The use of the veil

A woman wearing a niqab 

Much have been said and discussed lately upon the use of the veil or better the ban on it voted and overwhelmingly approved by the France's Senate, a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public. It is bound to start in 2011 if it is not overturned by Constitutional judges.

Naturally it is a hot topic which have raised high controversy not only in France, but in several countries in Europe, Canada and even in Turkey a Muslim majority country but secular, which banned the headscarves in universities and government buildings, due to the türban (a Turkish styled headscarf) being viewed as a political symbol of Islam.

Living in Malaysia a country with a Muslim majority population wherever you go you see women in veils. At first, as a westerner Catholic Christian, even though not that religious myself (read post: Overdose of Religion http://marciocacao.blogspot.com/2010/10/overdose-of-religion.html) it shocked me, but with time it just became part of the colorful scenario.

When I first gave a thought on all these controversies of women wearing veils in European Christian countries and all the issues, hate, etc I said to myself: "Come on, if u want to wear a veil, stay in your own country or travel to other Muslim places". Same thing happened when I saw all the issues with Muslin populations living  in Christian countries where they wanted to be under the Sharia Law (to Muslims, Sharia law is founded on the words of Allah). My natural answer to that was similar: "A people move to another country and don't want to have this country's Laws applied to them? Fuck off, go home..." 

To be honest, even though for a westerner it might be a natural way of thinking, it is wrong cause it hurts my first principle in life: Freedom... How could I have had such a xenophobic and racist thought in a first place?!

I then went to study the issue deeply and in the case of Sharia Law I found out that countries like Great Britain and USA which have large Muslin population have already found ways to delivery such specific cases to special ruling courts and defined rules for matters like divorce, heritage, family, etc. 

Rules are clear: cannot overrule the Constitution principles (so no such things like to be stoned to death will happen) and both parts have to agree to that.  If not, there is always the country's laws to support them and I think that is fine.

Now coming back to France: Liberté, égalité, fraternité, French for "Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood)"... What happened with this wonderful concept which shaped the face of world and France itself at the end of the 19th century?

Let's understand the background of the use of the veil by Religions.

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam the concept of covering the head is or was associated with propriety. All traditional depictions of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, show her veiled. Veiling was a common practice with church-going women until the 1960s, and a number of very traditional churches retain the custom. The wearing of various forms of the Muslim veil has provoked controversy in the West.

Muslin veils:

Westerner world feels threatened by the advance of Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism and Al-Qaeda but one cannot just label all things Muslin or Jews or whatever else on that. Read the post Islamic Fundamentalism http://marciocacao.blogspot.com/2010/10/islamic-fundamentalism.html on that and have a second thought.

I, myself have Muslim and Jews friends and strongly believe all human beings are the same in nature and have the same needs.

The threat is real but it comes from Islamic/Jewish Fundamentalist groups and all efforts should be driven to find and eliminate its roots that usually are related to poverty... Western governments instead of putting millions of dollars in military and guns should develop policies to improve the living standards in poorest areas...

If you give someone a gun, he will shot but if you give him food he will eat!