France veil row sparks Trappes unrest

[riderinthestorm]

88. Headscarves, turbans, yarmulke etc do not equal niqabs or burqas

They don't cover the face.

Its absolutely appropriate to have a conversation about cultural traditions and their place in a different society. I'm all for that. That's what has happened in France and the overwhelming majority of that society supports a ban on face coverings.

Why? Several reasons that I've read.

1. We in the west distrust anyone whose face is covered. I don't believe its specifically religious per se (although there's certainly those within our western cultures who are against Islam), its OUR cultural tradition to mistrust those in face masks or balaclavas etc. Its axiomatic that in movies you can instantly identify whose the "bad guy" by the fact their face is covered - whether its a spaghetti western from the 50s or a balaclava in 2013....

2. Most western women (and men) recoil at the garment's inherent design - purposefully erasing a woman and ensuring she is permanently secondary.

3. Most non-believers find the garment repellent because its purpose as a modesty barrier to ensure males don't get overexcited sexually, is ugly and sexist.

4. The idea that ANYone in a modern society should grow up essentially being brainwashed that they "need" to wear this kind of garment in order to be "pure" should ring some alarm bells. Its not healthy psychologically and in hot weather areas, its not healthy physiologically. Furthermore, I'd stipulate its cruel to model this kind of behavior and/or force girls to be shrouded - its not healthy mental behavior imho. At least its certainly not healthy behavior in most modern western cultures.

5. While I personally don't hold a lot of credence with the safety aspects, there are those who feel strongly that face coverings are a security risk. Banks agree with that - you can't walk into any financial institution with your face obscured in any way.

So I don't agree at all that headscarves, turbans, yarmulke's etc are at ALL like a niqab and/or burqa. Its not apples to apples. Not in the least.

Lastly, halal or kosher slaughter is theoretically kinder and more humane than commercial slaughter so we don't ban public sacrifice because slaughtering animals in public for religious ceremonies is cruel. Its not. And an argument can be made its actually more humane. We've decided as a culture to ban it because we don't want it in our society. Funny how that's a RELIGIOUS ritual, not even a cultural relic, that nobody seems to be all up in arms being banned....

Yet when it comes to this misogynistic CULTURAL garment, suddenly everyone thinks we should be okay with it...