Burqa and the Left, from Secularism to Religious Right.
Should the French law banning the Burqa and Niqab (that is, full-body veils) from public spaces be “resolutely fought” (David Osler) ? That, “No ban, but no obligation either. Sounds just about right to me.”
Liam (for the British section of the Fourth International) says (endorsed by the mystical left-wing of the Green Party),
• Oppose the ban on religion or custom specific dress as a form of racism and anti-minorityism.
• No legal sanctions for following particular religions.
• Politically combat the oppression of women using religion as an ideology.
The Morning Star carries an article today which announces (Here.),
“the labour movement must reject all attempts to hijack and misuse our republican principles of secularism and gender equality to fuel an anti-Muslim witch-hunt.”
The French group Lutte Ouvrière puts the emphasis rather differently,
“la loi de Sarkozy, d’Hortefeux ou de leurs pairs n’est pas une loi émancipatrice pour les femmes les plus opprimées. Et si nous faisons nôtre le combat contre le port de la burqa ou contre le port du voile que mènent des femmes jeunes ou moins jeunes, originaires de pays où la religion musulmane est dominante, nous ne mêlons pas nos voix à celles de dirigeants politiques dont les objectifs ne sont pas l’émancipation des femmes, mais une politique de concessions vis-à-vis de préjugés sécuritaires et antimusulmans.
So this law is not one that will lead to emancipation for the most oppressed women. If we make our own the fight against wearing the burqu and the veil (NB what British leftists call the hijab), waged by young women and not-so-young women who come from countries where Islam is the dominant religion, we will not mix our demands with those politicians who aims are not female liberation, but a policy of making concession to prejudices about insecurity and against Muslims. (More Here)
The Parti de Gauche carries a post (not an official ‘line’) stating that while the Burqa and the Niqab are clearly contrary to republican values of any kind, the law is not a just way of carrying out these aims (Here).
Communists and Socialists largely abstained on the vote in the National Assembly. They are generally, however, opposed to the law (Here).
The Nouveau parti anticapitaliste says (Here)
“Tout en s’opposant à ce projet de loi liberticide, le NPA réaffirme sa solidarité avec les femmes qui luttent contre toutes les formes d’oppression, dont le voile intégral, mais c’est d’abord en luttant toutes ensembles pour le droit à disposer de leur corps que les femmes s’émancipent. La loi de Sarkozy ne les aidera en rien, bien au contraire.”
While completely opposing this anti-freedom law, the NPA reaffirms its solidarity with women who struggle against all forms of oppression, such as the fully-body veil, but it is above all through fighting together for rights over their own bodies, that women will free themselves. The Sarkozy law will not help them – it will do the opposite.
The major difference them is that the French left begins from the premise that the Burqa and Niqab are oppressions.
The British Left tries to defend them as some kind of religious ‘right’.
The concluding words should go to a former Muslim, and now feminist leftist, Women’s Rights vs. Political Islam. Azar Majedi. (2007)
“when dealing with the burka or the niqab, we surpass the sphere of individual right. Here we enter the sphere of what I call societal rights. The person under this kind of veil has not identity in the fellow citizens.” “the question of trust and identity goes further than the workplace. It is just as important on the bus, in the park in the recreation ground, etc, that you can see the face of the person in your immediate surrounding, here it is the question of individual rights, here are instances where the society rightfully decides to deprive certain individuals of certain rights for the benefit of society as a whole.”
I do not agree with her view that the “Burka or the niqab must be banned for the benefit of society.”(P 172 – 3) Society is not best represented by the state. Or, on such issues, truly democratically transformed by its regulations. It is changed by direct campaigning in the streets and the communities concerned. Though fo coruse, it woudl eb absurd to have anyone with any power using the voile intègrale (face-veil). That would send a signal that it is endorsed.
But the judgement that,“the veil is a symbol and a tool for women’s subjugation and degradation.” seems right.
The issue that the British left completely ignores is how to deal with this fact. Concentrating as Liam does, on ‘women’ using Islam as an ideology of oppression, is particularly wrong.
Islam is rich. Muslims are, in the UK, generally, poor. As the Mosques swell in wealth, and Salafism and other hard-line ideologies grow, how are the left, and women, going to ‘politically fight’ reactionary misogynist Islamic ideologies when they are defending the instruments of oppression? We need to link up with secularists opposing socially oppressive religions in general, and Islamism in particular. That there are young women (as LO indicates) In France waging this fight is a welcome fact. That there appears fewer in the UK may be due to the connivance of the liberal left and left generally with Islamism in Britain.
Against the law and against the Burqa and Niqab!
Interesting to see an American Leftist reaction (or rather, hesitation to make one) here.
Banning the Burqa’s a good idea but prison sentences for those who wear it is ridiculous.
You can translate this one Andy if you like.
From here: http://www.niputesnisoumises.com/
Le Mouvement Ni Putes Ni Soumises se félicite de l’interdiction du voile intégral sur l’ensemble du territoire. Dans la continuité de toutes les lois progressistes pour les femmes, du droit de vote au droit à l’avortement, cette loi est un pas supplémentaire pour l’émancipation de toutes.
Déclaration de Sihem HABCHI, présidente du Mouvement :
« C’est la victoire des femmes ! C’est la victoire de la République contre le fascisme ! La République remet les choses à l’endroit. Et pour ceux qui continuent à marcher sur la tête, je leur donne rendez-vous sur le terrain. Là où l’obscurantisme rampant continue à propager son message politique. »
Parce que toutes les femmes victimes de violences doivent pouvoir sortir de l’enfermement, nous travaillons dès aujourd’hui à un système d’alerte : Le Mouvement Ni Putes Ni Soumises va ainsi créer un numéro vert et appelle à la création de guichets uniques dans chaque département.
Some people say that Ni Putes ni Soumises are tarnished by association with the Establishment. They are known in the UK to people who are interested in the debate. I wonder what the group that split from them says.
Pete, the British liberal left and groups like Respect, the SWP and Socialist Resistance – whatever their present name – are so full of excuses for Islamism that I tend to react by emphasising the opposite view.
Anyway the text goes simply that they consider this law a victory for women. The feminist I cited is a leader of the Iranian Communist Workers Party who take a not dissimilar line.
As you’ve said earlier Pete, the French left media has noted that this is all rather a diversion. I found it difficult to get many statements on the subject – dominated as political discussion is about the Woerth-Bettencourt Affaire and Pension Reform.
Andrew,
The faction that split off takes a line that I have a lot of sympathy with, that a law will not change the fundamental position of women in La Cites, and that NiPNiS have compromised themselves, again, by in effect siding with the Right.
The reason I posted this on various Left wing blogs is:
1) The total misunderstanding of the culture, political dynamic and history of the debate here in France, which makes this a very different situation from say Switzerland, Belgium or the Netherlands
2) The dominance of ‘moral outrage’ being displayed by UK Leftists who clearly are unaware of the role Maghrebian women’s organisations have been playing and what they are saying about the issue.
Right , back to the Tour they are in the Aude today.
I read the article you linked to from Socialist Resistence and I am afraid for me it raises some difficult theoretical questions. The author of the article is an Indian feminist and she argues that white people involving themselves in any argument against the veil are doing it from a colonialist point of view. So, therefore, there is no international workingclass, there is no unity across races, colours or creeds. As white socialists we cannot offer political criticism of brown/black societies. I think we will have to rewrite the demands of the revolutionary socialist movement: Workers of the world unite, escept for those who are from the former colonial countries, they cannot unite with the rest of us but must have there own revolution. The old Maoist slogan, ‘Womaen hold up half the sky’ must be rewritten as ‘Women hold up a quarter of the sky’. Seriously, I find it shocking that anyone can defend this form of oppression on teh grounds that ‘it may be oppression but it’s our oppression and we like it.’.