France's burqa ban goes into effect today. This should end well.

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France’s burqa ban goes into effect today. This should end well.

Today’s the day in France, when the anti-burqa law goes into effect, in which anyone caught wearing a burqa or niqab in public faces a fine of 150 euros ($217) and will have to take a citizenship course. Anyone found guilty of forcing someone else to wear a burqa can face harsher punishment, such as fines plus jail time.

France is the first country in Europe to publicly ban a form of dress some Muslims regard as a religious duty. Under the law, any woman - French or foreign - walking on the street or in a park in France and wearing a face-concealing veil such as the niqab or burqa can be stopped by police and given a fine.

It is a small fine maybe but symbolically this is a huge change. The French government says the face-covering veil undermines the basic standards required for living in a shared society and also relegates its wearers to an inferior status incompatible with French notions of equality. And most people in France, including most Muslims, would agree. Opposition in the form of a handful of protests by Islamists and libertarians are unlikely to make much of an impression.

In my opinion, this is as retarded as it gets. Only a small percentage of Muslim women wear burqas or niqabs, and a very very small percentage of Muslim women in France do. And I don’t really see it as the government’s business what people wear in public anyway. Let them wear a silly fucking hat shaped like a moose head made out of Swiss cheese, who gives a fuck?

In the case of having to have some form of ID, I do think that women who would normally wear full burqas should have to show their face for the purpose of an ID card, because otherwise, what’s the point? But if they want to wear it out to the grocery store, it should be no one’s business. At least they didn’t ban hijabs. Hijabs are sorta sexy.

Via