By Fe Bongolan
I need your help to unravel a mystery.
The mystery has to do with France’s recent anti-burqa legislation signed into law and enacted April 11, 2011. The law bans women from wearing burqa, chadoor and niqab (full face veil) — garments proscribed by Muslim religion and culture — to cover a woman’s face and body from head to toe.
As you can imagine, the new law has stirred an uproar. Throughout the Islamic world, depending on where you are, a burqa serves multiple purposes: It shields a woman’s body from unwanted sexual attention, it designates social and marital status, and as defined by the Qur’an, it provides a veil of modesty — a virtue applicable to both sexes. Of France’s Muslim population of seven million, only 2,000 women wear the burqa.
In justifying the anti-burqa law, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said: “The burqa is not a religious symbol. It’s a sign of enslavement, of debaseness. I want to say this solemnly. The burqa will not be welcomed on the territory of the French republic. We cannot accept in our country women imprisoned behind a mask, deprived of all social life of their identity.”
At first glance it appears that in France, the west is attempting to infiltrate and dominate the hot zone of Muslim values. Ironically, France, a Catholic country, has had many iterations of women in full-body black covering starting with convents during the Middle Ages. Is this about the continuing war between the west and Islam? Or is there something more?