Liberté, égalité, fraternité?

[yami_no_hoshi]

French Senate bans burka
Law to take effect in 6 months

The Associated Press

The French Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a bill banning the burka-style Islamic veil everywhere from post offices to streets, a move that affects only a tiny minority of the country's Muslim women but has significant symbolic repercussions.
The Senate voted

Comments

[ntensity]

The Senate vote was 246 to 1!!?!?! Damn.

Proud of that 1 though.

[yami_no_hoshi]

I know! Only 1 person voted against it? That shocked me.

edit for extra question mark that didn't belong, lol.

[twowaymirrrors]

246 to 1?? That's just...I don't even have words for how disgusting this is. But good on that one person.

[iolarah]

:( I don't think a ban is going to improve anything.

[poetic_pixie_13]

I'm eagerly awaiting the white feminists who'll say that this is just 'protecting' Muslim women. Because Muslim women can't decide for themselves what is and is not empowering.

I've known girls who've worn the niqab, they're bright and sweet and aren't poor little brainwashed lambs who need the protection of the enlightened West. The only thing this law does is punish women who are being forced to wear the niqab, they will have to stay in their abusive homes at all times. If you want to help women in this situation have outreach programs, encourage them to participate in the community so they'll have some place to turn if they need it. Instead you're just isolating them even more and ensuring that they'll have no one.

[xanax_n_wine]

That's the best reply i've read. :)

[hotcoffeems]

America *is* bad when it comes to this kind of thing. France, however, is also bad. The reasoning/history behind it is slightly different, but it boils down to the same thing. Both are bad; I don't feel particularly lucky to be a Muslim living in the US in terms of anti-Islamic bigotry.

[hotcoffeems]

...Oh, I dunno...any place with a modicum of religious tolerance for anything other than Christianity? You know, where just *maybe* a large swath of those who guide public opinion (and some of whom are in policy-making positions) don't marginalize and near-criminalize anyone Muslim?

I'd think after all the hate for the NYC Islamic Cultural Center, the Qur'an burnings, the religious profiling, the assaults...this would be damn obvious.

What exactly are you trying to say? "At least we're not France"? That's damning with faint praise, to put it mildly.