Sarkozy has forgotten the French motto

Question: This week France becomes the first country to ban the Islamic face veil in public. President Sarkozy has said the veils imprison women and run counter to the country’s sense of equality; detractors say the ban suppresses cultural and religious expression. What's the best way for leaders to balance their responsibility to promote a nation's values while making sure they respect individual differences?

This episode leads me to think that the French people might have forgotten their national motto: “Liberté, egalité, fraternité”–liberty, equality, brotherhood. What sets the great Western democracies such as France apart from most other countries is its tradition of freedom. Indeed, the influence of French thinking was evident in the founding philosophy of our own nation. So, to see France issue a burka ban for 2,000 Muslim women in a country with 6 million Muslims, within a total national population of 62 million, is surprising and disheartening. No nation that calls itself a land of liberty could outlaw such an individual expression of personal identity.

President Sarkozy would have shown himself to be a true leader if he had worked to block this ban instead of promoting it. Certainly he would have been more loyal to the historic principles of his country. He has suggested that Muslim women will be liberated by the ban, but that’s a highly dubious argument. How does it liberate them to deny so basic a right? Sarkozy appears to be pandering to people’s fear, and that’s not what good leaders do; they try to eliminate fear and create understanding. A poll last year showed that 82 percent of the French public liked the idea of the ban. Meanwhile, a poll last month showed Sarkozy’s approval rating at only 29 percent. It doesn’t take an Einstein to see how those two figures add up to the passage of a law banning burkas.

Another argument offered by ban proponents is that it’s a security measure. Yes, a bomb can be hidden by a burka, but it can also be concealed by a London Fog overcoat or a L.L. Bean backpack. This isn’t a matter of security or fashion or liberation. It’s all about fear, prejudice and politics.

Besides, how are the French going to enforce the ban without causing more of the tumult than they’re supposedly trying to prevent? The authorities already are saying they plan to be extremely cautious in how they enforce it. If they were so confident in the rightness of the ban, they wouldn’t seem so wary. All of which suggests they realize that they’re walking on shaky ground, as if they inherently know this is a bad idea that flies in the face of France’s famous motto.

View all panel responses to the discussion France’s veil ban: Liberté, égalité, fraternité?

Yash Gupta  | Apr 12, 2011 11:58 AM