Burqa Ban Debate Becomes Violent in France

Ni Putes Ni Soumises (NPNS – Neither Whores Nor Submissives), an international human rights organization that advocates on behalf of women’s rights as universal human rights without compromise, organized an open public meeting on the anticipated French burqa ban in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris, France, on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, at 7:30 pm. The meeting was held in an elementary school in Montreuil. Ni Putes Ni Soumises representatives had canvassed the city earlier in the day, to spread awareness of the event. The President of Ni Putes Ni Soumises, Ms. Sihem Habchi, was present, along with a number of local elected government officials and Ms. Lubna Al Hussein, the Sudanese journalist and women’s rights activist who risked 40 lashes of the whip for wearing pants in Khartoum. Approximately 150 persons attended the debate, including a number of Islamists who attempted to shout down anyone expressing support for the public burqa ban in France. A handful of veiled women were present and gave testimonials, including one woman in niqab (the face veil that will be included in the anticipated ban).

Hostilities began almost immediately. The gulf that exists between the pro and anti-burqa ban camps could not have been more apparent. When the women’s rights activists and elected officials spoke, they spoke of the creation of a safe, egalitarian and secular public space in which all citizens enjoy equal rights and equal protection under the law. They spoke of women’s rights and the importance of ensuring gender equality and gender desegregation in a secular, democratic republic.

When the anti-burqa ban contingent spoke, they spoke only of Islam amid accusations of anti-immigrant racism. They defended the burqa as a tenet of Islam, as indicated in the Quran and supported by the Sunnah in the Hadith.

The secularists refused to address the tenets of Islam as wholly irrelevant. The Islamists interpreted this refusal as bigotry. The heated debate erupted in violence, which resulted in only minor injuries, but which provided further evidence of the utter incompatibility of democratic governance and religion. The police arrived. They detained the remaining participants for some time, but the perpetrators had already fled the scene.

Many persons expressed that their participation in the truncated debate had served to increase their support for the ban on identity obscuring face coverings in public in France.