Food for thought on burka ban

WITH reference to “Cork city councillor calls for ban on burkas and hoodies” (Examiner, August 19) I would like to present some food for thought in an era where multiculturalism is under threat abroad from a discourse devoid of any complexity; demonstrated here by Joe O’Callaghan’s call for a liberation of Muslim women.

The wearing of the burka is extremely complex. To begin with, the ban in France is part of an ongoing political race to the right-wing bottom. Sarkozy, in his efforts to secure another term in office is competing for the position of leader of the right with Front National representative Marine Le Pen.

Moreover, the number of women who cover completely in France is miniscule — something like no more than 1,000 from an approximate population of 5 million to 7 million. There is, as has been demonstrated in Mr O’Callaghan’s comments, an assumption that Muslim women are forced by Muslim men to cover, which in itself is a sexist assumption as it paints Muslim women as some sort of automatons with a lack of any agentic ability and devoid of intelligence. Indeed, research carried out in France by the Open Society Institute demonstrated that many Muslim men did not want their wives/daughters to cover lest they be the target of racist attacks. The result of ongoing Islamophobic tropes ignorant of the complexity I am trying to convey here.

For Muslim women who do choose to cover up it is out of spiritual reasons and their religious conviction, which is their free choice as in our constitution. Moreover, Muslim women may veil as a form of resistance to the omnipresent sexualisation of the female body in our consumerist, capitalist society. It’s a complex issue. Conflating the burka, which has religious/cultural significance and meaning with a piece of fashion, is not a just comparison. Maybe the burka should be compared with the veil still worn by nuns? It is, after all, full of religious meaning.

Multiculturalism is about respecting the values and traditions of other cultures, not the imposition of our values on them.

To understand how Irish people of diverse religious backgrounds, Irish Muslims included, can relate in a multicultural Ireland we need to have dialogue and discourse, not prohibition of religious choice. We can legislate to prevent discrimination or we can, as Mr O’Callaghan has suggested, legislate to discriminate.

James Carr

Doctoral researcher

University of Limerick