When I was a kid in the 60s & 70s, the same kind of people also wanted to regulate the woman's right to wear mini-skirts or pants. Asserting power on the weakest people in the society must be a powerful drug I suppose.
At least "Ni putes ni soumises" (Neither whores nor submissive), who's is in favor of a legal ban, has a case: they are a genuine feminist group, rooted in the very same neighborhoods where most of the veil-wearing women live. They denounce the constant oppression and hostile to women atmosphere of the poor neighborhoods where many women are pressured to wear the veil, lest they'll be constantly harassed and called "bitches and 'ho's".
The veil doesn't happen in isolation: there's a whole social context to it; and pretending to address the (visible) symptoms while turning a blind eye on the violence and coercion would be plain hypocritical. Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.
The veil doesn't happen in isolation: there's a whole social context to it; and pretending to address the (visible) symptoms while turning a blind eye on the violence and coercion would be plain hypocritical.
If this is true, it is the key. Suppressing the burqua is like burning off the wart when the cancer underneath the skin is the cause. Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
