What's truly sickening is that the onlookers cheered and applauded.
So this article is twelve years old? Wow.
I've never been to France either.
France's assimilation policy is very different from the U.S.'s immigration policy. There seem to be pros and cons in both directions. You must show proficiency in French in order to obtain citizenship, last I knew. Obviously, demonstrating your willingness to bare skin goes a bit far.
But that's about citizenship; I don't know whether the burkini ban applies to mere tourists. At any rate, I keep wondering whether anyone's entertained the possibility of banning wearing of the Yarmulke.
I keep wondering whether anyone's entertained the possibility of banning wearing of the Yarmulke.
From my link (which I do not necessarily endorse; I just vividly remembered reading it):
Most people in France know Article 141-5-1 simply as the veil law--la loi contre le voile--or as the head-scarf law, or the chador or burka or hejab or jalabib or abaya or nikab or even bandanna law, or anything else they choose, mostly inaccurately, to call the clothing with which an increasing number of French Muslim schoolgirls had been covering their heads, and often their faces and bodies, and attempting to come to class. ("Veil," in France, is the catchall word.) And never mind that, as of the latest hermeneutical negotiations, the veil law also applies to the Jewish skullcap, the Sikh turban, and to any cross that looks ostensiblement religious--a term that could be said to describe any religious symbol that's simply visible, or there.
"It is a small price to pay for tranquillity" is how Michael Williams, the chief rabbi of the Synagogue Copernic, the oldest reform synagogue in France--and, in 1980, the first to be bombed by extremists--explains the fact that most French Christians and Jews, while not precisely in favor of laws like that, were quite willing to accept one.
I need to get back to a shamefully overdue assignment from a French colleague.
Am I threw only one creeped out by the memory of this old essay by Timothy Garton Ash?
If elected, Sarkozy would prevent Muslim and Jewish students from accessing non-pork meals in schools
https://twitter.com/steveplrose/status/768096163480436737?lang=en
9 That looks like a good account to follow.
"It is a small price to pay for tranquillity"
I've got a feeling France is going to be experiencing another dose or two of that tranquility they've been enjoying so much lately.
I second the request for explanation, because it seems so crashingly stupid.
France is home to the largest group of left-wing Iranian exiles, unlike the more right-wing ones who came to the US.
I've been twice; once a month after 9/11 (to Paris), and once as a hanger on to my awesome wife near Perpignan--near the Spanish border rather than the Italian.
In both cases, people seemed generally nice--though they were sometimes very annoying about my wife's mispronunciations. (I just stumbled along in tourist English + pleasantries, which they seemed more willing to put up with than amateur mangling of their language.)
Per Parsimon's explanation, they are proud of their historical assimilation via the French language. The border was adjusted in 1648 and they compelled everyone on their side of the border to learn French; within a 100 years, Perpignan (which had changed hands) was thoroughly French. This wikipedia link about that war is pretty brief.
They had a really nice tower, but it was marred by the fact that when I was visiting it a whole bunch of British people kept trying to bum a cigarette from me.
France is home to the largest group of left-wing Iranian exiles
I don't know what to make of this. What counts as "left-wing" for Iranian exiles, for one thing. (I can make guesses, but I'd rather just know.) Second, whoever they are, they are attracted to France why? Please explain!
Albigensian Crusade;St Bartholomew's Day; Thirty Years War; Revolts of Vendee and Chouannerie; a lot of the OAS in the early 60s were religious, including some Jews.
Violence linked to religious expression in France like race in America.
17: There were Marxist uprisings against the Khomeini regime in 1979 that were put down. Maybe the Marxists that didn't get killed escaped to France?
Khomeini was, for a time, in exile in France. I don't know why he picked France either. The burkini wasn't even invented then.
"Cultured" Iranians have been going to/living in France for a very long time, way before the revolution. This...doesn't really address the question.
I lost my virginity in Paris, which gives me no insight at all into France's controversies but is good for a laugh.
Right, but now I want to know who takes little bits of Iranians and puts them inside an oyster.
There goes self-imposed deadline #1. KEEP THE LINKS COMING. They can all be from 2004. (I'm pretty sure the "eh, whatever works" rabbi is unrepresentative of all French Jews.)
More New Yorker from this year (much shorter). "For nearly three decades, a debate about how to integrate Muslims with roots in the former colonies into a particular idea of secular society has occupied French opinion pages. . . . The views of those who, like Badinter, believe that the headscarf represents an assault on women's liberty and, with it, the values of the Republic have largely prevailed in government."
Seven ways to overcome procrastination.
France is nice. Try the bread.
And the cheese.
People in France are a lot nicer to deaf people. They're nicer to deaf people than Americans are, and also they're nicer to deaf Americans than to other Americans.
Mainly my positive attitude is related to the bread and cheese though.
Not that the bread/cheese makes up for all the shitty racism. But there's shitty racism here too, and also shittier bread and cheese.
15: I've been to Perpignan. It was right after a conference in nearby Ceret. Wonderful bit of trivia from Ceret's wikipedia page:
A plague epidemic hit Céret from 1651 to 1655 and killed about a hundred people. One of the doctors in charge, coming from Thuir, was fired for being repeatedly drunk and after having buried several sick people that were still alive.
I found that the language barrier was much lower than I has expected. I had an English/French phrasebook and was able to get by without much problem.
Now I want brie and pumpernickel. Except it's too hot for it.
I'm too cognitively damaged to keep on with my work after clicking the link in 8. What's the antidote, Flippanter? Is it still Bach?
Etymology of "pumpernickel" (warning: does not alleviate cognitive damage).
I've said before, people in France are nice to Americans in cars with German license plates.
I've never lived there, but have been to France a number of times. It's great, you should go. Apparently tourism is way down this year, so there are probably going to be some really good deals come Fall.
Not just bread and cheese. Mirabelles are delish.
The farting explanation is almost certainly correct. Even with the brie, it really runs through you.
21: This...doesn't really address the question.
I agree.
If the "as if to a child" question is serious, well:
France has this assimilationist thing, see. And France is lately rather worried about suicide bombers and terrorist attacks. They also figure (as do a number of other people worldwide) that the burqa provides a means to hide potential bombs one might be carrying on one's person. Also that the wearing of such a thing shows an open embrace of Islamist sensibilities, not just Islamic ones.
There's a lot of erroneous thinking in all this. My sense, though, is that that's what they're thinking.
My impression is that the French are suspicious and uncomfortable with any intensity of affect, especially publicly expressed. Many stories of the aging Marxian 69er in the countryside kept at a distance, still viewed as somewhat ridiculous but ever so slightly a danger of being a nuisance and bore.
There is an ideology, a shared national emotional commitment to a radical and passionate equanimity (not magnanimity) that can easily slide into easygoing mellow happy versions of existentialism, nihilism, anarchism or nonsensical over-intellectualism. Suicide rate is reasonably low, unlike atheistic Japan.
French rationalism.
I wrote my undergrad thesis on the headscarf ban back in 2004, and I did some brief ethnographic research in Paris, so this is something I know about, although I haven't been keeping up with recent developments. The main thing I would say is that France is similar enough just for us in the Anglosphere to be deeply confident in what is actually a deep misunderstanding.
I don't support the burkini ban, but issues of immigration, assimilation, and identity are very different in France, which has a different history of all these issues, and a very different landscape. I'm also wary of English speakers (Muslim or otherwise) speaking for French Muslims, as our intuitive responses aren't all that similar. French Muslims are also French, and it seems problematic to assume that "French" and "Muslims" would have differing attitudes, even if it's well-meaning.
France has a very real problem with racism, immigration, and assimilation, but it also legitimately has a problem of unemployed Muslim young men turning to radical Islam and a very real problem of violence against Muslim women. In my interviews with young French Muslim women, being harassed, raped, or murdered for not wearing a headscarf was a major concern, and there was sympathy for (as well as frustration with) the French government's attempt to address violence against women by banning the headscarf in classrooms. My take on the burkini ban is similar--ultimately an unhelpful and counterproductive attempt to address a very real problem, and one not necessarily taken in bad faith by the French government.
An analogy would be with state attempts to solve gang violence in large cities. It's a large, complex, and seemingly intractable problems made worse by generations of systematic racism, and while no one assumes the people currently involved in solving the problem are without significant historical biases, it's likely they would legitimately like to solve the problem, and they're generally working with the support of local politicians and community organizations.
The first thing I wrote is maybe confusing. I meant to say, on the surface France shares enough cultural and historical similarities to seem similar to the UK/America, but in actuality it's just enough of an appearance of similarity to disguise exactly how different France really is.
(not sure this is better. blah)
They also figure (as do a number of other people worldwide) that the burqa provides a means to hide potential bombs one might be carrying on one's person.
This has fuck all to do with the hijab ban or stripping that woman of her swimwear on the public beach.
E.g., in 2004, the Anglo media was up in arms over the headscarf ban in France as being a clear sign of French racism and deeply opposed by French Muslims. In reality, 52% of French Muslims supported the ban, as did SOS Racisme (the most establishment anti-racist organization in France, mostly staffed by Muslims) and smaller Muslim women's rights groups like Ni Poutes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Submissive). Again, many people supported the ban as the lesser of two evils rather than outright as a good thing, but it was a sobering reminder that cultural difference matters, even between say, neighboring European countries.
Of course, France also has a problematic history of forcibly disrobing women wearing headscarves, e.g. in Algeria.
And of course, forcing someone to strip is never anything but deeply humiliating and a terrible idea.
Buttercup is of course right about all of this (of course the Burkini thing in Cannes is bad but it is not bad in exactly the same way that you, liberal American internet commenter from Ohio is assuming) but is there a worse forum for actually thinking through these kinds of differences than the English-speaking internet comment box? I guess Twitter and Facebook are worse. Let the misunderstandings begin! Maybe we could even throw a few mistranslated and/or decontextualized cartoons into the mix.
And FWIW I also think the headscarf ban in schools was a bad idea too.
No, 35 was fine. The only thing I don't quite understand is why it's so different from, say, the US. Some people here would likewise like to ban the wearing of, oh, baggy pants. I believe some jurisdictions have tried.
For example: In my interviews with young French Muslim women, being harassed, raped, or murdered for not wearing a headscarf was a major concern
Similarly, young black men (and women) in the US in certain areas undergo immense pressure -- life-threatening pressure -- to conform to certain identity markers.
In any case, this shouldn't become an argument about whether France is or is not more freaky than the US. My understanding is that the two countries have just taken different approaches to addressing the issue.
41: What is they're wearing an Ed Hardy t-shirt?
Yeah, I read a book (Leila Ahmed), there are many, on the revival of the burqa and naqib. An American Muslim woman really stretching to find agency in Stockholm Syndrome. I know the arguments. Very few were made independently of men.
I have no problem seeing women as totally complicit with violent Patriarchy, and neither respect their agency nor their self-victimization.
I've been three times- 1998, 2009, and two weeks ago. Lots of Pokestops in Paris. This gave me no insight to the topic at hand.
I like this The main thing I would say is that France is similar enough just for us in the Anglosphere to be deeply confident in what is actually a deep misunderstanding. a lot. Not just because I am reading a book on Sweden recommended by an earnest and very smart friend, which teeters continually over that particular abyss.
44
Yeah absolutely. The French have a very different history with race, religion, ethnic minorities, as well as conception of the nation and of a sense of national/racial/ethnic identity. I have a 125 page version, but an oversimplified and partial answer is that American multiculturalism comes out of German romanticism, something that of course never was a part of France's intellectual heritage. Also, we have a history of viewing religion as something that needs protection from the state, whereas the history of the Catholic church in France means that there's a strong view that the state is something that needs protection from religion. There's also the fact you can't talk about religious or ethnic minorities in Europe without "shadow conversations" of the Holocaust and Nazism haunting the whole conversation. The general lesson taken from WW2 in France is that strong adherence to a colorblind liberalism is the only way to prevent the resurgence of Vichy-style racial nationalism. Anyways, there's way more to be said about this and I don't really have the time or energy to say it properly in a blog comment.
46
Yeah, I get impatient too with a lot of the "it's agency, not liberation" line of feminist scholarship. Obviously people can feel comfortable doing lots of things (including wearing niqab), but it's as problematic to frame it simply as a cultural choice as it is to assume it's automatically oppression.
I have lived in France, have married a French person and borne a French child, have a French branch of my birth family with whom I am close, and I'm not sure I'm clearer than ogged on what the fuck is going on there, ever. Why is this it so hard? I don't have this problem with Italy or Egypt. Laïcité is a thing independent of French racism and French racism is a thing independent of laïcité but boy do they have great synergy. I say this all with great--ok, moderate--affection. The unfinished Camus thing that I'll google in a minute came as close to helping me get it as anything has.
My take is basically the same as Buttercup's, except I am completely lacking of any expert knowledge. It's very freeing.
France has done a terrible job of integrating its Muslim minority, a failure that now has a significant body count. Things like the burqina ban are a ham-handed attempt to fix what they've messed up.
The Camus thing is The First Man.
ham-handed
Your metaphors are not halal. And a bit non-standard.
American multiculturalism comes out of German romanticism
Herder? Not sure that "of course" there are zero connections between German romanticism and all of French intellectual history, but I take your fair point about the divergent multiculturalisms.
I will report back on how the French punish craven procrastination and pass over in silence their culturally distinctive way of designing and specifying project tasks.
If I take a nap when I wake up will someone have explained to me why France is uniquely ungettable to me as compared to other places I have similar connections to, specifically Italy (North and South both fwiw), Egypt, Israel, and Russia? Thank you in advance.
54
Herder, via Boas (among other people). And of course this is a gross oversimplification, but being nuanced requires far more length and effort than I have available for a blog comment.
55
I have no actual idea, seeing as you are far more immersed in French culture than I ever have been, but I wonder if it's because in many ways Italy, Egypt, and Russia are all obviously different, whereas France is just sort of uncanny? Like, it's on the surface much more similar to the Anglo world than any of those other places, but it's still actually quite different in ways that always seem unexpected?
As Buttercup says, it's the false sense of familiarity. Russia, Egypt, Israel and even to a large extent Italy are obviously foreign lands full of crazy foreigners whom you can "get" from a distance (even if you have connections to individuals in those countries); France is in the uncanny valley of cultural understanding.
I had that experience with Australia. Having lived in China, I figured moving to Oz would be a piece of cake, but instead it was just like an uncanny alternate universe US where everything was just slightly off, and I felt way more culture shock than I did living in China.
I want to blame the Plantagenets and I think that's probably not wrong. French/Anglo culture in weird push-pull/shadow-selfing eachother since forever.
I want to blame the Plantagenets and I think that's probably not wrong. French/Anglo culture in weird push-pull/shadow-selfing eachother since forever.
being nuanced requires far more length and effort than I have available for a blog comment.
No, PLAY WITH ME, let's argue about Renan! (Seriously: oh obviously, I'm just being immensely annoying because I want to stab the shit out of my work computer and possibly myself. Displacement fussing.)
What about Quebec? Is it more or less uncanny than France?
I really want to blame the Plantagenets.
I've always wanted to take a train trip to Quebec. but I've never been there. I should get a passport at least.
I would love to play with you, except I have to write a dissertation which is not on French racism :/ (Apparently that is passe as a dissertation topic).
My experience with Quebec is the people are all insanely hot in a sort of homogeneous way. Light skin, dark hair and eyes.
Amtrak will sell you a ticket from Pittsburgh to NYC and from NYC to Montreal, but not from Pittsburgh to Montreal. You need to change trains to get from Pittsburgh to Montreal, but you need to change trains to get from Pittsburgh to Lincoln, Nebraska, and Amtrak will sell you that ticket.
64 - Much less so, at least if my Quebec satellite radio is any guide, which it probably isn't. Especially on attitudes towards multiculturalism and feminism, which are language-police crazy and take the view of the Quebecois as a still-oppressed group, but otherwise are much much more like Canadian or US attitudes (which are not the same either but still). I feel like living in Montreal I'd be annoyed at French Canadians but not have the bottomless sense of not-quite understanding.
Quebec City is great. Everyone should go there.
Quebec City is great. Everyone should go there.
I'm ambivalent, to be honest.
Charley didn't say anything about coming back.
Italian drivers actually are shit. I did not know this was a stereotype until I said to my wife that the drivers are shit and she said duh.
Is there anywhere the drivers aren't shit? I mean sure, there are varying degrees of shittiness, but is anyone actually good?
Unreasonably high standards. That's why your sister is married and you're single.
Is there anywhere the drivers aren't shit?
Germany. I bet the other German speakers are good, too.
I had a used Audi with a Blaupunkt stereo in it. The speakers were shit.
Of the six countries we went to this summer they are by far the worst. Oh, you started crossing with your kids at a bright red painted and signed crosswalk and are halfway across? Fuck if I'm going to stop to let you cross the other lane! You can just keep standing in front of those fools who didn't run you down!
During my extensive time in Italy (about a week), I developed what I called the Italian Street Crossing Rule. You can't let a car know that you've seen them. Once they think you will move to evade death, they won't slow at all.
(Note: This rule is probably easier to follow when you aren't with any kids.)
You can go to Germany and drive around and not feel like your life is in constant danger. There are a lot of countries where that's not the case.
re: 75
Scandinavia, the UK, and Ireland have very low* accident rates compared to most other countries. Does that count?
* I mean lower by all standards (per vehicle, per population, per mile driven, etc.).
re: the burkini ban
Scotland just approved a hijab based police uniform. Quite a bit behind London, where it has been optional for a long time, but still ...
My observations agree with 82. Iceland- most conscientious about following the rules, almost everyone went exactly the speed limit, but really there's not much there that requires you to be a good driver. Denmark had probably the most skilled, dealing with cyclists. Spain he the most controlled chaos- lots of multi lane rotaries where somehow everyone ended up where they wanted to be. I only drove in Iceland and Spain, the rest we were only pedestrians (or cyclists in Denmark)
We finished Hamarinn a couple nights ago. Some impolite driving in that one.
Looking at IMDB to check the spelling, I'm confused about the relationship with Hraunið. Same show, rereleased?
Sweden's low death rates along with their alcoholism make me believe that Swedes drive on dark, lonely roads and spin out onto the ice, where they're exquisitely preserved for the spring thaw, after which they continue their trips sober.
Tout le gendarmerie -- le cawmuniss
Completely different movies, sharing a few characters, but for some reason the later one had the title of the earlier one in the opening credits?
When my wife and I were in Cairo, there was a busy street that we simply couldn't figure out how to cross. Finally, a police officer helped us cross the street, like we were doddering senior citizens. Someone eventually explained the trick was to cross the street at a steady, predictable pace, and just count on the cars not to hit you.
I had relatives who just went to Ireland and said that driving was difficult and taxing just because the roads were so narrow -- I saw a picture of a two lane road which looked like there might or might not be space for cars to pass without scraping their side view mirrors -- with no shoulder because there were low stone walls running directly alongside the road.
Perhaps this would be a good time to share an anecdote: I was walking into Target the other day, and there was a Somali woman and her daughter passing by. The little girl was about six or so, and was whining plaintively to her mother: "But you *ALWAYS* wear hijab!"
My dad found the cultural norms around driving in Armenia hard to get used to- besides the fact that nobody obeyed any rules about lanes or lights or anything, also the pedestrians would get really angry and insulted if he tried to stop or wait for them.
Yeah, drive anywhere in the countryside in the British Isles and you'll find roads that really aren't wide enough for two, and you hope that when you meet someone that they have good reflexes, and that you're not too far from a passing place.
I've been to France loads of times, but this has not provided me with any understanding of their need to wipe out any signs of religious adherence.
re: 91
(as per 94)
I spent about an hour a day driving along roads where it doesn't look like one car can fit. That's mix of country roads (rat-running around Oxford), and London streets so dense with parked cars that even a small car like mine is in danger of taking a wing mirror out if you don't drive with laser-like focus.
I spend a lot of time driving these days, and for a fair proportion of that I'm muttering/shouting "you could fit a fucking bus through there" as people wait on the far side of parked cars for me to come through, or, worse, drive up the middle of the gap left by the parked cars, forcing me to wait. I am a arse who curses people who slow down for width restriction bollards though. (Surely it should for everyone be a matter of pride NOT to slow down, even (especially) when driving a 6' 5.5" wide Transit van!)
The drivers of the UWL shuttle bus that I get from Ealing Broadway when I have to go Brentford for university always impress me with their readiness to go through tiny gaps at speed.
re: 96.last
Dropping off at the Co-op at the end of Boston Manor Road?
That's the one. I have to occasionally go to the 9th floor above the Co-op, and spend most of my day trying not to just stare out of the windows.
(One more day here at my placement, and one more day in Brentford, and my course is finished!)
39: I suppose you could put it like this: in France, rather than going in the same box as "race", "religion" goes in the same box as "politics". And the U.S. has all sorts of laws about public display of political affiliation. The UK has (don't know if the U.S. does) a law prohibiting political uniforms.
the trick was to cross the street at a steady, predictable pace, and just count on the cars not to hit you
This is how you cross a six lane road in Phnom Penh. It feels like a miracle, like Moses parting the warters or something. Also, it requires shitloads of faith.
I'm not sure anybody had tried actual political uniforms. But people can wear Klan robes without legal sanction.
101: there was a Silver Shirt movement in the thirties. Wiki says " the paramilitary Silver Legion wore a silver shirt with a tie along with a campaign hat and blue corduroy trousers with leggings" which sounds perfectly frightful.
100: also Ho Chi Minh City. All scooters, but still.
Re: 101
George Lincoln Rockwell.
91. Ireland: you forgot to mention the unexpected appearance of giant farm vehicles coming into view around a blind curve and taking up 3/4ths of the road.
Huh. 80 explains to a T the fights I have with my boyfriend over how to cross the street. He maintains you should never make eye contact, whereas I always feel like you should make eye contact to make sure they'll stop.
And I agree that Italians are crazy asshole drivers. Chinese drivers are a bit crazy, but pedestrians/goat herders/scooter riders are all much worse. I actually feel sorry for anyone trying to drive a car in China.
re: 105
Not unknown in the UK, either.
Also, there's a real thread in France that deeply values conformity, careerism, and regimentation. This is a country where everyone is expected to have exactly the same handwriting, and companies that build giant airliners employ graphologists to make sure they don't hire anyone whose penmanship is sloppy.
It's of a piece with the idea?myth of Parisian bohemianism; you end up in the big city (or the other big city, London, I know so many French people here) because you can't stand it any more, and it's full of relatively congenial immigrants who will leave you the fuck alone.
Conservative France iz conservative, and there's a lot of it, but a lot of people don't get this because it's not necessarily linked to neo-classical economics. The French conservative ideal is to have a career in a corps constitué - recognition by the state is really important even if you're not actually working for it (and the money's better if you're not).
"...they don't hire anyone whose penmanship is sloppy."
I'd spend my whole life on welfare if I lived in France.
Actually this thread has helped me understand better what on earth the French think they're at. I had forgotten about the idea that the headscarf ban was also intended to benefit women who couldn't choose to ditch the scarf without serious harassment. (Of course the current measures are ridiculous and forcing women to remove layers on beaches is only going to mean that the women stay home, not that they wear regular swimwear.)
In general it seems safe to assume that it all goes back to the French Revolution. When I was in secondary school I boggled at the classic French village stereotype, where the village schoolmaster is an atheist and communist but he and the priest play chess against each other. (Ireland having been the opposite where the State was utterly deferential to the Catholic Church until quite recently.)
In college I was enlightened by the explanation that the Church had sided with the aristos against the people and therefore the State deliberately excluded any role for religion and continued to resist any build up of power. [This was actually an aside to the explanation of certain structural aspects of French law, which were intended to restrict the powers of judges, since their predecessors were also seen as to have taken the wrong side. EU law was set up on the same structural basis, leading to an even greater strain between theory (judges don't make law) and practice.] Religion being the enemy of the State, how not even more so Islam? I can see it if I squint, but still this is despicable and punching down.
110: oh, the whole thing pretty much defines the concept of "white saviour".
Also, when it finally went into force, I remember more than a few French acquaintances who were genuinely astonished that racist cops used it as an excuse to bully Arabs. Like, all the stuff about laicité made it literally impossible for them to imagine that they might do that, even though it was the very first thing I would mention if we talked about it.
And these were people who routinely expressed a real hatred of cops, especially the CRS who beat them up on demos.
"What? You think our great republican police force [that you routinely compare to Nazi collaborators loading babies onto the train to Auschwitz, that kicked you down the Boulevard Raspail like a sack of washing for marching with a sign], might abuse these powers? YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND LAICITÉ!!"
[four years pass]
"Have you SEEN THIS? It is an OUTRAGE these CRS PIGS they're all a bunch of FASCISTS as bad as VICHY it's nothing but SHAMELESS RACISM"
"yes....yes, it is...."
Ban suspended. 'Nice outlawed the bathing suit because it "overtly manifests adherence to a religion at a time when France and places of worship are the target of terrorist attacks."' Do not publicly adhere to religion if your place of worship is the target of terrorist attacks!... I mean, common sense, right?
From 111: I asked Louati if he expects protests from other sections of French society, given the international outcry over the incident in Nice. 'If there is no solidarity now, there will never be solidarity,' Louati said. 'This is the time for people to flock onto the beaches wearing burkinis, long sleeves and headscarves.'
There is an anecdote going round, doesn't matter if apocryphal, about a young Muslim woman on the beach in a bikini hearing about the arrest and saying the next day she would return wearing a burqa.
As far as "simply racism," goes from what I have understood of the revival of the veil, it was rarely "innocent" or neutral, but a very deliberate act of protest and a provocation. Not necessarily completely "conservative" or reactionary, but often partly a protest against Western hegemony and consumer culture, and a self-conscious assertion of separateness and difference.
This is not to defend the ban or the arrest, but more to understand the dialogue that is happening, that this is a confrontation and a contestation, and not at all merely a meeting of racists and someone living their everyday life.
It is interesting that the disavowal of the political, "I'm just on the beach wearing my clothes," seems to grant some authority or legitimacy to the protestor.
Like the difference between walking down the street, and marching down the street with 10,000 others. "I'm just taking a walk."
