Should Muslim women hide their faces behind veil?

02 September, 2012

The French government enacted a law forbidding use of burqa or niqab by Muslim women in public places or at places of their work or in educational institutions. Whether or not women like it or not, the law is being obeyed, though initially it had to face a stiff resistance.

AS A kid, I used to feel frightened at the very site of Muslim women wearing burqa of hijab while I received my schooling in northern India. One day I read in my school textbook that Kemal Ataturk, the great social reformer of Turkey had banned the burqa as, according to him, it came in the way of modernising his homeland, Turkey.

I heaved a sigh of relief after hearing about the ban and along with this I felt good at Kamal Pasha’s endeavour to abolish the Fez cap and beard from the faces of Muslim men.

Nicholas Sarkozy, the former French president didn’t relish the idea of eight per cent of French population moving around Paris, not forgetting rural vineyards clad in black from head to toe. So a law was enacted, banning the Muslim headgear, the top to toe robe called Burqa and any other apparel that conceals the identity of a woman.

It was a part of the programme to make all French citizens conform to uniform civil laws and remain in the mainstream of modern French society. Indeed there was an initial resistance to the move but once the law was placed on the statute book, the people had to obey it, whether or not they liked it.

I would personally suggest that women should be allowed to reveal their beauty rather than hiding it behind a veil or a burqa. Although one can’t force a woman to abandon her veil, as that would amount to taking away her rights.