Banning veils

Syria made news today for banning Muslim women on college campuses from wearing the full face veil preferred by some conservative Muslims. Syrian officials made a similar move last summer. Beginning last fall, secondary teachers were no longer allowed to wear the full veil in the classroom. Some quit teaching rather than remove their veil.
Here is an interesting op-ed piece from the Jerusalem Post comparing European and Middle Eastern nations' response to women wanting to wear the niqab, full face veil, in public.

Syrian officials reportedly want their country to appear more modern and secular and the niqab does not fit that image. Or does it? Is it "modern" to restrict how people choose to show their religious affiliation?

The Muslim dress debate has sprung up in both dictatorships like Syria and democracies such as France. Whatever the political situation, an interesting paradox is at play here. Many people, particularly non-Muslims, see the veil, particularly the niqab and the burqa, as oppressive to women. It seems hard to imagine anyone wanting to wear it. Western feminists might assume that such coverings are forced on subordinate Muslim women by jealous and dominating Muslim men. Yet some Muslim women do choose to cover themselves. In fact, Muslim apologists contend that veiling is not mandated by the Koran and that it must be up to individual women to choose whether and how to cover their faces. This article from the New York Times talks about American Muslim women who made this choice and have faced great criticism for it, particularly from other women. Veiling in America is countercultural, rebellious, traits that are quintessentially ... American.

The Syrian women included in the veil bans presumably are intellectual and independent. They are "modern." To be a secondary teacher, one must be fairly educated and have a desire to lead. Young women on a university campus are there to explore the world and develop their independent selves. None of these traits are submissive. So should they have to submit to a dress code that forbids their chosen form of religious piety and modesty?