The bans are supposedly uphold french values such as hygiene, secularism and public morals. The policy is hypocritical, because common french skimpy swimwear can be said to be violations of hygiene and public morals. Muslims are expected to put up with the brazen displays of flesh by other beachgoers, but are not afforded the courtesy to wear what they want at the beach without being humiliated and fined.
Some french see the burkini as a symbol of the oppression of women in Islam. This argument states that the government needs to dictate what women may and may not wear in the name of promoting freedom for women. There are so many reasons why this won't work. For one, a woman who has a husband who will only let her swim in a burkini probably won't respond to the ban by letting her swim in something more revealing. The law also assumes that women would never choose to wear something modest on their own. Modesty is not only chosen through oppression and there are many other reasons someone could choose to wear a burkini.
One key to having a free society is to be accepting of others' beliefs. By banning burkinis the French aren't respecting women's rights to wear whatever they want and their beliefs in modesty. If anyone has an issue with the burkini, the solution is quite simple: they don't have to wear one.
The ban of practices because of prejudice 'for women's own good' is reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter and the public humiliation of women in Puritan colonies who didn't fit the society's morals. The puritan women were publicly humiliated, just like the muslim women who are stopped in public and fined because of what they are wearing. The french government is showing the intolerance of the early religious colonies in New England.
The ban of practices because of prejudice 'for women's own good' is reminiscent of The Scarlet Letter and the public humiliation of women in Puritan colonies who didn't fit the society's morals. The puritan women were publicly humiliated, just like the muslim women who are stopped in public and fined because of what they are wearing. The french government is showing the intolerance of the early religious colonies in New England.
Totally agree. The government shouldn't get to have a say in what women are able to wear. The women wearing these burkinis have chosen to.
ReplyDelete- Grace Schwall
This makes me so upset! The women should definitely have to right to choose what they wear, and the government should not be allowed to ban the burkini. I liked your last sentence of the second paragraph, I mean come on, if you don't like them, no one is forcing you to wear one.
ReplyDeleteI'm so fed up with the government trivializing Women's Power! Since when it was against the law to wear a burkini! They shouldn't be focusing on minuscule things ! Maybe we should focus on how Police take advantage of their authority!!!
ReplyDeleteThat is such a good point. Law enforcement takes their job beyond its intended purpose of protecting the people to focus on miniscule things, like what women choose to wear to the beach.
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DeleteI'm so fed up with the government trivializing Women's Power! Since when it was against the law to wear a burkini! They shouldn't be focusing on minuscule things ! Maybe we should focus on how Police take advantage of their authority!!!
ReplyDeleteThe fact that this debate has made it all the way up to the main french government really shed a light on France's true fear of terrorism. (A rational fear on the surface, but irrational if that fear lumps all muslims into the terrorism.)
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