Even before its inception the entity now known as the United States of America has shared much in common with the French nation. The idea of revolution, an uneasy relationship with the British, and perhaps belief in man inaliable rights. Today, the French Republic has established yet another concrete connection to the American mindset, intolerance. Today, according to The Guardian (UK) has denied citizenship to a morrocan woman because she wears a burqa. Evidently, immigration feels that the burqa and what it represents are completely at odds with the french concept of fraternite’ liberte’ egalite’. The established argument is that the the traditional head covering is representative of female subservience to men, and therefore is in direct conflict with what it means to be French. One could argue about the state of ethnic, and gender egalite’ in France, especially after the election that brought President Sarkozy to power.
Whatever your feeling on that election, and the issue of gender and security that took place in the minds of the french polity, one cannot argue the rammifications of this action in an increasingly xenophobic nation. I personaly have no personal experiences with the burqa or the lifestyle it entails, but this condemnation of culture as not worthy for French citizenship is a staggering step in modern immigration doctrine. It is interesting that we here in the United States are going through some of the same growing pains with concerns over employment, immigration, as well as struggling to maintain a “American” identity in the face of large scale immigration. France, like the United States, has established its culturally unilateralist credentials.
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