Among those demanding a burqa ban, two motives are intertwined — one egotistical and the other altruistic. The ban is to protect our free society from fundamentalist Islam — that’s the egotistical drive. But it is also meant to liberate Muslim women — that’s the altruistic part. Behind the second motive is the assumption that no woman voluntarily wears the veil, but that is wrong. It may be true that women in the Islamic world do not have equal rights. In Iran, there are millions of women who hate the headscarf and would happily shed it immediately. At the same time, in Egypt, Turkey or the Maghreb states of North Africa, where there are no laws requiring it, more women are wearing the headscarf today than did so 20 years ago. It’s a symbol for them too — a way of differentiating themselves from a West they view as domineering and arrogant.
A significant number of the women in full-body veils in Germany are Arab tourists on shopping trips. Many more are converts, women who, in their search for meaning, stability and community have found their way to radical Islam in much the same way people become Scientologists or Jehovah’s Witnesses. To them, wearing the full-body covering is a form of targeted provocation, a kind of protest. We should react to them just as we do to mohawks and large tattoos, other forms of visible provocation.
You can’t force societal progress by banning religious symbols and traditions. Every forced liberation evokes a counter-reaction: That was the case when Atatürk banned Turkish women from wearing the veil and when Reza Shah did the same in Iran. It also happened when Peter the Great ordered the Boyars to shave off their beards. Liberation must come from within — Muslim women must win the battle on their own, and they’ve been fighting for some time.
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