. |
But is that what is being debated here? Or is it for security reasons?
If it is not for security reasons then is it the matter of the state to decide what takes place in someones household? Start with the Burqa because its a symbol of oppression, but then what about subversive attitudes on the internet? People who call for the downfall of governments on internet forums perhaps?
Oh, you may say strawman and say I'm shifting the arguement, that's fair enough, I see where you're coming from and yes I agree there is a definite problem in Islam with how women are treated. However, this is something that is changing over time, just as how women have been treated in other religions has changed over time. If this were not the case then we would not be seeing women allowed the vote in Saudi Arabia, or women councillors elected, Germany wouldn't have Fatmire Alushi either. So progress is being made, and these things take time. Islam has only just really reached the modern world in the late 20th century, since our industrial need for oil has dragged them into our industrial world, and so there's a lot of culture shock there and trying to enforce western values on a non-western society is going to be problematic.
However, within western nations, certainly if a Muslim man breaks western law by mistreating a Muslim woman then he should be tried and convicted for it. The law is the law and trying to wiggle around it by bringing in religion shouldn't be permitted.
That being said, there are plenty of Muslim women who were the Burqa not out of oppression but because they want to, now you can argue that this is some form of Stockholm syndrome within the religion, but these are not the only religious group who enforce certain rules on their women, and in many cases the women are only too happy to abide by those rules. So if a woman
wants to wear the Burqa....what do you do?