Why burqas are bad

Countries that have banned full-face veils. Azerbaijan Banned in schools. On Friday, German's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said the country intends to ban full-face veils in any place where identification is required, including in schools or government offices, to promote security and national cohesion. Not just the burqa," he said. Meanwhile, Frank Henkel, the Interior Minister of the city of Berlin said the full-face veil "does not fit in with our view of women.

France and Belgium already have bans on burqas. The French Ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, has argued previously that burqas suggest that women are an "object of lust, a subject and not an agent of history," while at the time the ban was being voted on in Belgium, members of parliament said they were motivated both by security and morality.

Sara Silvestri , a professor at City University London who specializes in religion and politics told CNN these bans effectively play right into the hands of extremists. Countries have reasoned a burqa ban by arguing it's oppressive, or citing counter-terrorism.

Nesrine Malik , a columnist for The Guardian, told CNN that imposing laws against the burqa is the easiest way for a government to appear to show they're tackling terrorism. Malik added that the burqa is an easy target because not only is it visible, but it also appears to be exclusionary. University of Oxford lecturer Ali says extremism has severely affected the way Islam is viewed. While there are many women who choose to wear the burqa freely, El Feki says there are many who don't have a choice.

While some countries have installed burqa bans because of security measures, others say they are a symbol of oppression. Because you're assuming that these women have not made a choice, that they're incapable of making a choice," she says. Columnist Malik, says passing laws against the burqa "suggest that it is not out of concern for women, but out of desire to shrink the space within which Muslims can dress, live and practice freely in Europe.

There are many reasons why a Muslim women may choose to wear a veil, such as for modesty, fashion or empowerment.

El Feki says there are many different reasons why a woman may choose to wear a veil. And for a lot of women it's freedom," she said. And the challenge we have is disentangling this. Burqa, hijab, niqab, burkini, what's what? The different types of veils. It was liberals, the ones who believed in the demands for equality for women, who fought hard against them.

Today, the same right-wing is trying to achieve something akin to what Vidyasagar did. It is a general human responsibility to try and work towards the betterment of all societies and classes. I fight for a uniform civil code, without having pledged allegiance to any one group or community or political party, simply as a feminist and a defender of human rights. The Hindu right-wing, too, is a proponent of the civil code but our motivations are different. I wish for Muslims to become secular and enlightened and move towards establishing a modern, equal society.

My position is always against any kind of religious fanaticism, including the Hindu kind. But does that mean that if the Hindu fanatics support the uniform civil code, even with their ulterior nefarious motives, I should immediately withdraw my support?

Of course not. Just because my mortal enemy admits the sun rises in the east must I say the opposite? Any talk about a ban on the burqa makes liberals as well as many Muslims go into shock. Several highly-developed democracies like Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and Norway, with strong human-rights credentials, have banned the burqa either partially or completely.

In many countries in West Asia, feminists have raised this demand, too. The burqa needs to be banned across the globe. Once that is done, Muslim women will be able to move around without having to carry around a mobile prison at all times as punishment for having been born as female. The women who claim they like wearing the burqa or that it is part of their rights do so because they have been indoctrinated into believing so.

There are some women who wear a niqab, which is a garment which conceals the whole body and leaves only a small slit free for the eyes. But their number is negligible. To avoid any misunderstanding: Burqa, niqab and chador are the expressions of a repressive, reactionary conception of women that grants the man total control over the female body.

But they are just a symptom. This forced veiling is only one side of the coin: Ostentatious public displays of the sexualized female body - such as in advertising - are the other. We must therefore passionately fight for a society in which this right of control gives way to female self-determination.

In more concrete terms: Every woman should decide for herself what she wears! The plans announced by German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere are at best an expression of helplessness: There should not be a general burqa ban, but at least a partial one. They call for facial concealment to be prohibited behind the wheel of a car or in public service.

But if you please: What veiled woman is allowed to drive by herself, or allowed to pursue a career? Again, symptom and cause are confused - and as regional elections loom, with a populist view to supporters of the AfD and Pegida. Because we really do have a problem: If we can no longer make our western, free society more attractive than an authoritarian system, if we have already gone so far that we have to regulate the wearing of certain garments by law, then we have lost the struggle of opinion.

The great promise of the pursuit of individual happiness, regardless of origin, sex, skin color or sexual orientation, is central to our society. It should inspire, not exclude. Have something to say? Add your comments below. Comments close 24 hours after publication. A free and open society must be able to draw a clear dividing line. And that means the burqa should be banned in Germany, writes Alexander Kudascheff. Germany's conservative interior ministers have released their much-vaunted "Berlin Declaration," which included plans for a partial ban on full-face veils in public.

But rules on dual citizenship will remain the same.