Fining the demeaned. That’s what the ban French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to implement, does, by punishing women for wearing a veil that covers their faces.
Wearing the niqab, the Islamic veil, is a tradition that divides even the Islamic community. Is it obligatory or is it recommended for someone who wishes to please Allah?
By Roger Latham
“I would like you to judge me based on who I am and what I do, and not based on the way how I look.” Sumayyah Hussein, 24
“As a Muslim, you are a missionary at heart, you are supposed to attract people around you, not repell them. It [the niqab] excludes people from your world.” Sonia Khan, 32
“It enables me to go through this path of a spiritual discovery. I understand your concern and I thank you for your concern, if anybody is concerned, but I’m fine.” Sheikha El-Kathiri, 20
In cases, women might put the niqab on to please male relatives rather than God, and French policy makers want to attack exactly that. Instead, they attack the “victims.”
O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters, and the women of the faithful, to draw their wraps over them. They will thus be recognised and no harm will come to them. God is forgiving and kind. Qu’ran 33:59
Put yourself, Monsieur Sarkozy, into the niqab of the woman, whom the police stopped in Nantes. You get a fine of $29 because your niqab posed a “safety risk” to your driving. If you consider wearing the veil “an attack on women’s dignity” and you still had the mask on despite all the sunshine above the Atlantic coast, would you think the fine is a solution to your problem?
It is also very much possible that you are a proud veil-owner who, as you said — being the woman in the car — would appeal the decision. Try to punish someone against her beliefs and you’ll find yourself in the role of the oppressor.
