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WORLD CITIZEN LETTER: 537
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WCL 537 October 2006
Hidden delusions?
Human beings are, basically, primates; and it is observed that our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees, are alert to the changes in facial expression of their companions. As social animals, we share with them a need to relate to others of our groups by similar means. Speech and touch are likely to be used in some circumstances, but observation is more usual and more essential for most interaction.
That is why much of the present controversy in Britain about veiling of the face by a few Muslim women here is so muddled. There is no religious reason in Islam for doing so and suggestions that there is are either misguided or deliberately misleading. The practice comes from some of the more backward parts of the Middle East that always had cultures of the inequality of men and women. It is now being upheld diligently by some who hold political views of similar backwardness.
No way of hiding the face is acceptable in any open and democratic society. This can perhaps be seen in this way: if a woman covers her face with a veil, will she be content in similar circumstances to meet men wearing balaclavas covering their face and revealing only their eyes? Leaving aside the possibility of violence being a risk from the men, one still has to consider the possibility of subterfuge on the part of the women.
There is a great deal of nonsense that goes under the guise of religion, especially when it comes to blasphemy and other objectionable forms of behaviour. If an almighty god, named Allah, Jehovah, Zeus or something else, is displeased at the attitude towards Him (or Her) displayed by mortals, then action assuredly can follow. Since human beings are intent on all sorts of offences that no moral god is likely to condone, from destroying countries like Iraq, or genocide in Africa, it is rather stupid to try to protect such an almighty power from the trivial words of so insignificant a creature as a mere man.
Wherever is necessary for women to veil themselves in order to feel safe from men's lascivious stares there is at root a subordination of women. Societies where women were originally compelled to go veiled were those where it was done in order to protect them as property or the potential property of some man. If women now choose to accept willingly a former badge of servitude they may convince themselves that they have nothing to do with that. Either they are deluding themselves or they are in fact savouring a sublimated masochism.
If people chose to put themselves under a regime of fanaticism, whether religious or political, that may be a democratic choice. It cannot be acceptable for world citizens, who must seek a global democracy, that will enable the wishes and needs or the whole human race to be moderated and combined for the good of all, rather than to remain at the mercy of belligerent national and imperial tyrannies, even if they are seen, as in Iran or America, democracies within their own borders. Like their gods, their democracies are too small.
John Roberts
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