Banning of burqa is the infringement of personal freedom. Let the women wear do what ever they want. We can’t impose the rules forcibly until people are mentally prepared to obey these.

Yes I do becoz it makes them look different in crowd and many times may cause accident and injury.
There is some flexibility even in Muslims and here in India also most of them wear Salwar-Kameej[more than 90%,this is also a conservative estimate] and rest of them wear Sari and Burqa.

Vijay
We can't ensure women empowerment by imposing bans on burqa rather it will amount to infringement of their personal freedom. We can't force women to do what they don't want to do. It will be better to find out the factors that force women to wear burqa. Obviously these are the religious factors and without negating these religious myths we can’t hope that women will accept such laws from their core of heart.

Andy,some time back some clerics issued fatwa against Sania Mirza but top Muslim Religious leaders turned up for her support.
The dress should be used as per the environment and surrounding needs but it should be sober.

Yes it has to banned and not only in France but in all the non-muslim countries including states.

It might not be the empowerment but can be taken as the 1st step towards it.

There is no way to know which of the women are wearing it because they want to and which are being forced by their husbands and fathers.

Even the ones being forced will never admit that they are being forced because the husbands and fathers would retaliate against them if they told.

I see it as a safety issue.

In Iraq and Afghanistan many suicide bombers have been dressed in burkas. Some of the militants have escaped or tried to escape dressed in burkas.

All the security cameras in the world are useless against veil. You have no way of knowing who is under there, they could even be smuggling people into the country.

Yes Nuya exactly. Many a suicide bombers have used Burqas in the past. Recently, a robbery at Mumbai international airport took place for a flight leaving towards Hyderabad, where the thieves were armed and wearing burqa (which helped them to keep the weapons inside BUrqa). The theft was int he cargo section, somewhere in a warehouse of the airport where there isn’t a high level security.

Kemal Ataturk or some person close to that name had banned Burqa in Turkey. It paid off!! We can all see results today that Turkey is much better than other Muslim countries. Muslim women should feel comfortable in Hijab, i. e. in a scarf and then go on telling people how wearing is useful and blah blah blah..

Why there are such regulations for women only? Some clerics ban the burqa and some allow? Who are these clerics to decide about the dressing sense of women? Why are they so interested in bearing or not bearing of the burqa by women?

Brajesh
Women are guided to remain in veil in parts of India. They too don't like the veil. Have you ever bothered about their freedom?

Women's freedom can't be judged by Burqa. There are many other aspects of women empowerment.

Nuya
We can't justify the ban on burqa in the name of security concerns.There are many other ways to improve the security. This can never be justified.

I don't think France has banned burqa due to security concerns. Earlier they had banned turban there. I think there is some problem in their attitude towards other religions.

I never spoke about India or Pakistan. Im talking about all the muslims, including Indians...

@ Chintan

Maybe they wanted to empower the Sikh men by banning the turban!!

we don’t let men walk around in ski masks because they tend to rob banks while wearing them and no one can Identify them. We don’t let people walk around in Dusters (long trench coats)because they hide guns and shoot up schools. There is no way to make society safe with burkas, the good of the many outweighs the wants of a few.

Maybe they thought they were smuggling drugs in them. LOL!

It is because people who draw attention to themselves like that make targets of themselves from hate groups. Protecting the public is hard enough without people waving a red flag at the bulls.

Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ”When in Rome, do as the Romans do”?

I will not go to a Muslim country and wear a mini skirt (not that I have ever worn one.) If you don’t like the culture or the country, stay home! If you can’t abide by the law of the land, you have no business there.

Why should countries make accommodations for every silly superstition that people choose have? The idea of being civilized means letting go of superstitions and leaving childish mindsets back in the dark ages where they belong.

Pick one day a year and dress up in those costumes and have a parade with the music and food of the culture and celebrate the heritage just like most other groups with outdated cultures do.

Yes,that’s the truth and most of the Muslim male community is controlling their females and they wears according to their will.
What about the many Muslim actresses and cabaret dancers,who is compelling them to wear such dresses ?.
Why don’t the Muslim Community controlls those who are supporting the veil at one side and commiting crimes against women outside.

i agree with you Nuya but targeting only Muslim traditions and cultures is increasingly becoming prevalent in
today’s society.
I think we are marginalizing this community throughout the world and this attitude makes them more and more radical giving birth to intolerance.
i for some reason see the gay marriages as a positive start in making this world a far better place that will spread love all around and breaking chains from these radical traditions and cultures.

I don’t think that it is about targeting Muslims, it is only their outdated and harmful traditions that are being targeted. The outdated and harmful traditions of other cultures have already been addressed and they logically decided that those things needed to be abandoned.

For instance, the Catholic church had a long held belief that women were not human, they had a meeting and decided that women were indeed human. It is ridiculous, I know, but it really happened.

There were lots of Voodoo practitioners in the southern states of the USA and they were persuaded to change real killings to symbolic killings. Now, most of the new Voodoo recruits don’t even know about the history and the real killings.

No one believes that the dead will come back to haunt us (well, no sane people) but we still have Halloween and Mardi Gras as celebrations left over from pagan myths. No harm in that, it is fun and it reminds us how far we have come from the days of superstition and darkness.

Some things need to be marginalized, the idea that women are somehow incompetent because of their gender is one of those things. Islam has changed in the past, they let go of slavery, reluctantly, but when the pressure of the world was on them, they mostly conceded. Saudia Arabia would not sign the anti slavery agreement because the wording would mean that their women would no longer be slaves and they won’t allow that.

I also see the gay marriage as a positive start. Personally, I think the word ’marriage’ is misleading but that is another story. But having the right to choose who you live with, buy property with, leave your inheritance to and so on should be personal choice and not the domain of government.

Aneez
It's a very interesting way to empower the people by banning their traditions. Does the empowerment means to match with the western standards only?

Vijay
Women are controlled not only in Muslim society but in other religions also. Are women completely free in Hindu society? No. Why can't the organizations like Shiv Sena and Sri Ram Sena allow the women to wear what they want? Why can't they allow women in pubs?

Chintan, Aneez and Nuya, it is up to France what they want to do in France. Look at Saudi Arabia, all other religions are banned officially out there. Why no one is raising voice? before the same happens in France, it seems they want to stop this.

Anyways, Sarkozy is a proud neo - conservative and there is no room for doubt left from his actions. When Manmohan Singh went to meet him in France, Sarkozy was speaking was asking about the Christian missionaries. Why can’t he look a little inward and see for himself that he is also equivalent to those anti - Christian in India?

@ Ameya
I agree with your views that it is up to France what they want to do in France.

However, I don’t think you are up to the mark with your comment on Saudi Arabia. Saudi is an Islamic country governed by Islamic law, so there’s no way anyone can, or should, raise a voice against the rules followed over there unless it is a dilution of the true Islamic law. Moreover, they have not banned people from other religion to enter into the nation. It’s just that you can’t go there and try to establish your own religion.

I don’t have any idea whether France has such arrangements in it’s constitution or it is governed by which law (whether it’s government run on the principles of Holy Bible or anything else?) so I can’t say if France has the right to ban other religions.

All said and done, Sarkozy’s excuse is pretty lame one. :-) He talks about women empowerment without even discussing it with the women concerned. Very similar to Taliban rule... they force women to wear veil, Sarkozy is forcing women to shed their veils. :-)

I’m fully agree what Nuya and Ameya mentioned.So many incidents happened in which criminals and terrorists used burqua to hide them selves.
Every individual perception and thinking is different and many times differs with circumstances and time.A Muslim couple accompanied us during Far East tour.The lady wear burqua in Malaysia even during visiting a water park but in Thailand,she turned into an ultra modern woman with short skirt and used costume at beach.
The famous erotica story writer of south Kamla Das,converted to Islam and always used Burqua,even at her house.

Sarkozy Says Burqua is a ‘Symbol of Enslavement’.

Aneez,
Islamic Law is what makes it to ban other religion. I know it is based on Quran Verse 3:85 and this was a question once asked to an Islamic scholar who gave the reference of that verse.

BTW, which country has banned any people of other religion to enter into their country? I can’t recall any (though Vatican may be an exception).

And ye, France Constitution makes it legal to practice all religions, but it is upto them what to do.

As for the Taliban, even they are of the opinion to ban other religions, and practises like Sufism too!

This sort of step is best taken by some Muslim if he or she wishes too, the way Kemal Ataturk of Turkey and some people in Iran felt in early ’30s or so. Being implemented by a non - Muslim makes for a lot of hue and cry.

So true Yash, the uber Christians around here rule their wives with an iron fist. A coworker invited me to church and I went a few times when I first moved there. Those women were so jumpy and nervous, the husbands screamed and barked orders at the women and the children. The women didn’t seem to have any interests besides gossip and the men were uneducated, braying fools interested only in sports and controlling their ’wemen’ folk... that was the topic of the sermon every time I went. Pretty much the whole town belonged to that church or a church just like it so it was not a pleasant place to be. Moving to the city was so refreshing.

Yea and it probably is for most of them. You should see how fast some of those Saudi women shed those things in airplane bathrooms as soon as the plane leaves the ground. But not all are lucky enough to have an understanding mandatory escort.

Once my little nephew who have seen a ”Burqua Clad Women’ first time in his life asked,what is that moving on the road ?
I said ’you guess’.
He said looks like buffalo but I’m sure some thing else is inside that enclosed curtain.
We had a very very long discussion but Is it necessary according to Koran ?
and whats the punishment? because 99% Muslim Woman in our locality are offender.

LOL! Out of the mouth of babes. :)

I doubt it meant it to be never changing fashion statement. What women wore during any particular point in history can be found in thousands of books. Lice were a HUGE! problem in ancient times. The Egyptians made the Jewish slaves wear scarves to keep them from infesting their homes with lice. They had to wear it or get beaten, so they added it to their religion to make it seem like it was honorable to wear a scarf.

There are countless examples of local customs and laws being worked into religion. A good example was the Greeks and Romans left records of town meetings... everyone in town was complaining about how bad Christians smelled and they wanted them banned from town on market day. Lo and behold... Cleanliness is next to godliness finds its way into Christian religion and they could return to the market.

It was an ancient Assyrian and Persian custom, veils used to hide the women in the harems from prying eyes. Prostitutes of that time were forbidden by law from wearing veils and they had to wear colorful clothes and bangles so that there would be no doubt as to which women could be propositioned. So of course that made its way into religion too. The proscribed attire of prostitutes changed because it was not added to a religion. That full body covering burka is a relatively recent invention of extremists, they were not found in history before 1840.

Hahahahaha ok.. put those 2 together and you get what I think of Burquas.