General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What is your stance on burkinis or headscarves on French (or American) beaches (or streets)? [View all]Il_Coniglietto
(373 posts)"...with anti-wine, anti-food, anti-lifestyle, Franglish-speaking, hijab wearing people who aren't willing to be FRENCH FIRST."
THOSE ARE YOUR WORDS.
I correctly pointed out the similarity between your defense of "French culture" and the same bull I've been hearing defending "American culture" by Trump. I said HE hates immigrants and HE hates different cultures, and the language he uses to do that is uncomfortably close to what I quoted you on above. I did so because I actually believe you AREN'T like that and was hoping to enlighten you on how you were coming across. But whatever, your over-the-top response shows that clearly ain't happening.
The link you posted is about French culture from the view of one French man and one American woman. Kay. That's their opinion. Here are some others:
(The whole video is great, particularly with discussing the effects of colonialism on immigration, but from 4:25 on she focuses specifically on Muslims in France.)
These videos are hardly representative of the whole of France. But they are just as important and worthy of acknowledgment as the link you posted.
The following video is surprisingly relevant to this entire thread. In it, a French woman yells at a French man simply for wearing a qamis:
She wants to ban his clothing as well, but she can hardly claim it's to fight misogyny. No, it's about some "sense of decency." Uh huh.
What stands out to me in all three of these videos is the isolating "otherness" if you are not French enough. The burqini was designed to help include women into their communities. The alternative is to...what? Don't say wear pants and a long shirt. That's not okay either:
He said that six Muslim women who complained to his center in the past week were asked to leave public beaches even though they were not wearing burkinis.
One was wearing a long-sleeve T-shirt and pants with a head scarf, and another was wearing an actual competition bathing suit, like they wear in the Olympics, and a bathing cap, and she was taken off the beach, Mr. Muhammad said.
However, he added, her mother was wearing the hijab and was enjoying a picnic on the beach, and the fact that she was Muslim and wearing a bathing cap was enough to cause local officials to ask her to leave.
In Cannes, where a ban on the burkini was enacted last week, at least six of 10 women who complained to a local Muslim association were simply going into the sea with their bodies covered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/world/europe/fighting-for-the-soul-of-france-more-towns-ban-a-bathing-suit-the-burkini.html
However, great news! The burqini ban is no more:
...
The court struck down both arguments for the bans: It ruled that the burkini is neither an insult to the equality of women nor a harbinger of terrorism. The attempts to ban it, the judges maintained, insulted fundamental freedoms such as the freedom to come and go, the freedom of conscience and personal liberty.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/08/26/frances-top-administrative-court-overturns-burkini-ban/
Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Good.