Europe’s Burqa Ban Shocks French Muslims:A decision by Europe’s top rights court to uphold a French ban on Islamic full-face niqab has been criticized as shocking by rights organization and Muslim women after the court accepted Paris’s argument that it encouraged citizens to live together. The ban has nothing to do with gender equality and everything to do with rising racism in western Europe, Shami Chakrabarti, director of the UK human rights pressure group Liberty, told The Guardian. How do you liberate women by criminalizing their clothing? If you suspect bruises under a burqa, why punish the victim, and if you disapprove of the wearers choices, how does banishing her from public engagement promote liberal attitudes? Introduced in 2010, the law, active in France and Belgium and known as the burqa ban, makes it illegal for anyone to cover their face in a public place. Tuesdays case at the European court of human rights (ECHR) to challenge the ban was brought by a 24-year-old Frenchwoman, who was not named but was described as being of Pakistani origin, who wore the burqa. Representing the woman, British solicitors from Birmingham claimed that outlawing of the veil was contrary to six articles of the European convention on human rights. They argued, inhumane and degrading, against the right of respect for family and private life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of speech and discriminatory Lawyers for the French government had argued at the court in Strasbourg that the ban applied also to balaclavas and hoods. The court admitted the general ban could appear to be an overreaction to a small problem and said it was extremely worried by the Islamophobic declarations made during the parliamentary debate. This ban has a very strong negative impact on the situation of women who have made the choice of wearing the full veil for reasons linked to their beliefs, the judges said, adding that the legislation had risked contributing to and consolidating stereotypes affecting certain categories of people and encouraging expressions of intolerance. The European judges decided otherwise, declaring that the preservation of a certain idea of living together was the legitimate aim of the French authorities.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 08:28:17 +0000
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