A couple of weeks ago, the Catalan town of Lleida became the first municipality in Spain to introduce a ban on the full Islamic veil, or burqa and niqab. The veils are now prohibited in municipal buildings.
Lleida’s Socialist party mayor, Àngel Ros, claims that the ban is a strike in favour of equality. The ban was backed by the Catholic Catalan conservatives, CiU. And now they and the PSC are planning introduce a similar ban in Tarragona. The truth is that Lleida’s city hall has been involved in a protracted battle with a Muslim community it does not want. Indeed, the PSC is just applying policies called for by none other than arch racist, Josep Anglada, leader of the utterly mental Plataforma Per Catalunya fascist party.
Times of financial hardship always breed racist reactions. I’m not in the least bit surprised that the PSC, a party of hopeless twats to a man (or woman), would stoop this low to try and shore up their position in Catalonia. If the party was serious about gender equality, it would ban the huge brothels that line the carreteras here, packed with thousands of young African and eastern European women. It won’t, because for the PSC, ‘equality’ is just a useful excuse for pandering to nasty provincial racism.
The Burqa ban is not something I agree with either. It’s cheap, xenophobic politics but maybe surprisingly, there are some Muslim woman’s groups like Ni Putes, Ni Soumises (Neither Whores, Nor Submissives) whose French members wholly support the ban. Link at:
http://bretthetherington.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-burqa-talk-in-catalonia-and-france.html
Well, says Abdul to Fatima, if you don’t wanna wear it, then you can’t go out.
So she stays in. For ever.
Problem solved (or… is it?)
Agreed. Arma arrojadiza en tiempos de crisis. Searching for scapegoats or diversions.
This is so poor I wished I did not live here.
I don’t agree that the burqa ban is needed in all municipal buildings but I can see why any face covering (including helmets) should not be permitted in banks or where a form of identity check is needed but we have to respect a woman’s wish to only be identified by another woman (even though this may take extra time to do and is sexist in my opinion.)
The fair thing would be to restrict the ban to the above places and to all complete face coverings and not just refer to one or items of religious clothing.
Lenox and Candide above both make good points.
The ban mentioned the Islamic veil specifically. It had nothing to do with public safety. It was all about diluting support for the fascist scum ‘PxC’.
Be warned: our mainstream parties are stealing policies from the ultra-right to win votes. This ain’t good.