By Ilhan Dahir
Junior,
Hilliard Bradley High School
Hilliard, Ohio

On Wednesday August 12, 2009 it was announced that a Muslim woman garbed in a head to toe swimsuit was banned from using a public pool in Paris, France.  Muslim women often choose to cover their bodies out of modesty as prescribed to them by their religion, but for Muslims in the west and specifically France, this simple act of religious expression is being thwarted with outward aggression.

Under the new policy swimmers are not allowed to swim in public pools with baggy clothing that covers the body adequately.  Instead all swimmers are being told that without form fitting swimsuits they are not permitted to use public pools.

However, this is not the first crusade against Muslims that was launched by French politicians. The “Burqa” a type of dress that is designed to cover the entire body is now in official disfavor.  And in 2004, the headscarf was banned from being worn in public schools.  All of these actions were taken in the name of “freedom” in the name of “progression”.  But what seems to be on everyone’s mind is this, doesn’t banning certain articles of clothing and ordering women who choose to wear headscarf’s to remove them limiting freedoms and not granting them? Doesn’t a  woman who chooses to cover her body, have the same rights as a woman who chooses not to? And finally, do these laws even have anything to do with the clothing, or do they have more to do with what they represent?

Islam is the second largest religion in France, coming in second only to Roman Catholicism. Yet the five million Muslims living in France are treated like second class citizens and the freedoms that are granted to the general public to choose what they where are taken from them, without shame or apology.  It is hypocritical politicians with a vendetta against Islam that are fueling anti-Muslim sentiment in the world. Emerainville Mayor Alan Kelyor even said that he doesn’t understand why women would choose to wear head to toe covering, he was quoted as saying “we are going back in civilization, Woman have fought for decades for equal rights with men, now we are putting them back in burqas and veils”.  What Mayor Alan so blatantly misunderstands is the respect that comes with the headscarf.  Women have fought for the right to be equal to men, yet so many of us are still treated as sex symbols and icons.  The headscarf of the Muslim woman ensures that men recognize her wit before her beauty, her intelligence before her body.  If anything, the headscarf empowers women to break from the stereotypes so commonly excepted by society and enforced by media. Ultimately it comes down to this, by banning burqas, head to toe swimsuits and head scarf’s, the French authorities are not enforcing freedom but they are simply stripping women of their right to choose.