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There is, obviously, no reliable way of knowing how much compulsion is involved,
Exactly. This doesn't show in your words though, where you always assume compulsion, not free will.
It's your theory that the headscarf is necessarily about a girl's "worth" or assumptions about her sexuality (sexual behaviour). Sometimes it is a statement about her regional roots or a statement of defiance in the face of discrimination. More often it is a statement on sexuality in the sense of physical integrity. Even where it is a statement about restricting women's roles, this message does not need the headscarf (or the pleated skirt in my childhood which symbolised exactly that). Parents who teach their daughters that their place in life is a subordinated one, may choose to impose certain clothes, but these clothes are only a symptom).
My point with the pleated skirts is that the same sexist views that you say you fight by a ban on headscarves exist among the natives too. You still choose to fight the headscarf, and that makes your message morph to something like "sexism is a Muslim problem." That is not only playing into the hands of Islamophobes (I hope I have found a wording that doesn't make you explode again) but into those of native sexists too.
Parents who teach their daughters that their place in life is a subordinated one, may choose to impose certain clothes,
but these clothes are only a symptom
They are clearly understood as such. My point is that it is legitimate to ban such "symptoms" from school, because they are harmful to a girl's development.
Or is a constant reminder of one's subordinate status a good thing? I fear it may provoke cognitive dissonance, in a school environment where a subordinate status with respect to males is neither required nor approved of. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
Or is a constant reminder of one's subordinate status a good thing?
You don't take the point that the ban of clothes typical of immigrants is a reminder of immigrants' subordinate status, do you? The debate, and the ban,is only about the headscarf of the immigrants, not the clothes the natives use for similar purposes. I note that the moment these clothes come into the focus you try the next externalisation "girls who are repressed by their Christian parents?" No, girls who are repressed by their "western culture" parents, and who, depending on class background, can be identified by their clothes from pleated skirts to Barbie stuff. I should think a ban on immigrants' clothes in a school environment where a subordinate status with respect to natives is neither required nor approved of.
You don't take the point that the ban of clothes typical of immigrants is a reminder of immigrants' subordinate status, do you?
A reminder to whom? Not to an independent observer, because the girls become indistinguishable from their classmates. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
A large plurality of French Moslems of North African origin are Berbers, i.e. of European rather than Arab type. A large proportion of the others fall well within the range of skin tones etc of "native" French people. Add to that the fact that, in places where some women of North African origin wear headscarves, there are also large numbers of non-headscarf wearing North African women.
So, indistinguishable from their classmates. Really. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
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