Coup d'etat in Ecuador
The most retrograde forces of Latin America are trying to steal power from the people again. Honduras yesterday, Ecuador today. No more coup d’etats! Democracies exist only through the will of the people and these crimes bring pain and suffering to all of us.
Yvonne Francis
Apollo Bay, Victoria
Burqa I
I’d like to comment on the GLW editorial “Should Australia ban the burqa?” [GLW #855,] and answer YES! It is a nonsense to characterise this issue as simply a matter of Islamophobia. Nile, Sarkosy, et al, may be so motivated but that doesn’t mean the rest of us should be tarred with the same brush.
The burqa has been imposed on women by manipulative, domineering men and legislatively imposed where this is possible.
This “institution” has been imported into our culture even though the Koran does not require this, so forget the religious necessity/tolerance argument. Is tolerance of religious idiocy mandatory for the sane, anyway?
Secular, “liberal” 21st century society should reject this socially repressive custom as incompatible with a progressive Australia or France, or our world.
Wear what you like at home but among your fellow citizens “show your face”.
The State does determine what people wear for “safety” or standards of “decency” and can insist that we all face one another as we are, not as some manipulative male requires of us.
So if a sect decided to hide their identity, men and women, by wearing full cover face masks we must all tolerate this idiocy because we wouldn’t want to “strip them of their right to self-determination”?
Oh really? Well count me out.
It is pure political cowardice to fail to act to rid our society of this alien blight. How are women aided in achieving equality by obfuscating on the issue and failing to argue that a socialist world has no place for such manipulative demands on women?
Dave Bell
Orange, NSW
Burqa II
Haskell's article, "The burqa: for a more nuanced approach" (GLW #855) poses the "dilemma": "whether to defend the right for Muslim women to choose to dress as they like (for whatever reason) or to impose the Western perspective that, due to its oppressive nature, such dress should be suppressed." To me, this isn't a dilemma at all — unless we believe liberation is something that can and should be imposed.
There's a world of difference between supporting women who are fighting oppressive/sexist traditions and demanding their freedom of choice, and deciding all women who wear the burqa need a government to come in and "liberate" them from said tradition by outlawing their choice to wear the burqa.
As a socialist and a feminist, I choose to support women struggling for their own freedom — not government's putting one more restriction on women's bodies.
I think it's Bangladesh where there's a law against individuals and institutions coercing women into wearing the burqa. This is progressive, as it defends women's right to choose how they dress and not be forced to hide themselves.
But it's very dangerous for feminists and socialists to call on the state (we know capitalist governments aren't motivated by a commitment to women's liberation) to arbitrate on what is and isn't appropriate dress for women.
It also seems a bit disingenuous to discuss banning the burqa from a feminist perspective and yet totally abstract the discussion from the current political context — a rise in Islamophobia across many Western countries, and Muslim and Arabic Australians facing increasing hostility and police harassment in the context of the "war on terror".
We on the left should oppose — vocally — any laws that yet again single out, target and further alienate the already vulnerable.
Emma Murphy
Redfern, NSW