Comments on: The Burqa in France http://publicreason.net/2010/01/26/the-burqa-in-france/ a blog for political philosophers Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:59:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Simon Cabulea May http://publicreason.net/2010/01/26/the-burqa-in-france/#comment-1155 Simon Cabulea May Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:43:26 +0000 http://publicreason.net/2010/01/26/the-burqa-in-france/#comment-1155 I suppose that different kinds of symbols could be distinguished in terms of the cogency of the reasons to ban them, but I'm not very sympathetic to banning symbols at all, except insofar as they are used in the ways that speech can be used to incite violence, etc. So "no swastikas at a football match" seems fine, but not "no swastikas anywhere." The kind of consideration that I do think has to be taken seriously is that some prohibitions can emancipate individuals from private domination. So if the veil law did have this effect, then I would be at least sympathetic to it. But I can't see how it will actually do that, or be plausibly thought to do that. So I agree, I think this has much to do with the veil being "foreign" rather than sexist. I suppose that different kinds of symbols could be distinguished in terms of the cogency of the reasons to ban them, but I’m not very sympathetic to banning symbols at all, except insofar as they are used in the ways that speech can be used to incite violence, etc. So “no swastikas at a football match” seems fine, but not “no swastikas anywhere.”

The kind of consideration that I do think has to be taken seriously is that some prohibitions can emancipate individuals from private domination. So if the veil law did have this effect, then I would be at least sympathetic to it. But I can’t see how it will actually do that, or be plausibly thought to do that. So I agree, I think this has much to do with the veil being “foreign” rather than sexist.

]]> By: Kristina Meshelski http://publicreason.net/2010/01/26/the-burqa-in-france/#comment-1153 Kristina Meshelski Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:49:37 +0000 http://publicreason.net/2010/01/26/the-burqa-in-france/#comment-1153 I agree Simon. Hypothetically though, I could imagine a ban on one symbol of women's oppression that did not justify a ban on ALL symbols of women's oppression. There are all sorts of ways to separate the things symbolic of women's oppression and reasons to ban some of them without banning all of them. But, the fact that the reasoning for this particular ban doesn't even attempt to make such distinctions is evidence that it's simply racist/xenophobic. Which seems to me to be a reason against the ban that trumps the reasons for the ban. Furthermore, there are now feminist women in the West who use veils and headscarves as symbols of their opposition to the kind of racism/xenophobia that motivates these bans, just as a woman in Iran might use red nail polish to symbolize her opposition to Ahmadinejad. The political significance of clothing is contextual, and when we realize that I think it makes a French veil ban seem pretty disingenuous, in the manner of the colonialist fantasy of "saving" the colonized. I agree Simon. Hypothetically though, I could imagine a ban on one symbol of women’s oppression that did not justify a ban on ALL symbols of women’s oppression. There are all sorts of ways to separate the things symbolic of women’s oppression and reasons to ban some of them without banning all of them. But, the fact that the reasoning for this particular ban doesn’t even attempt to make such distinctions is evidence that it’s simply racist/xenophobic. Which seems to me to be a reason against the ban that trumps the reasons for the ban.

Furthermore, there are now feminist women in the West who use veils and headscarves as symbols of their opposition to the kind of racism/xenophobia that motivates these bans, just as a woman in Iran might use red nail polish to symbolize her opposition to Ahmadinejad. The political significance of clothing is contextual, and when we realize that I think it makes a French veil ban seem pretty disingenuous, in the manner of the colonialist fantasy of “saving” the colonized.

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