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I think there's a bit of mishmash and confusion on the issue of head
scarves in France and the NPA running a candidate who wears one.
The Sarko regime has handled the issue badly, clearly in a
provocative way, by focusing on banning the burka (niqab) as a Muslim
practice, rather than on forbidding certain dress, or disguises (e.g.,
Halloween masks), as a security issue in public (which would be entirely
understandable). There is, however, no question of banning the head
scarf in public. The ban is on schoolgirls wearing it in school.
Whatever position one has on that, it could be seen as the schools'
right to impose a dress code. In no way, however, can this be compared
(as, I think, Louis did) with the Iranian theocracy's punishment of
women who fail to cover their hair in public. There's no effort to ban
the head scarf in public.
The NPA seems to have reacted to Sarko's provocation in a Pavlovian
way, as has much of the left. A kind of leveling and uncritical
multiculturalism prevails, whereby all beliefs are considered equal and
worthy of respect. Even science is considered just another "belief," and
the Sorbonne now offers a degree in astrology.
For a revolutionary party to deliberately run a candidate who wears
the head scarf in public strikes me as debatable, to say the least,
especially as there is no threat to wearing head scarves in public in
France. It is hardly a sign of rebellion against bourgeois or capitalist
repression, but rather says more about what the party itself might stand
for. In the case of the NPA, it would seem to have jettisoned
revolutionary politics in favor of a hodgepodge of issues (some
worthwhile, obviously, such as opposition to GMOs, support of sans
papiers, multiculturalism), without any clear social, economic, or
philosophical program. Maybe the NPA has traded in Marx and Engels for
Che Guevara. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but that's how it looks to me.
David
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