France Debates the Burka and Muslim Women's Rights. Again.

Oh la la! Remember all the hype in 2004 when the French government tried to ban headscarves in public schools? Well, the debate is back.

This time, it's over a proposed law that would ban wearing the burka or Arab niqab in public if it covered the entire face and body, with the exception of some traditional festivals, and impose a fine of 750 euros ($1000). The measure was introduced by Jean-Francois Copé, the leader of the center-right party's coalition in the National Assembly. This is bittersweet news: it shows that France is concerned with the treatment of women, but going about fixing it the wrong way.

I agree with this post on Americablog that the unintended consequence of the law will be to increase the oppression of Muslim women in France by "only forc[ing] these women inside even more and cut[ting] them off from society." In addition, the hefty fine will exacerbate the issue of poverty and joblessness and punish the very women who are least likely to have control over their own money, or even their own bank accounts.

As problematic as this particular law appears, France does have a serious quality-of-life problem for Muslim women that needs to be addressed. When the debate over headscarves in schools was raging in 2004, Marie Brenner wrote an eye-opening investigative piece in Vanity Fair entitled "Daughters of France, Daughters of Allah." The piece detailed the plight of young girls growing up in extremist Muslim traditions, the violence they suffered, and the forced marriages they succumbed to. Women in strict families have very little control over their own lives and movement. For those few who wear the full burka, then, the ban would mean 1) either not being allowed to leave the house, or 2) greater tension between women and their families.

Despite the dangerous consequences for women, Copé is framing the law as a women’s rights issue, telling Le Figaro "We can measure the modernity of a society by the way it treats and respects women." This rhetoric, at least, is good to hear. Copé’s party does see women’s rights –- or at least talking about them –- as good politics. His center-right party has proposed a fairly drastic affirmative action measure that would increase the number women in French boardrooms from 10 to 50 percent by 2015.

Basically, whether or not France passes this new law, the debate over the burka and women’s rights will not go away. So the hope is that next time around, the debate can be more cognizant of the underlying problems, and more mature in its attempt to help these women. Part of the proposed ban hints at this: fines for men who force their wives and daughters to cover up would be even steeper than those for the women. In practice, this may not help women, but at least it’s an acknowledgment that the burkas themselves are not the root problem.

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