The French president Nicolas Sarkozy has done a right thing by issuing a statement against women wearing the “burq” in France. He has rightly said that “The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience.”
Some misguided people think that it is an attack on the freedom of practicing your religion, and some even go to the extent of comparing the Muslim women wearing the burqa to the Christian nuns wearing their dress. First of all there is no question of comparison; you don’t see teenage nuns running around in the school corridors wearing their religious dresses. Every Muslim girl and woman is expected to wear the burqa. Second, even if the Christianity demands its women to wear something over their heads, societies are changing fast and they are not trapped in a time warp.
And whether Muslim women agree or not, burqa is a sign of subservience; it’s just that they have become so used to its presence in their lives that they think it’s a normal thing and hence, totally acceptable. What they often call, the Stockholm syndrome (it’s about the kidnapped and the kidnapper, but it’s the same thing).
I also see a tinge of hypocrisy here. When someone points out that there are so many violent things prescribed in Islam, they say the time was like that back then and they must be seen contextually and they are no more applicable to Islam during modern times. Good, no problem with that. But then why don’t they see things like the burqa contextually? It’s no longer needed now. May be it was needed back then when it was implemented, but haven’t the times changed now?
A long time back Sati was abolished in India and then too orthodox Hindus had protested, but we all know what a horrible thing it is. Will we allow it if some communities start practicing it again in the name of religious freedom, even if some women do it willingly?
Some Muslim organizations in India are urging the Indian prime minister to raise the issue with the French president. My suggestion to the Indian prime minister would be to introduce such changes in India too.
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i agree .. it is rather sad that many (muslim) women think that it is very wrong of them to be without the burqa. they themselves don’t want to give it up. it’s sad what so many millenia of oppression can to do people’s psyche ..
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