OK, so full face veil, does anyone see any problem with this “but it’s about oppression” argument? (Thread)
So here’s the thing. Being forced into wearing clothes is incidental to oppression, it’s simply a manifestation of the abuse they face.
Almost certainly, one of the least oppressive things they experience is wearing a piece of material on their face. Something some people do because they feel it is part of their identity.
Yet, it’s funny that the thing people seem most concerned with is relieving them of the clothes thing… which coincidentally is also the thing they don’t like to look at.
The thing they just happen to mock, or indeed hold up as proof of a “lack of integration”. The thing that makes people “different”.
They would prefer to oppress other people’s right to religious expression to address an oppression which is actually just incidental to actual human oppression.
And just how often does religious oppression work, exactly? If being fed to the lions wasn’t much of a deterrent, a fine isn’t going to help.
In fact a study of 35 women by Open Society in France in September 2013 (after their ban) found 27 continued to wear it, and 3 women had adopted the niqab as a result of the ban.
27 women in the study said they socialised significantly less and reduced the time they spent outside of the house, and only 1 interviewee said they were socialising more.
Because mothers were avoiding going out, this put pressure on their marriages as their husband had to do the things their wives used to do, like take the children to school.
And for the people who didn’t like seeing people in a full face veil, what did they get? The sense of entitlement to attack or abuse anyone they saw wearing one. 12 women reported being physically assaulted by private citizens who thought it was their right to uphold the law.
If this small study is representative, the ban in France oppressed people while making them less and integrated, more isolated, and at the same time it made racists feel empowered to assault people.
On the plus side, there was a chance there was someone who was suffering oppression who at least didn’t have to wear a piece of material on their face, while still facing exactly the same mental abuse. I’m sure they were absolutely thrilled. 🙄
You cannot liberate people by removing their freedoms.
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