Today, Monday the French law about banning religious symbols entered into force. This means that about 2,000 women in France who has the burqa or the niqab are not longer allowed to wear it in public.
To wear the niqab and burqa in public can lead to arrest and 150 euro will be charged for those wearing it.
It's not everybody who is forced to wear it. Some people do it for their own personal reasons. But if there is somebody who is forced to wear it they can actually report the person who forced them into wearing it and that person may be put in jail or charged for 30,000 euro.
This is how the law is going to be from today on. To be arrested or charged for a certain religious lifestyle you’re either born into or chosen is reprehensible. People should be able to dress however they want and not be arrested.
That France has implemented this law is horrific, especially since they are members of the European Union and also a permanent member of the UN. The solution should have been something else.
What of if you actually are one of those who traditionally have to wear this? What do you do? Do you dress European in public just to avoid being arrested? And what will happen if somebody outside sees you without the niqab/burqa?
I don’t think the French government thought this through properly. The law is supposed to protect people not put them at risk, because that’s really what is happening. Those who follow the law are at risk of being hurt, or in some cases they might not even solve it like that. They’ll just be sent back to their native country so that they can continue wearing it.
In other cases some women have been killed.
The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy stated that the plan with putting this law into force was to win back votes that extremist parties had won.
Well, depriving people of their rights is not the way. You can’t deprive others of their rights in order to win votes back. That just doesn’t seem reasonable and it seems that there is something else behind this. I mean, just take a look at the European countries. Almost in every country in Europe there is an extremist party, extremist who are especially against Muslims.
Other reasons for implementing this law are because of identification. Yes it may be hard to identify a person whose eyes are the only visible part. But I don’t think that problem has to be solved like this. I can imagine that it is a huge problem especially when they need to be identified when doing a test at school, taking a drivers license etc. but I believe it could be solved in other ways. Like letting female teachers identify them or something. It may be farfetched to have to take the person into a room for identification every day just to make sure that it’s the person.
I don’t really know how identification should be solved. But I know one thing; all Muslims do not wear a niqab, burqa or a veil. Putting this law into force is not just banning religious symbols. It is pointing out people as outsiders, making people feel discriminated. It does not only concern those who for some reason wear the religious outfit it concerns everybody, people who are not of European origin and also people of European origin.
What are those 2,000 women obliged to do now that this actually is law? Sit at home and hide from the cops? There must be another way of solving this issue.
This law was not a great move…..
