Liberte compromised

The law in 15 towns of France over the ban of the burkini, a fully covered up version of a swimsuit for Muslim women, is finally being enforced. Images have hit the news with four policemen surrounding a fully clothed woman on a beach in Nice, ensuring she removes her top full-sleeved layer of clothing. Onlookers clad in bikinis and shorts look on. It is reported that some chants of ‘go home’ and applause for the police action could be heard in the background. What a 360-degree turn the Western world seems to have taken with this image. In 1922 in the West, there are black and white images of women being questioned by police on the beach for wearing clothes that were considered too revealing — skirts too short, arms too bare. It’s 2016 and the police are back, this time questioning a woman’s morality, measuring it by how covered up she may be. Ironic, no? Actually more ironic is that some things haven’t changed at all; telling a woman what is right to wear, how to wear it, when to wear it seems to stay as is. Now cover up, now uncover. Too much skin showing. Too little skin showing. All in the name of morality. And now it seems all this is happening in the name of secularism.

A Muslim woman, in fully clad clothes on the beach in Cannes, was fined and ticketed with not “respecting good morals and secularism”. German cities are also considering banning Muslim women from wearing the burqa. Maintaining the status quo when it comes to morally policing women has not changed, just the reason for doing so has. The burkini is now the latest threat to freedom and secularism in the Western world. More than ironic, this is farcical.

I am not sure what I feel about the burqa, burkini or any overtly covered gowns and headscarves to represent a faith. I believe linear, singly interpreted versions of any religion to be detrimental, mostly always to women. Such interpretations also undermine diverse cultural beliefs that are practised and go hand in hand with religion. But what I do believe and hold dearly is the freedom for people to express themselves, through spoken words or through the clothes they wear, regardless of whether I agree with their beliefs or not. Freedom. We call it Azadi. Liberte, isn’t that it France?

Now the famous French essential value, liberte, is threatened by women too covered up on a beach, in a park, at schools of learning. And with liberte compromised, egalite and fraternite are not far behind and questioned. The fire in the house eventually spreads to all the rooms.

Feminism, the ideology that in France took hold during the French Revolution, seems to be reeking of smoke as well. Believe it or not, many French feminists supported the ban of the burkini and headscarf in public spaces. And with this support, French feminists have excluded and failed to represent all women. I would have thought the beacon of feminism having stemmed from France, French feminists and liberals would be shouting from the rooftops disagreeing with this deliberate targeting of Muslim women.

But the real stench here seems to be that of racism and fear. The French are revisiting their colonial mindset and self-imposed cultural superiority, this time on home soil. My belief may not be similar to those more stringent Muslim women, in fact, probably completely contrary to what they believe in, but my belief in the freedom for women to do with their bodies as they please is rock solid. And if you are with me on that, then let’s use Evelyn Hall’s famous words to defend freedom of expression to register our protest — I may disapprove of what you wear, but I will defend to the death your right to wear it.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 27^th, 2016.

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