No Veils Allowed

The xenophobia French are at it again. They have just made their first two arrests when the two women wearing niqab veils were taken away by police for taking part in an "unauthorized demonstration" that protested the ban on covering faces for religious reasons. They were released later after being questioned and it wasn't disclosed whether they were fined according the the veil law passed a few months ago. Amnesty International condemned the detention of the women and others at the protest.

The French law says veiled women risk a $215 fine or attendance at special citizenship classes, though not jail. People who force women to don a veil are subject to up to a year in prison and a $43,000 (€30,000) fine, and possibly twice that if the veiled person is a minor. The ban affects women who wear the niqab and the burqa. Ouch! The Muslims don't like that. And the law allows carnival masks, motorcycle helmets that cover the face etc.

Obviously, the anti mask rule is a French attack on what French most hate- diversity and differences in their culture. The irony is that France, a democracy, is acting more like the Mid east Muslim immigrants totalitarian religious states from which the Muslims in France immigrated than like a democratic state. Soooooooooooo a woman in Cannes, France may take off her swimming suit top and parade bare breasted, but a woman in Paris can't wear a religious veil. It's quite illogical to claim this law is a security issue, but France is never logical when the subject of newcomers to France behaving in "non French" fashion. It's an example of how a person can immigrate to France, but never really be accepted as French. There will always be suspicion (paranoia) against the immigrant in the degree to which he or she is different from the native French culture.

Too, it is one thing for the French to behave with a surly arrogant, snug bearing toward the outside world, the "we are better that you" mindset that is classically French. But displaying that same attitude toward immigrants just won't fly without a whole lot of trouble for both groups. The French have invited their immigrants to reside there, for them now to demand submission to the French culture isn't realistic or workable. If I were French I would be so embarrassed by the anti veil law I would probably wear a veil to hide my embarrassment.