It reminded me of when my best friend Nu worked in Saudi Arabia.
Then the religious police stalked the streets looking for women who had not covered themselves with their abaya properly and were not adverse in swinging their sticks to maintain public modesty.
The "need to do something" after the dreadful terrorism in France is understandable
But...this?
I know, your heart just sinks doesn't it. I'm not sure how demanding a woman undress in public is the best way to tackle terrorism.
ReplyDeleteOr ghettoism or anything else for that matter
DeleteIt saddens me too.
ReplyDeleteI find this deeply disturbing. I don't mind if people want to be covered up on the beach, whatever their faith/gender/size/etc. as long as they don't cover their faces, which I find difficult for communication and cultural reasons.
ReplyDeleteI mirror what you say
DeleteYep me too. Wear what you like as long as i can see your face and communicate human to human. And no-one can convince me that the full burka is a choice most women would make if they weren't culturally conditioned and bullied. It confuses me that most lefties are all for allowing it, and yet they are usually also feminists. Hey, if all Muslims had to wear one, men and women, then fair play (apart from the terrorist angle) but otherwise, nope.
DeleteIt's an unenforcable law made by an idiot. If Trump gets in, look out for more. In banks, maybe, and only with full-faced covers, but on the beach?!
ReplyDeleteMr Farage is now over here to campaign with Mr Trump. True.
DeleteIf trump succeeds in america he should be covered up. Matter of fact he should have always been. He is so very frightening.
DeleteIf trump succeeds in america he should be covered up. Matter of fact he should have always been. He is so very frightening.
DeleteI wish he had gone over to support Trump BEFORE the Brexit vote.
DeleteIt's shameful, John. And I am glad you picked up on it.
ReplyDeleteAnd no matter what some commentators in the press say, it's not the same as when yours truly walked into a mosque (Cairo, Egypt, ca 1988) and was ushered out for many a reason - not least on point of gender. We can't, on one hand, make big pronouncements on freedom of ... you name it, and then curtail same freedom on some arbitrary pretense. And, as always, picking on the most vulnerable.
Other than that, and please do smile, the number of times I have sighed in recent years that I wish I'd been born at a time when long dress and veils were de rigeur, never mind a burkini, have been numerous. Don't ask. The consultant dermatologist was delighted at such a fine specimen as myself.
I am fine again. Doesn't mean I want to bare it all.
U
As long as faces can be seen as tiggy previously said
Delete'A suicide bomber hid the explosives in her vagina. For your own safety therefore, all women entering public places will now be subjected to an internal examination'.
ReplyDeleteMisguided laws.
I think I went out with that girl once.
DeleteGoing out with you radicalised her
DeleteWe should be ashamed. How this is to help fight terrorism escapes me completely. The world is a safer place when women wear bikinis?
ReplyDeleteFrom the Guardian:
She described a mini-riot around her as about 10 people ran over in support, telling the police that the family was not bothering anyone, while about 10 others verbally insulted her. “There were insults like ‘Go home’, ‘We don’t want that here’, ‘France is a Catholic country’. My daughter was crying, she didn’t understand why her mother was being asked to leave.”
It was unfortunate that it was located in Nice
DeleteTempers I suppose were running high ...no excuse I know
I am not a fan of any religion or any religious garb but I do not think it is right to humiliate law-abiding people in this way. Close to those "thought police" were women in bikinis which to my mind are just like underwear. There was a time - not so long ago - when it would have been quite unthinkable for people to bask on beaches in their immodest underwear. Who is right and who is wrong>
ReplyDeleteI guess respect has to play a part in all this .....somewhere
DeleteIt's beyond me why grownup(?) men in uniforms have nothing better to do than harassing that poor woman. And on what grounds? Pathetic!!! Humiliation, yes, that really is the word. And respect, yes, that really is lacking!!
ReplyDeleteI think I feel sorry for the police......they have to uphold the law...even though it is a stupid one
DeleteThere is that tender heart of yours, yes, I agree to that, but I do hope they at one point will notice the turmoil on their insides abiding that command. We have a bad story on onlyfollowingmyduty. Poor human kind!!
DeleteThis is disturbing. Suppose a fully garbed Catholic Nun, out for a little rest and sunshine, was also sitting beside her? Would they have asked the Nun to remove her religious habit? Now that would have raised one hell of an uproar.
ReplyDeleteGood point..especially as the law states " religious clothing"
DeleteThis ridiculous banning of burkinis has angered me beyond belief. Let alone hearing and reading of this happening.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't matter whether anybody's clothing is for religious reasons or not. We should be able to wear what we want in 'western society'.
Is that not what we so often shout about ? Our freedom of speech, movement, dress and religion ?
I wonder if I would go out on the beach with a complete wet suit on if I would get the same treatment ?
I would love orders of nuns to test the law and go on masse to the beaches of France
DeleteWhy use nuns?
DeleteThe law is " religious clothing" that has to be removed like the burka, why not a habit?
DeleteAnd yet the paedophile priests, bishops, cardinals et all are allowed to walk amongst us in their religious garb.
DeleteBan all religion I say.
Insanity.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Agreeing with you, and all those who commented.
ReplyDeleteThe photo sums it up really 4 police men looming over a solitary woman on a beach FFS
ReplyDeleteEven if for arguments sake, she was doing it to create a reaction, what the hell did those men think it was going to look like, everyone has a camera and internet access today. It did not sit well with me...
DeleteAs an American I find France just to much with this birkini thing. Here in the northwest if someone tried to pass this law locally I would not doubt that women would show up on the beach in all manner of full body/full face cover ups in solidarity. But I couldn't say for the rest of the USA. We're different that way in the Pacific Northwest!
ReplyDeleteSad state of affairs what is the world coming to,
ReplyDeletethese men are paid to check on what woman are wearing instead of solving crime and catching real criminals INSANE I reckon.
Crazy. All one can hope is that both sides see how ridiculous they're being.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the same day, Canada's Mounties approved a hijab for their uniform.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37173669
So thankfully there is some positive global news.
Congratulations Scotland. Take a leaf out of their book France
ReplyDeleteThe IndependentLike Page
17 hrs ·
Brilliant
The hijab is now an official part of police uniform in Scotland
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK
That's excellent news
DeleteMany years ago, I was on holiday in Portugal and you would often see elderly widows on the beach dressed head to foot in black. I couldn't believe how they stood the heat as I was boiling, but I wonder if widow's weeds would fall foul of this mad French law.
ReplyDeleteIt makes the French look ridiculous, which is not a good thing after all they have had to deal with in the last twelve months but this is no way forward. In fact it's more a way to rile the bad Muslims even more - except that they don't really value their women enough to object to harassment, but would use it as an excuse to kill more French people.
ReplyDeleteIt's a really bad idea.
Although this particular law is clearly pathetic, I wonder if the young lady was just trying to provoke a reaction. If I went to Saudi Arabia and didn't abide by the archaic laws there then I can hardly complain if I am punished.
ReplyDelete