French government versus the burqa: Arguments for secularism wearing thin
WASHINGTON — In the early 2000s, the issue of Muslim schoolgirls, teachers, and civil servants wearing headscarves in public institutions and schools was a heated national debate in France and a source of discussion and controversy around the world. In 2009, President Nicholas Sarkozy rekindled the flames of that debate with statements condemning the burqa in France, calling it a form of enslavement that was unwelcome in the country. Following his lead, on January 26, a French parliamentary panel recommended outlawing the use of face-covering veils in any public building or service institution, including public transportation. Though it is not an outright ban and not yet law, it is a large step toward the further restriction of female Muslim dress in France.
In the United States, where in late October a woman might easily pair a traditional hijab with a Halloween costume without issue, the French headscarf and burqa debates are hard to fathom; seen through American eyes, the bans limit the freedoms of speech and religion that the government of a liberal, democratic society should guarantee. Though it is easy to think of the controversy in this way, it is first important to understand the French government’s reasoning behind the measures it has taken.
Historically, secularism has been intensely important to the French Republic. The ideals of the French state seek to protect religious diversity by eliminating any mention or promotion of religion in official discourse or policy. For instance, you will never hear President Sarkozy request blessings for France the way that American politicians are obliged to end speeches with “God bless America,” and the Catholic crucifixes that are still commonplace in Italian classrooms are absent from French public schools. In this vein, the move to ban headscarves in 2004 was not designed to limit the liberties of Muslim girls and women. Rather, it was enacted to protect those who chose not to wear the veil from peer pressure and intimidation in their community. In this line of thinking, students would thus remain free from religiously based demands in their officially secular public school.
Though the 2004 headscarf law was grounded on the principle of state secularism, the potential burqa ban stands on much thinner ice. It would certainly impede the estimated 1,400 to 2,000 burqa-wearing French women from many aspects of daily life, including riding the Metro, visiting a relative in a public hospital, or entering their children’s school. Again, however, the official justification for the ban revolves around undue religious peer pressure. Proponents of the ban argue that most French women who have taken to the burqa have family origins in North Africa and the Maghreb, regions where the burqa is not a traditional form of dress as it is in parts of the Middle East and Central Asia. Thus, many interpret the French burqa to be a symbol of religious radicalization and increasing efforts to subjugate women in some Muslim communities. However true or not this interpretation may be, the move to outlaw the burqa looks much less like state protection and much more like state-imposed religious limitations.