Following the report of a parliamentary information mission in France which proposes a ban on wearing burqas in schools, hospitals and other public services, some suggest that similar legislation should be adopted Canada. The CCLA suggested we should reject such a proposition. If the government has no place in the bedrooms of the nation, it does not belong in the closet either. Governments should not dictate how women must dress : it is equally wrong to force someone to wear a burqa as to require her to remove it.
This does not mean that governments can do nothing to counter the pressures that some women may face by their husbands, brothers or fathers to wear an outfit that isolates and stigmatizes them. We must keep focused on the elimination of violence against women, on equal access to employment and education and strong messages about equality between women and men. It is women who should decide what they want to wear: they should not have to obey the fashion dictates of their husbands nor those of the state.
