Fadlallah to Sarkozy: The Will of Burqa-Wearing Women Should be Respected
Lebanon”s most influential Shiite cleric called on French President Nicolas Sarkozy to reconsider his statements regarding women who wear the burqa saying the will of Muslim women who decide to cover their faces should be respected.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah”s statement came a day after Sarkozy declared the burqa is not welcome in France, branding the face-covering, body-length gown as a symbol of subservience that suppresses women”s identities and turns them into "prisoners behind a screen."
On Tuesday, the French National Assembly decided to set up a fact-finding inquiry into the number of Muslim women who wear the burqa, after Sarkozy spoke out against the full veil.
The lower house of parliament was responding to a call from a group of lawmakers, many of whom are from Sarkozy”s right-wing UMP party, for a panel to look at ways of restricting the wearing of the burqa.
Fadlallah said women should not be forced to wear a burqa but, at the same time, if they decide to do so by themselves, their will should be respected.
"Freedom is one of the sacred matters for human beings but freedom should come from the will of the person not from laws that are imposed by people," Fadlallah said in an interview with The Associated Press.
France is home to Western Europe”s largest population of Muslims, estimated at about 5 million. A small but growing group of French women wear the coverings, which either cloak the entire body or cover everything but the eyes.