Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Islamophobia in France

A Muslim woman living in France (and married to a French citizen, with three French children) has been denied French citizenship because of her religious views. Apparently, her view that she must live in "total submission" to her husband was incompatible with "French values". Not only is this blatant religious discrimination - and really, does anyone seriously think they'd say the same of an American fundamentalist Christian? - it is also a gross intrusion into people's private lives. As much as I might disagree with this woman's choices, it is frankly none of my business how she lives her life or what her family relationships are. And provided no-one is being assaulted, threatened or abused - and there is absolutely no suggestion that there is anything of the sort in this case - it is no business of the state either. Who cooks, who cleans, who makes the decisions and who obeys (assuming anyone does any of these things) are decisions for people to work out amongst themselves in their own way, not something to be decided by the state. This means accepting that some people might choose to organise their lives differently from the way we would - but that's a damn sight better than having the government trying to dictate every detail of our most personal decisions for us.