Once upon a time there was a country that decided upon a law that made it illegal for a piece of clothing to be worn in public.
This country was lambasted for being everything from racist, to misogynist, to anti-human rights.
This country’s name was France, and the garment in question is known as the burka.
Much of the discussion on the subject involves the question of public safety and security as well as the individual’s right to choose what he or she may wish to wear at any given time.
Many believe that it is simply a waste of time to discuss it altogether and that we should be embracing all cultures and their differences.
The question, essentially is a simple one: should a garment which has been used by millennia to enslave and destroy everything that means being an independent woman right down to the silhouette of that woman being human to be worn in a country which has a human rights and womens’ rights clause within its constitution?
I posit that the answer is a resounding “yes”.
It has nothing to do with race or misogyny or anything else except for a woman’s right to not be enslaved by a man.
It has everything to do with giving a woman the right to have humanity, or at least, a silhouette of a human being.
Beyond that yes, it does come down to personal choice, but each country has a constitution to uphold, and so long as that is the case, that country has a responsibility to safeguard and adhere to every last word within that constitution.
There are many countries in the world which do not have human rights clauses, let alone womens rights, who are more than glad to allow the burka to be worn.
Nay, they even insist.
Many of them make it illegal NOT to wear it.
The options are endless and the freedom to live in any of these countries is arguably the individual’s involved, depending on how easy it is to leave a country if one was to change one’s mind.
Much love,
Zen Politics
“Under the Covers” – Published July 28, 2013
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