Sarkozy : Full-Body Muslim Gowns a ‘Symbol of Enslavement’

VERSAILLES — From the royal grounds of Versailles, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on Monday addressed a restive parliament about his vision of France that included a withering critique of burqas as an unacceptable symbol of “enslavement.”

Taking up a divisive issue that has sparked intense debate in the country, Mr. Sarkozy said there was no room in the French republic for the burqas, garments that envelope women and mask their faces.

“The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue, it is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy said in a sober address in which he frequently looked at his notes. “The burqa is not a religious sign, it is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission of women.”

“I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory,” he said to enthusiastic applause.

nytimes

Burqa-Clad Woman Denied French Citizenship

A French court’s decision last month not to grant French citizenship to a burqa-clad Muslim woman provided a ray of hope to those willing to stand up for western values and oppose Islamization of their societies. But you would never know it according to the New York Times.

While the media focus was on the head-to-toe, body-encompassing robe that leaves only a slit for the eyes, the part of the ruling stating the Moroccan citizen had adopted as her religious practice a very dangerous strain of Islamic fundamentalism was mostly ignored. Previously, citizenship had been denied to those involved with Islamic fundamentalist groups rather than to those who practiced their beliefs.

After her marriage to a man possessing French citizenship, Faiza Silmi, 32, moved to France in 2000 from her native Morocco. There, the North African woman bore three children and donned the burqa for the first time at her husband’s behest. In 2005, Silmi applied for French citizenship, but a lower French court rejected her application on the grounds she showed a “lack of assimilation.”

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