France's veil ban went into effect this week, and there's been a lot of discussion over whether a veil ban infringes on personal liberty or enhances it. As Samhita Mukhopadhyay notes, however, few of those have involved debates between actual Muslim women, so good for CNN for hosting this exchange between Mona Eltahawy and Hebah Ahmed (via Eltahawy's blog):
I have mixed feelings about this -- my instincts say that someone who wants to wear a niqab or a burka should be allowed to. But government is not the only coercive force in society, and in some cases, government is justified in intervening to protect the individual rights of someone who is facing certain forms of coercion from other sources.
Mukhopadhyay writes:
Critiquing cultural practices that we are not part of is difficult. Criticism of veiling (and for that matter rap) is folded into the argument that the West is better, more progressive, more modern and better suited for the lives of women (even though women's lives are being negatively impacted every day by patriarchy everywhere). Or it is often used to justify military or police aggression (as was the case in Afghanistan, predicated on the rhetoric that we must free women using the burqa as a symbol for invasion). And it ends up feeding the rhetoric that men of color are somehow more sexist, patriarchal, violent and misogynistic then the good willed white men of Europe and the United States.
But these debates shift the focus from the real issues at hand. “Women's rights” become a stand-in go to phrase to continue a legacy of pushing nationalist rhetoric and racist policy on communities that are already marginalized. In an effort to “free” women of color, they ultimately reconsolidate the very sexist and oppressive conditions they want to overturn, leaving most of us without the cultural space or actual rights to fight back on our own terms.
I don't think this isn't exactly true -- for many people, criticizing cultural practices they're not a part of is very emotionally satisfying because it reinforces a sense of superiority and righteousness, and for these same people, criticism of one's own culture is seen as pathetic and disloyal.
I'm not a fan of the veil or similar religious practices that place constraints on individuals based on gender. But like Mukhopadhyay, I think France's ban is a cure that's worse than the disease. Not just because it infringes on personal liberty, but I suspect banning it will turn the veil into a symbol of cultural resistance that will entrench the practice further, ensuring that more people end up "wanting" to wear it, if only as a display of defiance.
