French Veil Law, Why we wear veil?

     In the article ‘French veil law: Muslim woman’s challenge in Strasbourg’ from BBC news, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-25118160 the writer reported about a young Muslim woman challenging France's full face veil ban at the European Court of Human Rights. French city of Strasbourg banned the public wearing of most face coverings in 2011, setting fines for offenders up to 150 euros.

    The Paris Appeals Court overturned a high court decision by ruling that a private nursery school had been justified in firing an assistant director who refused to remove her Islamic headscarf at work. Fatima Afif, the young Muslim woman, argues that the niqab and the burka body covering accord with her religious faith, culture, and personal convictions, and denies being forced by her family to wear them. However, the head of the International League for Women's Rights said that the full-face veil constitutes a true deletion of the woman as an individual in public. The law is democratic and backed by a strong conviction among French public and states that wearing the full veil makes it difficult to identify a person and makes her indistinguishable from other full veil wearers and erases the woman who wears it, a government lawyer said. A British lawyer representing an unnamed French Muslim said the law violated his client's freedoms of religion, free speech, privacy, rights and made her feel like a prisoner in her own country. Some human rights campaigners have condemned the French law. Amnesty International argued that it violates women's rights to freedom of expression and religion.

     This topic seems the most interesting to me as the practice of Muslim women wearing veils is being rejected by some countries around the world. France banned the full face covering veils, but not the hijab. Turkey once banned all for a while, even headscarves. Tunisia banned headscarves in 1981.Syria banned headscarves in universities. I personally cover myself but not my face. To my point of view, I see the veil as a freedom that can not be banned especially by those who do not have any experience wearing it. Most Muslim women testify that the way they dress is not at all forced by their families especially by their male relatives.

     The majority of Muslim women wear the veil because they choose to wear it. Further, by doing so they obey the religion as it is stated in the Quran: “And tell the believing women to reduce [some] of their vision and guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their head covers over their chests and not expose their adornment except ...” (24:31). The practice of women covering themselves is not only an Islamic practice. This way of dressing is stated in other religious scripture as well. For example, the Bible: “For if a woman is not veiled, let her also be shorn: but if it is a shame to a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be veiled.” (1 Corinthians 11:6)

    France is a secular nation, meaning that people of any religion should be allowed to practice what they believe as long their actions do not break any existing laws. Freedom of religion in France is guaranteed by the constitutional rights set forth in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. I do not see why the veil should be banned especially as a reason to protect a woman’s right. When the wearer speaks about the reasons she wears the full veil and states it is not at all oppresses to her, why do others need to speak on her behalf?

    Regarding this practice, my opinion is that people need to understand why most Muslim women dress the way they do. I wear it most importantly because of my religious obligation. I believe in God and I do what He asked me to do. The main reason why Muslims women were asked to wear it is to make them easier to be identified as followers of Islam. This should answer the concern about wearing full veil making it difficult to identify a person. Covered Muslims are identifiable, as a Muslim. I do not think it is important to distinguish a person based on their physical appearance. Intellect, skills, and attitude are more than enough to describe a person, especially in a work place.

     Some say the veil is oppression and they need freedom. One of my personal reasons to wear veil and dress modestly is to set my self free from worries about impressing others through my beauty. Covering myself gives me self-respect. How others think of me as beautiful or not is none of my business. I do not need others to tell me how beautiful I am to realize the fact. I free myself from being judged based on my appearance, especially by men. As a human, I want people to judge me based on my intellect, not my physical appearance. When I speak, I want people to focus on my words, not my body. This is the true liberation and true freedom, especially to those who choose to wear.

     The only freedom Muslim women want is to have equal rights as a human. They do not need others to tell them how to dress or force to remove their veil. To ban the veil is actually the oppression. Finally, some argued that Muslim women, like everyone else, need to be recognized for security purpose. According to an article about the same topic from Al-Jazeera America, a Muslim woman, in her written evidence, said that she is willing to remove the face veil whenever required for security reasons. Therefore, to ban the face-veil completely in public, to me, is not a just law.

     The authors of both articles from BBC News and Al-Jazeera America did their job effectively by considering arguments from both parties. I do not sense any bias in their articles but they should have discussed more reasons the French Government ban modest dresses but not nakedness at Cap d'Agde which now the world's capital of nudism.