Main focus of Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Burqa ban in France

France is moving closer to a burqa ban. The National Assembly adopted the controversial law on Tuesday, and the Senate will no doubt follow suit. While the idea behind the ban is to guarantee the freedom of Muslim women, the press finds bans inappropriate and un-European.

Aftonbladet - Sweden

The French ban on the full-body veil is strangely similar to the requirement to wear it, writes the daily Aftonbladet: "The question is what use a ban has and whom it serves. Probably no use and no one. It will neither lessen the oppression of women nor weaken radical Islamism. To do that you need other means. Neither the values of the Enlightenment nor the Western style of living are menaced. With the ban on the burqa and niqab a Europe has emerged that is in part a mirror image of that form of society condemned by those who favour the ban, and of which they are so afraid. The pressure to wear a certain type of clothing and the pressure not to wear it are two forms of the same lack of freedom." (14/07/2010)

» full article (external link, Swedish)
More from the press review on the subject » Integration, » France
All available articles from » Kennet Andreasson

Financial Times Deutschland - Germany

The burqa ban in France curtails women's freedom and is for that reason un-European and wrong, writes the liberal business paper Financial Times Deutschland: "Banning Islamic women from wearing full-body veils in public is in the best case an attempt to assert European values and in the worst case an attempt to cater to people's diffuse fears of Islam. But in so doing the state enters into an insoluble conflict: it limits the rights and freedoms of women who wish to wear the burqa - that is to say it goes against the very values it seeks to inculcate in Muslim immigrants. This balancing act is not only awkward legally, but morally as well. Because with the ban the state is damaging its own credibility - which it badly needs in the fight against Islamic fundamentalists. A European state that takes rights and freedoms seriously should respect the freedom of women to fetter themselves, so to speak." (14/07/2010)

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Migration, » Integration, » Gender equality, » France

Il Sole 24 Ore - Italy

France is banning the full-body veil in the name of defending the values of the French Republic, but this contradicts Europe's values, the business paper Il Sole 24 Ore writes: "France is the second European country after Belgium to take the step of banning the veil, but it's not doing this only for public security reasons. … The symbolic value of the law goes far beyond the existing ban on headscarves and similar items of clothing at schools and authorities. … For the Council of State the law is irreconcilable with the French constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. Yet Justice Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie describes the vote as a victory for the defence of the Republic's values: Freedom, equality, fraternity and secularism. The French MPs' vote goes in the opposite direction of the European Council's line, which sees the wearing of the veil as a basic right for women." (14/07/2010)

» more information (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Gender equality, » France
All available articles from » Angela Manganaro

Blog Gavin Hewitt's Europe - United Kingdom

The burqa ban will be difficult to enforce, writes the European correspondent Gavin Hewitt in his blog for the BBC: "Initially there will be a six-month period where women who wear the full-face veil are stopped and told about French laws and the reasons behind them. But after that period a police officer could tell her to remove the veil or risk a fine. Clearly, in some suburbs of Paris with strong Muslim communities it would be very sensitive to order a woman to remove her veil. It will also be hard to prove that a woman is wearing a veil against her wishes. Another risk is that the ban will create martyrs. ... But today marked an important moment in the debate over multiculturalism. Increasingly the French want new arrivals and members of ethnic minorities to integrate more. There will be those in the banlieues - the suburbs where many minorities live - who will argue that they are the ones who are prevented from integrating into mainstream French society." (13/07/2010)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Integration, » Minorities, » Gender equality, » France, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Gavin Hewitt

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, July 14, 2010