Veil, therefore citizenship denied

Interesting developments in France (emphasis added):

Politicians, feminists and some Muslim leaders here are applauding a court decision to deny citizenship to a Muslim woman from Morocco whose French husband requires her to completely cover her face and body.

The Council of State, the country's highest administrative court, said the woman's acquiescence to the veil showed her failure to assimilate and demonstrated behaviour "incompatible with the essential values of the French community and, notably, the principle of equality of the sexes."

The decision was hailed across the political spectrum, from the leftist Socialists to the far-right National Front, despite their long-standing divisions over whether the state should get involved in regulating private religious or cultural practices.

There are really two things to be observed in this story.

First, it demonstrates that the European left has moved past the political correctness disease and now supports the full integration and assimilation of immigrants (in fact, in many European countries, it is now the left that wants to close borders to further immigration, rather than the right). They must be commended for that, and the left in Canada has plenty of lessons to learn from them on that score.

Second, the court got it slightly wrong here. The woman, who is clearly a victim, as the court has found, should not have been denied citizenship. Instead, her husband should have been stripped of his.

Comments

[ScruffyDan]

In situations like this we need to protect a woman's freedom to chose to wear a burka, while at the same time protecting a woman's freedom to chose not to wear one.

That is the fine line we must walk.

[Werner Patels]

My impression from the way this story was reported is that it may be her husband forcing her to wear the niqab, which is why I think he should be the one getting punished, not her.

Apart from all that, as I have indicated in my bit about the European left, things have been allowed to go way too far in Europe (Canada is about 10-15 years behind, but catching up fast), which is why we're seeing that swing in the opposite direction now.

This is nothing yet, I am afraid. The actual backlash we'll see in Europe in the very near future will be even worse -- i.e., worse than quibbling over types of garments worn by women.

[ScruffyDan]

I was speaking in general, not about the specifics of this case.