- 7 March 2004
TAKING COVER
by Mary Elizabeth Hansen
It's a done deal. Islamic headscarves, as well as Jewish yarmulkes and Christian crosses, will not be allowed in French public schools. For months, Muslims in Europe and across the world have protested the French proposition, now the law of the land. Germany and Belgium are reportedly considering similar bans. A Dubai-based television station, Al-Arabiya , criticized the French law, declaring that it." is another example of the Crusader's malice, which Westerners have against Muslims."
The official reason for the law is to preserve France's secular nature. The unofficial reasons are many. Islam is a growing force in French society, a very non-secular force. Headscarves are regarded by many non-Muslims as a political statement rather than a religious symbol. Many French view headscarves as a sign of oppression of women, rather than a means of liberation, an opinion voiced by many Muslim women.
Thoughtful critics in the West have questioned this ruling. Will the new law separate Muslim immigrants even more from established French society? Is it fair to force Muslims to abandon an important piece of their religious identity? Is this law only a band-aid, and a flimsy one at that, meant to sidestep a growing problem in France and throughout Europe, namely, a growing and militant minority that will not be assimilated into Western culture? No one critic of the law has quite the same answer.or put forth adequate solutions that go beyond the issue of Islamic headscarves.
One side issue of the whole headscarf controversy is widely overlooked by critics and commentaries. French Jewish and Christian children in France have lost their right to a form of religious expression. A law intended to put the brakes on the rise of Islamic militancy in France has resulted in a loss for members of the largest Jewish community in Europe and the small number of practicing Christians in France. For Jews, the no yarmulkes rule comes amid growing attacks on their children, their synagogues, private schools and cemeteries, mostly by gangs of Muslim youths.
While the loss of the right to a religious symbol will be a new experience for French Muslim schoolgirls, dhimmi women throughout the Islamic world are accustomed to losses of their religious and cultural freedoms. And, there are few critics in the West to wring their hands and use up gallons of ink deploring the loss of rights by dhimmi women caught in intolerable Islamic societies. Laws passed recently in certain states in northern Nigeria requiring all women to veil barely made the back pages of most major newspapers.
The Associated Press recently reported that a variety of Islamic militant groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir are demanding that all women be veiled, a sure-fire sign that Islamists in that region are flexing their sectarian muscles. The usual "or else" are added to the threatening decrees. Algerian women, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, already know about the "or else" issued by their Islamists. Old-fashioned throat slashings are the order of the day for females caught without the correct Islamic head covering. Christian families in the newly liberated Iraq are being mailed "veil or else" letters by Islamic groups throughout the country. The "or else" includes threats to burn family homes, with families inside of them, if veils are not donned by the women of the infidel families. Dhimmi women in Islamic utopias such as Iran and Saudi Arabia find no choice available to them. They must be veiled. Dhimmi women defying the laws of those shining examples of Islamic tolerance can be fined, beaten and jailed.
The use of headscarves is on the rise in Islamic-dominated countries. Even Turkey, often labeled the most moderate of Muslim countries, is experiencing a rise of the use of head coverings by women. So far, the freedom of choice to veil or not to veil remains in Turkey, as it does in many Islamic countries. But, reports from various Muslim countries also indicates that as militant Islam grows, so does the pressure for all women, regardless of religion, to cover their heads. Islamists most certainly regard the increased numbers of veiled women as visible symbols of their influence and power in society.
For now, France has decreed, " non, Mademoiselles ," to Muslim girls wanting to cover their heads while attending public schools. How much enforcement will be used to implement the law remains to be seen. Acts of civil disobedience in opposition to the new law are certain. Sympathetic press coverage is also a guarantee. In the meantime, dhimmi women living in many parts of the Islamic world, are forced to abide by the dark forces of "veil or else." They know, from experience, that journalists, politicians and their co-religionists in the West have little interest in their fates if they choose civil disobedience over a headscarf.
© 2004 Mary Elizabeth Hansen