Blog Post #4-France's burqa ban: women are 'effectively under house arrest

The summary is about how women in France are not allowed to wear the burqa because of a burqa ban that the French have recently imposed. The burqa ban is a violation of the European Human Rights legislation on people’s freedom. They ban women from going into public places with their burqa on.This ban is stopping people from living their lives and discriminating against a group of people. French politicians say they are protecting the gender quality and dignity of women. While these women feel that the French politicians are further oppressing them into shaping them how they want to be. This has to do with the secularism in France and what is expected of people in France. All of these women that wear the burqa do it out of their own free will, a personal choice. No one is coercing them into doing something they do not want to do.

The fact that this is an issue that has been going on for several decades in the French society is definitely a social problem. It is a social problem because women everywhere are constantly being oppressed in all aspects of their lives especially if it involves something that many people see as controversial and has to do with religion. This is a social problem because it is a cultural, religious issue that is being used against these women. How many times have people or countries used religion as a way to get their point across? To many times to count which is not always effective and leads to more problems than they originally intended. An article I read that was talking about this very same issue was Scott-Politics of a Veil, she stated how the French government wanted women to not wear the veil because it seemed to them that they were supporting more than their culture when they wore the veils and that may not be the case at all. This was not the case, these women wanted to have the chance to express themselves and their culture just as anyone else does. Why should someone else’s rights and culture be looked down upon because other people do not agree? Being able to accept other cultures is what makes this world a better place. If people could learn to live and respect other people’s cultures, there would not be a reason to judge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/19/battle-for-the-burqa