Blog posting 5

I found this article today on Yahoo and thought it fit into class.

The president of France Nicolas Sarkozy is declaring the Muslim burqa is not welcome in France because it is a sign of debasement against women.

Sarkozy said "The burqa is not a religious sign, its a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement --I want to say it solemnly, it will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

I understand that the burqa is probably degrading to women, but is it the woman's choice? I really don't know how to answer this. I know what Sarkozy is saying and yeah the women are probably repressed but is it a form a religion?

I don't think it is right for him to completely ban the burqa, the article says France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe so he may alienate alot of Muslims-a culture who already has ill will to many groups of people. The director of the largest Paris mosque thinks so also.

I think the bigger problem is what the article says later:

The unemployment rate for immigrants and their French-born children is higher than the national average. Many children of immigrants complain of discrimination, saying they get passed over for jobs because they have "foreign-sounding" names. Frustration of many children of north African and black immigrants boiled over in France's three-week wave of riots in 2005.

I think Sarkozy should be more outraged by those statistics. Since that is discrimnation against people who sound different than other French people. I remember watching the riots on tv.

I don't know if anyone has a right to ban the burqa, you may not agree with it but you can't really tell them not to wear it since it is going against their intellectual freedoms. I know some people would say (and I can see ALOT of people saying this in the US) that well they immigrated to that country so they need to adapt to that culture. I hate that people say that-they should be able to express their culture no matter what.

What do you think? Do you think Sarkozy is correct or should they be able to wear their burqas?