Women, the right to vote and the niqab

The niqab is a Muslim veil that covers all but the eyes of a woman's face. It's one step before the burqa. There will be provincial elections in Québec next Monday and women who wear the niqab will need to take it off in order to vote. Zuzu at Feministe thinks this is disenfranchising Muslim women. She sees this political incorrectness as immigrant bashing and intolerance.

Here's the quick version of the story. A disinformation piece appeared in the Journal de Montréal newspaper about women wearing the niqab being permitted to keep their face covered while voting, no facial ID required. People got angry. But there's a nuance. Nobody needs a facial ID, nobody. It's stupid, ya, but it got nothing to do with Muslims. But it was too late. People were going to vote in a Darth Vader mask, the general director of the elections received threats. So in order to preserve order and prevent the election from turning into a joke, they changed the law temporarely, for this time only, you will need a photo ID and will need to show your face. That means the Muslim hair veil is ok. The niqab, worn by only 15 women in Québec, is not. One niqab wearing woman yesterday said she would have taken it off anyway, so she didn't understand what the fuss was about. I understand that.

Was this anger motivated by racism? Sure, there's some of that. But there's A LOT MORE TO IT. Getting involved in a discussion about Québec when you don't know anything about us is like stepping into a family fight during Thanksgiving when you're only the new boyfriend. You don't know what trouble you just got yourself in.

Americans who have had seperation of state and church since the birth of their nation might not understand how oppressed Québec was by the Catholic church only 50 years ago. People like me have not known this period, but it's still fresh in our collective memories. Systematic sexual abuses in orphan homes and in parishes. Control of the provincial state by the clergy. In rural areas, the control was total. As an exemple, when my grand-mother decided to stop having children (after 5 children, at least 1 still born and 3 misscarriages), the priest came to their house to give her hell. We have a deep distrust of everything religious. All of our swear words are sacriligious in nature. Quebecers also tend to be progressive socialy. We're the province where abortion is paid by the state, even if performed in a private clinic. So I think we can wear our progressive badge of honor proudly.

This means that to a lot of us, intolerance and oppression is deeply offensive. And it's paradoxal that our progressive nature creates intolerance when our culture clashes with the intolerance of a minority of Muslims. It's unfortunate, but at the same time, we can't (and won't) carry all the blame. There's some trouble to be expected when you live somewhere where women are equals, while you like to treat your women like shit. We're not more tolerant of inequalities when they're homegrown. One candidate for the elections had to quit because he said reports of violence against women are exagerated. Unacceptable, bye-bye! Was he oppressed because of his masculisnist views? Please...

Now I know what Zuzu is saying. Bashing covered Muslim women is not gonna help them integrate our society. But I find it somewhat hypocritical considering that our definition (at least in Québec) of integration is when they'll stop being religiously zealous (and I don't mean Islamists or terrorists, I mean religiously annoying, you know what I mean). It's kinda sneaky, kinda like gaining Allah's trust just to stab him in the back. In a way I agree. This anger projected at all Muslims because of a few fucktards among them is probably counter-productive. But to paint this as an anti-immigration reaction is unfair and just plain false. It's a culture clash (a minor one at that) and it's to be expected. Muslims need to look at themselves too. They're in part to blame, just as we are for our over-reaction. Feminists have a lot of work to do too. I have a BIIIIIG problem with feminists defending anything about the repressive aspect of Islam. I don't tolerate intolerance, I'm quite intolerant of intolerance, I want to bitchslap intolerance. I think feminists don't help the cause of women when they tolerate injustice just because of some shaky political calculation. Let's not say anything about it, so we can gain their trust and liberate them later. The veil is wrong, the niqab is wrong. The Charter of Rights gives these women the right to cover their faces. It also gives us the right to be stupid. It still doesn't mean it "right", with a small "r".

Sure, there was some ugliness involved...

Comment at Feministe
RKMK Says:
it’s fucking Quebec. This isn’t at all surprising.

But we're used to it.