Wearing burka undermines women’s dignity

French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoken out strongly and publicly against Muslim women wearing burka in France, the BBC has learnt.

He said the burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience.

The French republic will not accept women imprisoned behind netting, cut off from society, and deprived of all identity. It is not the French republic’s idea of women’s dignity.

However, President Sarkozy also stressed that France “must not fight the wrong battle”, saying “the Muslim religion must be respected as much as other religions” in the country.

During middle of June, a group of cross-party lawmakers urged parliamentary commission to investigate the spread of the burka in France.

They want to exam whether women are forced to cover themselves or doing so voluntarily, and whether wearing the burka undermines French secularism, the BBC’s correspondent said.

The investigation was backed by Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Paris Mosque and a former head of the Muslim council.

He insists Islam in France should be an “open and convivial Islam that allows people to live side by side”, and called the President’s remarks “in keeping with the republican spirit of secularism”.

Mr Boubakeur fears the anecdotal evidence that more women are wearing the burka in France is linked to an “excess, a radicalisation” among some Muslims, the BBC reports.

However, the head of the French Council for the Muslim Religion warmed the French MPs that they risked to stigmatise Muslims in France again.

He said five year ago, while France trying to ban Islamic headscarves from the schools, the incident already caused so many youths of Muslim origin feeling forgotten by French society.

Followed by the burka debate addressed in French Parliament, the US president Barack Obama attacked the French headscarf rule in a speech in Cairo, saying the United States did not believe the government should dictate people’s dress, the Times Online said.

Meanwhile, the issue has also split the French cabinet.

Rama Yade, the Muslim human rights minister, backed President Sarkozy by saying she would be open to a ban if it was aimed at protecting women who wore a burka against their will.

On the contrary, the immigration minister Eric Besson said a full ban will only “create tensions”, according to the BBC.

President Sarkozy may have given his backing to an open debate on the burka, but he also insisted France needed to make sure it knew exactly what it was debating.

According to the BBC, France has been a long battle fighting for its secularism, and the French constitution states the republic “does not recognise, subsidise or remunerate any religious body”.

It underpinned the French Revolution, and has been a basic tenet of the country’s progressive thought since the 18th century, when French Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire, Diderot and Montesquieu regarded religion as divisive, benighted and intolerant.

It was this same concept that invoked to ban Islamic headscarves from schools five years ago.

Critics claimed it stigmatised Muslims at a time when France needed to be stepping up its fight against rife discrimination in the job market.