Burqa ban may help Islam reformist effort
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
B. S. Raghavan / Jul 19, 2010

France's National Assembly, with an unerring eye on irony, chose the eve of the Bastille Day — sanctified in world history with the clarion call for liberty, equality and fraternity — to go back on all the three lofty precepts to pass by 335 votes to one a legislation authorising a total ban on the wearing by Muslim women of the niqab and the burqa in public space. The definition of public space itself is so very sweeping as to include not just government buildings and public transport, but all streets, markets, shops, private businesses and entertainment venues. Stiff penalties

In other words, the moment you step out of your home wearing a niqab or burqa, you violate the law and become liable to a fine of €150 ($190 ). Men who force their wives or daughters to cover themselves for religious reasons face stiffer penalties of up to €30,000 and a one-year jail term. Apparently, only about 1,900 women among France's five to six million Muslims wear a veil; most French Muslims coming from France's former colonies in North and West Africa do not follow the custom. Thus, at first sight, it is a non-issue.

Undeniably, though, there is a marked prejudice against the burqa in European countries, and France is only being the first among them to give legislative expression to it. Similar bills are on the anvil in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and some principalities of Italy, as also in Australia. An international poll conducted in April and May by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre found that more than 80 per cent of the voters in France, 71 per cent in Germany, 62 per cent in Britain and 59 per cent in Spain supported a ban.

Legitimate concern
There are, of course, the usual, familiar arguments against the ban: The right to lead one's life the way one wants within limits of public order, decency and morality; the right and freedom to practise religious or social values and beliefs; respect for those values and beliefs flowing from adherence to secularism and separation of Church from the State; and so on.

Even so, there is the question whether women alone should be subjected to a dress code which, indirectly or inferentially, seems to assume a measure of frailty and fragility, as well as an inability on their part to stand shoulder to shoulder with men in public life and in every field of activity, particularly in the era of knowledge, communications and technology revolutions when the notions of borders, nationality and sovereignty are themselves being called into question. There is also the legitimate concern about wearing of the veil providing scope for impersonation and security breaches. All that apart, are niqab and burqa an integral part of Quranic prescription? Islamic scholars among my friends tell me that the Quraan has only enjoined both men and women to observe modesty in dress, sublime conduct and decency in inter-relationship between the sexes and that burqa, as is worn, has not been prescribed in the Divine Revelations in the Quraan, nor its present day observance covering the entire body but for the eyes, supported by the Sayings (Hadis) of Prophet Mohammed.

Happily, the Muslim Reformist Conference held at Oxford on 11-13 June, with the participation of reputed Islamic scholars from Europe, the US, Canada, South Africa, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Bosnia, Turkey, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and other countries, is soon planning to bring out an authentic exposition of Quranic verses taking account of the latter-day differences in interpretations, including the one on the pictorial depiction of the Prophet and his family members.