“France: Parliament Weighs Ban on Veils in Public”

To the Editor:

On January 22^nd, an article entitled “France: Parliament Weighs Ban on Veils in Public” was written to summarize and explain a full ban on veils in public in France. While the article does a good job of explaining the European aspect of this ban, little is said on behalf of the Muslim rationale behind the veils.

The veil is something that many women have worn not out of force, but out of devotion towards the Islamic faith. The veil can represent many different things to many different women, spanning the gamut from obscuring the face to make decisions reliant not on beauty but on charisma and character of the individual; to being reverent towards Muhammad’s wives, for whom the veils were initially created; to being forced to wear them due to male oppression in Muslim society. The veil is symbolic and means many different things to many different women, and asking for a blanket ban on such a diverse issue is unethical in that it will be forcing Muslim women into choosing either their religion or their government. A decision like this should only be made after a good deal of deliberation and before all other possibilities have been sought after. This law will not only be very difficult to enforce, but also provide strained relationships with Muslim women both in France and abroad.