What women wear

This is the 21st century, and we are still stuck in a place where we have to constantly remind state authorities that they need to drop their fascination with policing how women dress. The latest incident in the case is not from any underdeveloped, war-torn country under the rule of an extremist ideology, but from a relatively progressive country – France. The country has placed a ban on the wearing of traditional abaya in public schools (a ban on headscarves has already been in place in French schools). Over the years, countries that were once warm towards people from diverse groups have taken a turn in a completely opposite direction, making exceptionally large spaces for right-wing politics.

The decision was rightly challenged, but the country’s highest court for complaints – the State Council – has upheld the ban although France’s Council of the Muslim Faith, established to represent the Muslim community before the French government, is lodging its own complaint with the State Council. Some experts see this as the country’s attempt to protect its secularism. And yet such justifications fall flat given the power imbalance in this case; Muslim families will have no other option than to accept the government’s decision if they are to send their girls to schools. Regardless of how people from the religious majority see this ban, the fact is that France has failed to separate state interference from a woman’s harmless choice of clothes. Europeans really need to rethink their ideas about the whole question. The principle of the freedom to choose what to wear must come above all else. There is a need to understand that increased Islamophobia will in turn only increase the possibility of extremist groups taking advantage of this and moving towards more means to divide people.

Such decisions also fuel extremist ideologies in the oppressed group. Those who see education of Muslim women as a threat to ultra-conservative religious notions are likely to push parents to stop sending their girls to school, and all of this will deprive young girls of a better and independent future. When we say the world has become a global village, we also need to understand that the globe has now allowed different racial and ethnic groups to live together under one sun. The principle of ‘one nation’ does not mean that all individuals should behave alike, but it should mean that all people and their choices are well respected. This madness that keeps fuelling hate against a specific minority group must stop. Over the years, French politicians have claimed that such bans are both about keeping women safe from violent racist mobs and liberating women from patriarchy, as well as reinforcing secular values. This means that violent and racist mobs will now decide what a woman can wear or not – and somehow it can be claimed that these mobs are upholding the principles of secularism. The reality is that women’s bodies become a matter of public debate for every choice they make. Whether it is France’s idea of secular unrobing or the Muslim man’s idea of enforced veiling, it is time we respected a woman’s choice of clothing – and stopped talking about women’s bodies in the name of culture, tradition, religion or secularism.