Universalism v. Relativism
by Lucas J. Minkowski
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the
purpose of cloaking the entire body. It is worn over the usual daily clothing
(often a long dress) and removed when the woman returns to the sanctuary of the
household.
Islam is the second largest religion in the world (1.57 billion believers).
In France with more than 3,550,000 believers, Islam represents 6% of its
population.
Question: How many women actually wear the Burqa in France?
Answer: Very few; only 357 according to the police services.
French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, shouted out his highly criticized
message last November: “France is a
country where the Burqa is not welcomed” and asked the Congress to enact a
law precluding women from wearing it within public spaces such as schools,
hospitals, town halls…
France has been a non-religious Republic since its 1789 French revolution.
Its secular concept is strict and the judiciary enforces it with strength.
The Conseil d’Etat,supported by the European Court of Human Rights has held that
the wearing of a turban by a Sikh is forbidding while driving a motorcycle
(see ECHR Mann Singh v. France, November 13th 2008) or on a passport
(in ECHR Phull v. France, January 11th 2005) and that the veil of Muslim women is
not permitted at school (ECHR Kervanci v. France, December 4th 2008).
Any other visible religious signs, such as the Cross and the Scull-cap, are
forbidden in public spaces.
Sarkozy – a center right wing President – launched this brand new public debate
(very common in France) justified, according to him, by the need to secularize our
Republic but attracted to gain new extreme right voters (as cited in § 3 of the New
York Times, February 9th, 2010). You just have to read the inflamed and sharp adjectives
used by President Sarkozy addressed to the latter: A Burqa is a “human coffin” or a
“shelter for religious’ slaves”… The French newspaper Le Monde (February 2nd, 2010)
concluded, “this crisis of national identity has been created by the French conservative
government. All this agitation is only an electioneering business”.
Is this law justified? Is this public debate useful? Is the non-religious principle of our
Republic at risk for only 357 citizens out of 65 million French?
According to a strict republican definition, the goal of this law is justified by our
Universalist values: These 357 French individuals are forced to wear the Burqa. These 357
French citizens are enslaved by their husbands or Imams. These 357 French human beings have
not consented to live in darkness. These 357 National women are not equally treated as men. The
Republican defenders could reject the Burqa by mentioning Emmanuel Levinas’ (Lithuanian-born French
philosopher and Talmudic commentator, 1906-1995) conception of the face: “Your face is your meaning,
your own visible sign” (in Humanism of the Other, 1972). In this sense, is not the Burqa a
refusal to establish contact with others?
However, have we taken into account these 357 women’s point of view? Relativism… By choice, by
individual resistance or by ancestral and cultural traditions, these persons want to be invisible!
According to Levinas, “if you want to establish contact with others, then you are obliged to accept
someone else’s freedom and difference” (in Otherwise than Being or Beyond Essence, 1974).
Then, the French government’s reaction represents a risk of restraining Individual rights and Freedom.
In French, the word “laïcité” (secularism) comes from the Greek “laos” (the people) meaning a
cohesive people, united under common and equal values in a society where each person is not in conflict
with the other but in concert with the other.
However, the Republican’s only response bans the Burqa. It would exclude its own minorities
from French society and shows that France, one more time, has not learned from its past failures.
