Burka or Burqa (the veil dress for Muslim women) is something which had become a major issue last week thanks to the speech by President Nicolas Zarkosy in which he openly lambasted it as a symbol of feminine repression and he further made a point blank assertion that such religious symbols does not have a place in the French society .
Now a furore was seen over this around the world. I am not going to make a judgement over whether what he said was right or wrong because there is no absolute right or wrong. The question of right and wrong depends upon where you are living and from which (so called) community, culture or religion you belong to.
What I want to assert here as a “fact” is that as we have extreme Muslim theocratic nations and societies in the world (where even foreign women are told to cover their head and wear a veil), similarly we have Ultra democracies like France which does not tolerate religious symbolism in public places where people from various communities join for a common purpose like education or work. So if you want to enjoy all the benefits of an ultra liberal society like France then you should be also ready to accept their founding principles of democracy.
Actually the trouble starts when “foreigners” decide to enjoy the fruits of a modern democracy but as regards to integration and giving back to the same “modern society” where they have decided to live, they develop cold feet. Then these people from foreign countries develop a wall around themselves in the pretext of religion and culture. So in such case you can expect the backlash. There is no doubt about that. It’s always good to maintain your unique identity but your identity should become a reason for progress rather than a hindrance in the development cycle.
Coming back to Zarkosy, I appreciate the guts of the French president to stand by the basic tenets of his nation’s foundation.
Sanjay at Nirvana
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