In France on 26 January 2010 a cross-party parliamentary inquiry, set up six months ago to investigate the full veil, handed down its recommendations. It recommended first that a parliamentary resolution be adopted stating that wearing the full veil is contrary to Republican values. It went on to condemn discrimination and violence against women.
Despite the inquiry's position that as yet there is insufficient general consensus in support of a ban of the full veil in public spaces, the parliamentary leader of the ruling party, Jean-François Copé, has submitted a draft law stating that 'nobody, in places open to the public or the streets, may wear an outfit or an accessory whose effect is to hide the face'.
The draft law, which would apply to both the burqa and the niqab which fully obscure a woman's whole body and face and leave only a small slit or mesh for the eyes, has created ripples of both outrage and support across the world. Those who support it cry that countries must protect themselves against insidious non-democratic practices. Those who condemn it argue that to target Islam for its religious dress culture is a racist violation of cultural rights.
In the debate, the concerns that supposedly started the whole shebang — women's rights, their protection and promotion, and the complex implications of Islamic dress practices — have been obscured. Instead, women, and women's bodies, are yet again being used as the battleground for a culture war.
The sad irony is that a ban on women wearing the full veil in public places will not liberate women, but further constrain and even endanger them, regardless of their motives for wearing it.
If a woman has freely chosen to wear the full veil, then a law overriding that choice in public places is a clear curtailment of her civil and political rights. Those in the West who argue that women, even through the exercise of their own choice, should not be entitled to put themselves in a position which potentially demeans them, would do better to fight against violent pornography and unregulated prostitution.
If a woman has been forced to wear the burqa or the niqab, then it is barbaric to ostracise her socially, criminalise her, and restrict her access to public services. To isolate her further from the broader society and to discriminate against her while she is vulnerable, in the name