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I feel everyone in France should be required to wear one of the two dominant uniforms that are socially accepable today; ie. a business suit (open collar on the weekends permitted) or blue jeans with a t shirt. There could be a special dispensation, upon application to the proper authorities, for older people who prefer cordouroys.
Perhps we could allow priests and nuns and orthodox Jews to wear their religious vetements on certin holy days.

By acting in this way we can assure that there is no religious or cultural discrimination behind the new codes.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Tue Jan 26th, 2010 at 06:33:36 AM EST
And I would also like to get rid of these colorful long dresses that many African women port here in the 18th arondissement of Paris. Who wants to see all this color in the middle of winter in Paris when one is supposed to be feel depressed.

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Tue Jan 26th, 2010 at 06:53:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
There could be a special dispensation, upon application to the proper authorities, for older people who prefer cordouroys.

Special pleading™ Alert!

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jan 26th, 2010 at 06:56:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Migeru:
Special pleadingTM Alert!

I've got too big an arse for blue jeans but I've recently lost 6 kilos, so maybe I'll give it a try ;)

And special dispensations can be a pain with the French bureaucracy. ;(

Hey, Grandma Moses started late!

by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Tue Jan 26th, 2010 at 07:05:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
As I have said elsewhere, I've always found more than a little unhealthy the propensity of white male politicians over 50 to regulate what young women and teenage girls may or may not wear.
[No, I'm not talking about you, Len :-)]

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.

by Bernard on Tue Jan 26th, 2010 at 08:17:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Bernard:
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!

by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Tue Jan 26th, 2010 at 09:46:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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