The niqab and social normalisation

The media are currently obsessing on today's enforcement of a ban on covering the face (with exceptions) in France, seen as a veiled attack on the wearing of the niqab, the Muslim face covering, by women.

The arguments raging backwards and forwards cover contrary views, from religious expression, male suppression of women to political symbol. Convoluted philosophical, religious and legal arguments are thrown into the fray.

I take a much more simplistic view, that this issue is the result of the normative pressure of a local majority. Ever since the first caveman donned a fur, there was a judgement, an interpretation of what that particular throw said about him or her. Because of the external values working on the individual within any society, there is a strong pressure to conform, generating a signature uniformity within a particular social grouping.

For example, in the event that I had a sudden urge to wear a koteka, or penis sheath, as traditionally used by some highland New Guinea tribes, and decided to take the Citi2 bus into Cambridge thus attired, there would be a dual reaction.

The first would be within my own mind, becoming excruciatingly aware of the inappropriateness of the dress. This would occur even in the absence of any other human being nearby, before I stepped across the threshold.

The second would be a temporally delayed response, from the first sighting to the rapid arrival of The Gentleman in Blue and subsequent arrest for indecent exposure!

The niqab of course is the total opposite, a covering of the face, apart from the eyes. Combined with a burqa, the all enveloping cloak, it also contrasts very starkly with the European norm and national sub-norms prevalent in the majority culture of the population. All that is needed is then a rationalisation for the instinctive social/cultural unease to justify enforcement, by law if deemed necessary.

Much is made of the niqab having no place in western society, by reason of it being an instrument of patriarchal suppression.

But spare a conscious thought for the woman who wears the niqab whilst wandering out in our society; feeling the intense external societal pressure brought to bear upon her, through the glances and other subconscious "tells" of those she encounters, as she goes about her business in town, shopping, travelling.

What courage it must take to even cross the threshold, wearing a niqab!