Few weeks ago I read an article in one of the Slovenian magazines. An article was written about new law in France. It says that women shouldn’t have hidden faces (with a burqa) on public places. It’s also forbidden men forcing women to do that. Of course there were demonstration in a few days, organized by Muslims.
In my opinion that law violated human rights, freedom, expressing of who we are and it is definitely suppression of our roots and beliefs.
I’m proud Slovenian woman, proud of our history and all that our ancestors had to put up with so we can have our own independent country nowadays. I’m also very grateful that we speak our own language – Slovenian language – and that I can live by the norms I was taught to be the right ones.
But despite all that I’m still open-minded and I understand and support other, different cultures, religion, beliefs … Everyone of us has a right to be what he/she wants, to believe and live the way that he/she thinks it’s just the best for him/her and for community as well.
After I have read the article I wondered why French (with Sarkozy) have reached such decision. For example: you can see women in burqas in Slovenia as well. But I don’t have any problems with that because they just live how they were raised and it’s not hurtful to anyone nearby. Until we respect each other, our appearance shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Bellow that article there were written four different opinions of random people passing by. Three of them were very similar to mine, but there was one opinion that really made me think also from the another point of view. Quote: »I would forbid burqas in Slovenia as well. If you choose to live in other culture, you have to accept it. If you can’t, then go back where you come from, go back home. And you can’t say in your defense that is not democratic – because there is no democracy. Democracy restricts only those who can’t accept valid norms. In our culture valid norm are: visible/not covered face and not (completely) covered body. When I visited Muslim countries I covered myself of course. The same has been done by our students that were taken to visit and learn about foreign culture. But in our culture the face has to be visible also because of identification.«
After reading the opinion written above I started to brain-storm from another point of view. And yeah, it’ true: wherever we go, we accept and respect other culture’s norms and that is the only right thing to do! If you are guest and you’re tempted to experience or even live in a foreign country, you have to be adjusted to their environment. People are different and we need to respect that. And here I asked myself a question: Why does this move feel that unilateral sometimes? Why people cover themselves when they travel in Muslim countries and on the other hand, why it becomes controversial the other way around when a Muslim is visiting/living in western countries?
That discussion is talking just about wearing burqas by chance. But we can generalize: our public life has to be adjusted to the country/culture we are visiting or we decide to live. We have to accept their habits, language … Did you ever think about yourself when your are foreigner? Have you ever resisted foreign rules? If you have decided to do that, did you defend yourself with a fact that you have different beliefs? Did you managed to enter sacred place dressed the way you are at home and wearing sneakers? So, should rules be obeyed by every culture or will we continue to drive this upside-down world?
What about the consequences? In France you can be fined (150 to 30.000 eur) or go to prison for a year. What about the consequences in Muslim culture? It should be created the similar way. But do they have them at all? Are they measured in money, in prison time? Or are there different mechanisms that we are afraid of and because of them with don’t even think to do our own way?
