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Tavares, João Miguel
3 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
João Miguel Tavares on the burqa as a humilliating for women
João Miguel Tavares agrees in the daily Correio da Manhã with the French parliamentary committee's decision to recommend that Muslim full-body veils be banned: "As expected, voices have been raised against this ... . The ban is described as an attack on civil rights, an insult to Muslims and a measure that creates problems where there are none, for in France there are only an estimated 2,000 Muslim women who wear the burqa or niqab. In my opinion that's 2,000 too many. It's probable that less than 2,000 women are circumcised there too - but that doesn't make circumcision any more acceptable. The Swiss minaret ban is an unjustified and senseless attack on religion. Protecting women from public humiliation, on the other hand, is a democratic obligation ... . This is not about numbers, but about principles. The burqa is not the latest trend in winter fashion but a symbol of female subjugation. In a country where freedom and equality are two fundamental values it cannot be tolerated. ... [France's President Nicolas] Sarkozy is - for once - right."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Integration, » Weltanschauung, » France, » Switzerland
The chimpanzee cartoon affair
The New York Post has published a cartoon showing two policemen who have shot a chimpanzee. The animal lies in a pool of blood, while one policeman says to the other: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill". Critics accuse the newspaper of comparing President Barack Obama with a chimpanzee. The daily Diário de Notícias shows little understanding: "Sketching cartoons of Barack Obama is just as sensitive an issue as drawing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. ... It seems that the skin colour of the US president has made it impossible for the Western press to compare chimpanzees with the US government. ... The truth is that a few days earlier in Connecticut the police had had to kill a chimpanzee that had attacked a woman. How could this blatantly obvious connection be ignored? The machine of political correctness couldn't care less about common sense and has no respect for the freedom of opinion. ... The question of skin colour will only be a thing of the past when a cartoonist can use apes in a satire of the new US government without it leading to a scandal."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » Print media, » Denmark, » U.S.
Politicians reject same-sex marriages
Portugal's leftist party Bloco de Esquerda has tabled a bill that would allow same-sex marriages. The governing Socialist Party (PS) has instructed its members of parliament to vote against the draft, although its programme supports homosexual unions. The Diário de Notícias writes that the PS's move makes no sense: "Why are there 230 representatives in parliament if they can't be guided by their own consciences in their decisions? ... And the PS's justification for its instruction only makes things worse: ... The PS is not voting against same-sex marriages but against the 'political opportunism' of the Bloco de Esquerda. That means the PS is convinced that the current situation is unfair to homosexuals, but that now is not the right time to remedy this injustice. Unbelievable. We live in a country where the government believes that even passing a law to remedy an injustice is a matter of correct timing."
» full article (external link, Portuguese)
More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Portugal
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