Look I'm not standing up for patriarchal oppression, however, the fact remains that some (if not most) Muslim women who wear the burqa CHOOSE to wear the Burqa especially in liberal democracies; such as, ours, and find it to be patronizing when westerners claim that wearing the Burqa is an actual sign of gender inequality in the Muslim world.
Because it is and the truth hurts. Plus how do we know that they choose to wear it.. just because they say so? A hostage can say many things if they have a gun to their head after all.
Look, I have zero problems with muslim women wearing them as long as it is a choice. The problem arises when it is not a choice and when can we be sure that it is choice... and that is in some small amounts of cases.
When family pressure forces women to act or do things, then I believe it is the duty of society to say stop and protect said women. We do it in cases of abuse, and if proven .. forced marriages and female circumcision.
We should be able to some how protect women from being forced to wear burkas against their will. So yes I would prefer not to have any laws regarding this, but since we have a small minority that use it as a way to put down women and control them, then yes we need to deal with it. Either ban the burka, kick the people doing the forcing out of the country to practice their hatred back home or put in a system that protects women that are brave enough to say "hell no". It is not acceptable in a modern society to treat women as second class citizens and property.
Not to mention how Islamists will play this BS: "see look Muslim women are being oppressed and denied their religious freedom in the west."
nothing to do with religion and most muslims know that. Just ask them to point it out in the koran.. they cant. But yea it will be used by the religious fanatics to spur up the masses, but they will use anything to do that. They dont need an excuse they can just make **** up which they do often. Look at the cartoon case.. the morons had to add really offensive cartoons of their own doing to actually create a case for themselves back "home".
Now if we want to get into real oppression of women under Sharia then fine have at it. We can start with unequal inheritance, codified allowance of spousal abuse, enforced burqa wearing through religious police persecution (see Iran, Saudi Arabia) etc etc et al. But the Burqa doesn't actually enter into this real discussion, and when a liberal democracy seeks to implement state enforced dress code laws singling out a particular ethnic demographic then it's time to start reavaluating what it really important.
We already have state enforced dress codes, and I would claim the US has more than Europe. Women in Europe can go to the beaches and go topless.. you cant in the US I believe... unless you in the New York Subway
It is against the law to go nakkid outside your own door in all countries, that is state enforced dress codes. We also require by law that military and civilian law enforcement have uniforms.. aka state enforced dress codes.
Now in my opinion this law if it ever happens, should be more along the lines that if a woman/man does not want to wear any form of religious clothing or accessories in public or private, then it is his or her right to do so and anyone attempting to "force" the issue can be fined or put in jail.