Human Rights Watch has blasted France’s efforts to ban burqa for violating rights of Muslim women, warning the move could stigmatize the whole Muslim minority in the country.
"We are still very concerned that the restrictions will seriously interfere with the rights of Muslim women in France - the right to manifest their religion and the right to personal autonomy," Judith Sunderland, senior researcher for Western Europe at Human Rights Watch, told the Inter Press Service.
She said that any partial or blanket ban on the face-veil would be a violation of basic human rights. "We certainly oppose any kind of blanket measure,” she said.
"But the piecemeal measures would also violate rights and be counter-productive because it won’t help women who may be forced to wear the veil, and it would violate the rights of those who choose freely to wear it.”
Stigmatizing
The rights group accused politicians championing the ban of taking a wrong approach for Muslim women integration.
"It’s a forced integration measure that’s bound to fail," Sunderland said. "It’s just the wrong approach."
“I can’t see how a law restricting the wearing of the niqab would help those women who are forced to wear it."
The senior researcher warned that the ban would turn the life of veiled women into a hell.
"It will just make their lives impossible. How are they going to pick up their kids by bus, or talk to teachers who may be male, for instance?"
Sunderland warned that the measure could also exclude veiled women from the society. "It may make them become more secluded and also excluded from French society."
The human rights group warned that the French ban would stigmatize the Muslim minority in the country.
"The measures will contribute to the stigmatization of Islam and Muslims in general," Sunderland said. "It’s just a bad idea all around."
Reference
Let us remind that a French parliamentary panel recommended last week slapping a partial ban on face-veils in hospitals, schools, public transport and government offices.
France has seen a heated debate on the face-veil since President Nicolas Sarkozy described it last June as being "unwelcome" in France.
The European country is home to nearly seven million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.
According to the Interior Ministry, only about 1,900 Muslim women are estimated to being using face-veils.
A burqa is the all-enveloping cloak, often blue, with a woven grill over the eyes, that many Afghan women wear, and it is almost never seen in France.
The niqab, a garment that is often black, covers the face but leaves the eyes uncovered.
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