if we ignore the idea that people will begin to wear it out of rebellion and look at the cause of the argument, then its obvious to me that it is a blatant discrimination by the french government using the idea of security as an excuse and have people like sponge to thank for taking their law to an extreme.
the hijab or any veil is not a symbol of repression. it is in fact the complete opposite. in traditional islam, the outside world is a space for men, and women are forced to be inside, hidden away. veils are a way for a woman to be in the outside world whilst still feeling and being seen as inside (See Leila Hessini, Wearing the Hijab in Contemporary Morroco:Choice and Identity). they have the security of being protected from sexual advances and impurity (as they see it) without being subjected to a completely restricted lifstyle.
Sponge, you are not actually arguing that the women are not being given their rights. you are essentially complaining that it infringes on your rights as a "free" westerner to see somebody of a different culture treated differently.
It is a method which could be seen to have been used for western dominance. "...in their focus upon the veil as the symbol of Islamic backwardness and primitivism, Western colonisers effectively defined the terms of subsequent debates about women and the veil so that it became charged with issues of culture and nationalism and locked into an opposition between "Western" and "indigenous" or "authentic" values." (Claire Dwyer, Veiled Meanings: young British Muslim women and the negotiation of differences. pg 8)
we could go your way sponge, or we could at least try to avoid cultural bankruptcy,
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Originally Posted by sailor jack
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