 In February, the BBC World Service broadcast a radio program called "Looking for God at Les Minguettes"
The 30-minute special features an interview with a young Muslim woman,
Sami Hamaclouf, of Algerian ancestry but born and raised in Lyon,
France, who, against the wishes of her agnostic parents, adopted the
Islamic religion at the age of thirteen. She is now caught in the firestorm
in France over the banning of headscarves, like the ones pictured at
right, in schools, a ban vehemently supported by President Jacques
Chiraq.
Sami has been repeatedly lectured by her school principals who say her
costume reflects the subjugation of women, and is repugnant and
intolerable in a country like France that prides itself on its égalité.
Ironically, the young lady (she is now 22), immersed in French history
and the classical teachings of Islam, not the isolated and restrictive
variants of fundamentalist regions, is a staunch supporter of equal
rights and opportunity for women.
But now, she explains in flawless French, women who want to wear
scarves will be forced into private Islamic schools, and will lose the
opportunity to teach non-Muslim French people what her peace-loving
religion is all about. It would be like schools banning the wearing of
a crucifix because that sysmbol was associated with the cross-burnings
of the KKK. But because we don't know enough about Islam, most
Westerners strongly support the ban on religious adornments in schools,
equating the headscarf with the dreaded, and dreadful burka and chador.
No amount of misunderstanding and intolerance, however, would make Sami
into a religious extremist. She is 100% French, and loves the country
she calls home and its fashion-conscious, liberal culture. She just
wants people to understand that extremists do not represent her, or
any, religion, and that one's choice of clothing doesn't always mean
what we might assume from first impressions.
I've been fighting fashion Nazis all of my life, and I confess that I
am revolted at the sight of a woman in a burka or chador, as I am when
I see a woman walking behind her husband, or being publicly berated or
otherwise humiliated by any man. Yet I have learned to accept
headscarves, flowing beards, bizarre tattoos, depressing black robes,
beanies, nose rings, saris, shaved heads, and a host of other religious
and ethnic attire visible everyday in cosmopolitan Toronto. It is hard
to know where to draw the line, how to differentiate a sartorial
statement of personal belief or uniqueness from one of repression or
brainwashing by others. Don't judge a book by its cover, we're told.
What do you think?
The program will be rebroadcast tomorrow, Thursday at 7:30pm ET on the CBC Radio One program Connections,
and should be accessible live over the Internet at that time (though
the live broadcast link doesn't seem to work with Mozilla browsers). I
cannot find a sound file or text transcript of the program online.
|
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
