Veily, veily bad!

Even two weeks after the French president's burqa comments, the debate rages on the net

French president Nicolas Sarkozy's recent declaration thatu00a0 the Islamic burqa was not welcome in France since it was a symbol of subservience has sparked off a near-riot on the blogosphere.

Paul Taylor blogged on the Reuters site:

In a column last week, I noted how Nicolas Sarkozy was a master at signalling left while turning right. Well, in his keynote address to both houses of parliament today, the conservative president went a step further. He summoned up the burqa to camouflage his real intention relaunching a drive to reform France's ossified social, education and tax system. By declaring war on the all-enveloping full-length veil worn by only a tiny minority of Muslim women in France, Sarkozy ensured that his secularist assault on religious fundamentalism would grab the headlines, and dominate intellectual debate."

And there were many who left their comments to his post.

One of them, Sarfaraz, said: Mr Sarkozy is either a lunatic or biased. For sure, he is not a fair person. If a woman wants to cover herself, you want to ban the system. On the other hand, if someone wants to sell her nude images and videos, it is allowed because it is considered to be the symbol and parameter of freedom and the upliftment of women. Shame on you and your sort of people who are so-called "modern". Actually, they are shameless, mentally illiterate and the product of a dirty culture. By the way, Mr Sarkozy, did you check the latest nude photos of your girlfriend [sic] on the net?"

Blogistan says

Many Indian bloggers feel Sarkozy's comments will not affect secularism in this country.

As Sambit Kumar blogs on MSN: "This is an unnecessary distraction for followers of the religion.u00a0 What Sarkozy said was for France. Though not a civilised one, I do not think we should give much importance to his utterings.
u00a0
Though I will not be able to comment whether by covering up, a woman's status is lowered or not, I don't think it is applicable in a country like India where tradition and modernity go hand-in-hand. What one wears or does not wear is based on his or her family's tradition and the surrounding society one lives in. It is purely a family/personal choice . One should not encroach and comment upon personal freedom."

State policy

However, blogger Neilkaye feels that Muslims should not make an issue of it: "Nuns are self-declared, female, full-time followers of the Christian religion. Nobody has said that imams or mullahs or female full-time servants of Allah cannot wear their religious attire.

"What Sarkozy has said is for the general population in the context of France where outward manifestations of any religion, including Christianity and its Roman Catholic version, are forbidden.

"If this is the French state law, why can't Muslims just follow it instead of trying to set up their own institutions based on acts that collide with state policy?