Syria bans full Islamic face veils at universities

[Peacetrain]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100719/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria_islamic_veils

DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria has forbidden the country's students and teachers from wearing the niqab — the full Islamic veil that reveals only a woman's eyes — taking aim at a garment many see as political.

The ban shows a rare point of agreement between Syria's secular, authoritarian government and the democracies of Europe: Both view the niqab as a potentially destabilizing threat.

"We have given directives to all universities to ban niqab-wearing women from registering," a government official in Damascus told The Associated Press on Monday.

[xultar]

1. All that will do is stop women from getting higher education.

[Bobbieo]

3. Not if they really want a higher education.

[EFerrari]

11. No, this will provide support outside of the family. n/t

[Recursion]

2. Syria sees it as political, France sees it as religious

sigh

[etherealtruth]

10. It really is cultural

Sharia requires Muslims (male and female) to dress modestly. The niqab rises out of cultural misogyny. The prophet Muhammad sought to elevate the status of women (from the customs of that time and place) ... as is often the case with organized religion, something went horribly wrong along the way.

[Ozymanithrax]

4. It two, two, two things in one...

It is religious, the garment forced upon women in very conservative Islamic groups.

It is political, in that hyper Conservative Islam is their version of Christian Dominionism political goals and aim to make secular states, such as Syria, into Theocratic Religious Islamic Republics.

[burnsei sensei]

5. It's a shot across the bow.

Quote:
After the Hama uprising, the Islamist insurrection was broken, and the Brotherhood has since operated in exile while other factions surrendered or slipped into hiding. Government attitudes in Syria hardened considerably during the uprising, and Assad would rely more on repressive than on political tactics for the remainder of his rule, although a partial re-liberalization began again in the 1990s.
end quote.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hama_massacre

I don't think I would screw with Bashar el-Assad and the Ba'athists.
Not for one damn second.

[divideandconquer]

6. Have you ever seen Assad's wife?

[burnsei sensei]

7. Yes.

She has class.
http://www.life.com/image/52057819

Take a look for yourself.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

8. Good

I'll be honest, as a hiring manager, I would automatically disqualify a job candidate if they came to an interview wearing one of those things.

[Fumesucker]

9. Clearly, the Syrian government is biased against Muslims..

Anyone who wishes to ban the burqa or niqab is an anti-Muslim bigot, I've read it here on DU at least dozens of times.















:sarcasm: