French police, youths clash after veil incident

[Vikrant]

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The Friday night violence came after a gathering of about 200-250 people to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed Thursday for wearing a face veil. The husband tried to strangle an officer who was doing the ticketing, the prosecutor said.

France has barred face veils since 2011. Proponents of the ban — which enjoyed wide public support across the political spectrum — argue the veil oppresses women and contradicts France's principles of secularism, which are enshrined in the constitution. In addition to small fines or citizenship classes for women wearing veils, the law includes a hefty 30,000 euro ($39,370) fine for anyone who forces a woman to wear one.

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French police, youths clash after veil incident - Times Of India

 

[Esmeralda]

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The Friday night violence came after a gathering of about 200-250 people to protest the arrest of a man whose wife was ticketed Thursday for wearing a face veil. The husband tried to strangle an officer who was doing the ticketing, the prosecutor said.

France has barred face veils since 2011. Proponents of the ban — which enjoyed wide public support across the political spectrum — argue the veil oppresses women and contradicts France's principles of secularism, which are enshrined in the constitution. In addition to small fines or citizenship classes for women wearing veils, the law includes a hefty 30,000 euro ($39,370) fine for anyone who forces a woman to wear one.

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French police, youths clash after veil incident - Times Of India

It is a complex situation. On the one hand, not all women are 'forced' to wear the veil. Many choose to do so. Thus, the "fine for anyone who forces a woman to wear one" can be difficult to enforce. The policeman was writing a ticket apparently for the woman wearing the veil rathern than a person or persons who may have been forcing her to wear it. If she was wearing it of her own will, does the law include that under its penalities?

At the same time, France has a very open, democratic society and women being oppressed definitely goes against the grain. However, I think they are confused if they believe all women wearing the veil are being oppressed. Again, I know from personal experience and involvement with such women that many choose to wear it, that it is not an oppression. Therefore, France should support their right to wear it, if they choose to. It's the choosing to that is the problem: how do you truly determine who is choosing to wear it and who is not? In the end, I think the French are being xenophobic; they are simply uncomfortable with women covering their faces and want it to stop.

In the long run, I believe that if you immigrate to a new country, you live by the laws and cultural mores of that country. If you refuse to do that, it's better to live somewhere else, in a country whose laws and cultural mores agree with your own. So, if this woman's husband so disagrees with the law about veils that he is going to fight with a police officer enforcing that law, the husband should move his family to a country that accepts women wearing the veil.

And let's make this very, very clear: This is one husband, one family. Not all, not most, Muslim families are like this. Wearing the veil is not a 'Muslim' thing: it is a cultural thing. In the vast majority of Muslim countries, women do not wear the veil.