Is the burqa a prison?
The burqa imprisons women “behind netting,” deprives them of their identity and social life, and is entirely unwelcome in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Monday in a speech before parliament. In response, the crowd of sober legislators went wild with applause. “The burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women,” Sarkozy continued. “We cannot accept that some women in our country are prisoners behind a grille, cut off from social life, deprived of their identity.” Sarkozy’s comments follow a call by a group of legislators for a special commission to investigate ways to discourage women from wearing the all-encompassing fabric and even a discussion about instituting an all-out ban. It shouldn’t come as any surprise — after all, the country, which is home to the largest Muslim minority in Europe, banned head scarves from public schools in 2004.
