The French Law against Burkas and other Veiled Faces

I’m sure we all, at times, get that uneasy feeling in our stomachs and minds when something happens that is perfectly legal, logical and correct, but feels all wrong. I had that feeling this morning.

Today is the first day of enforcement in France of the new law forbidding burkas and other total veiling of the face. The law covers all sorts of masks, except for carnival parades.

The inclusion of masks is the answer to a real problem because often full-face-masked robbers, anarchic gangs that destroy city centers during such events as G20 meetings, and gangs that ride trains attacking and looting passengers are a real problem in France, as well as in many other European countries.

But, the question of forbidding burkas is one that raises many questions.

First, the penalty is a small fine, so it’s not going to be very effective. But, a husband or father who imposes the burka is subject to large fines and prison, and I ask just how a court could prove the intent?

Second, many commentators think it will just unfairly punish French women who wear the burka by forcing them to stay at home, something like the Taliban laws in Afghanistan. And, to begin with, there are estimated to be only 2,000 women in France who wear burkas.

Third, French police say the law is, for all practical purposes, unenforceable since they cannot lift a veil to prove identity before issuing the fine.

France is a laic society. All religions are accepted but none are supported by the state. Recently, the UMP, the political party in power has moved to the right, perhaps in order to hold its voter base for Sarkozy against the extreme right National Front (Jean-Marie Le Pen and his daughter, Marine). Part of this is evident in its introduction of the burka law last year. It was passed by a large majority in the National Assembly controlled by the UMP.

It is a disturbing series of events. I do not support radical Islam, whish is the real target of this law, no matter how loudly the UMP denies it. But, it seems to me that attacking women who are living in radical Islam families is not the way to curb their husbands’ and fathers’ anti-social activities. Once again, women are paying the price for attitudes they probably do not fully support - in the sense that most women do not support violence, suicide bombers aside.

Why are we not going directly after the real culprits - men who hold radical and often terrorist views and who act upon them by violently disturbing civil society in their European host countries? Severely penalizing them, even excluding them from France (their wives and daughters could follow them or stay in France, as they choose), would be fair, but attacking their wives and daughters, who have no power over their lives in the radical family world in which they live, seems mean-spirited.

Please don’t tell me that the women can leave home - go where and do what??