Re burkas and women forced to cover up

[delalluvia]

I found this on another board which also discussed the recent attempt by France's Sarkozy to ban the burka.  I really liked this post and wanted to share it:

From my experience I would suggest that women who wear bikinis are the bravest women in the world. And I would suggest that only those men who support their right to freedom of speech, self expression, equal rights are equal in status to be called brave. Any other man or woman is a coward.

Just yesterday, as I sat in my car at a red light, I watched a woman in her late 60's to early 70's cross from one side of the street to the other, heading to the beach. She sported not just sunglasses and a visor, she wore a white floral bikini top and a matching skirted bottom. She had not just a beach chair in tow, but her husband. She walked with purpose to the sandy shores. So did he. She walked tall, elegant, carrying her beach chair. She was bold and beautiful. Her skin, lathered with lotion, caught the sunshine and glistened. Her wrinkles bespoke the wisdom that comes with age. I am beautiful, I am free. So was he. He dares to go, where fundamentalist fear, his hands bound carrying his beach chair. I will dare to suggest that he was obviously mindful of not just the beauty that walked in front of him, but of his own inner strength of character, wisdom, freedom, power, and yes, beauty.

When I go to the beach I notice that women in bikinis come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and races, refusing to be ashamed of their bodies, or their very essence of being. Even pregnant women sport bikinis today; they too refuse to be ashamed. Women in bikinis, and one piece bathing suits stake their claim on the beach and at the pool sides, the battle scars of life revealed, and dare to proclaim I am beautiful, I am free, I am wise, I am powerful, and yes, I too have strength of character.

Perhaps this is what upsets fundamentals so much; the bikini is a bold in your face statement against religious tyranny.

It has become as well, and is ever growing, a bold in your face statement against secular mankind’s obsession with youth, false beauty, and tyrannical compulsions of perfection.

Young women and men are often confused as to what exactly is beauty, but the men and women of the generation before them speak loud and clear when they refuse to cave in to religious tyranny of any ilk.

[optom3]

What a lovely and perceptive piece of writing. More  people need to see  that true beauty is internal an external beauty is clear for all to see.That IMO does not mean a woman has to cover up from head to toe. Some Burkas I have seen even have a mesh over the eyes. That is almost criminal to me, we need to see peoples eyes, they truly are the window to the soul.
The eyes should NEVER be covered. I personally do not think a woman should have to cover up full stop. I certainly do not think it should ever form part of a programme to subjugate and "lord" it over women

[isabelle]

DEL, thanks for sharing this post. I totally agree with this, and as a French woman living in France, I can tell you that I cringe every time I see a woman wearing a burka, and there are more and more of them (and I don't even live in Paris, but in a city 10 times smaller).

It is becoming a real problem, as the respect towards women is actually going back down towards what it was like before the 60's. I can see it every day, in the relationships between my high school pupils, and even towards me: now we get kids telling us, female teachers, that they are not to "be given orders by a woman"! And yes, all this stems from the growing influence of Islam in France, and not only fundamentalist Muslims. Need I mention that the (white)  French guys are all too happy to jump on the bandwagon?

I can assure you that I never thought I would be saying this sort of thing one day for fear it might sound somewhat racist, but I will always FIRST stand by women's rights to be treated as EQUAL human beings. And today, in France, the backlash against women is brought about by Muslim males, mostly from Turkey, and to a lesser degree from North Africa (even if they are more numerous).

Any Muslims/Turks online who might share their feelings about this problem?

[delalluvia]

DEL, thanks for sharing this post. i totally agree with this, and as a French woman living in France, I can tell you that I cringe every time I see a woman wearing a burka, and there are more and more of them (and I don't even live in Paris, but in a city 10 times smaller).

It is becoming a real problem, as the respect towards women is actually going back down towards what it was like before the 60's. I can see it every day, in the relationships between my high school pupils, and even towards me: now we get kids telling us, female teachers, that they are not to "be given orders by a woman"! And yes, all this stems from the growing influence of Islam in France, and not only fundamentalit Muslims. Need I mention that the (white)  French guys are all to happy to jump on the bandwagon?

I can assure you that I never thought I would be saying this sort of thing one day for fear it might sound somewhat racist, but I will always FIRST stand by women's rights to be treated as EQUAL human beings. And today, in France, the backlash against women is brought about by Muslim males, mostly from Turkey, and to a lesser degree from North Africa (even if they are more numerous).

Any Muslims/Turks online who might share their feelings about this problem?

Scary and sickening isn't it?  When men of one's own country are so insecure as to be all too happy to join a religion or philosophy that puts women back under their control.

[isabelle]

Scary, yes, and depressing. I am worried for the future of my 8-year-old daughter.

I just want to add that part of the reason why tolerating the burka is such a big problem (but I find the Muslim veil problematic too, as it is the same logic) is that it is making the hatred against women more acceptable to more people - even among those who would not dream of telling their wives to wear a burka. And that is what I mean when I mention the attitudes mostly of some Muslims here, who are really trying to control what women and young girls do and wear, while they don't usually impose the burka.  I can say that I am a long-time antiracist and feminist activist, and it seems that for fear of being labelled racist when this is really a question of a certain interpretation of religion, we are accepting the unacceptable, and it really makes me mad.