Unveil Voters?

[koan]

Quebec, Canada, is seeking to add regulations that fully veiled people may not cast a vote. The justification seems to be that they can not be fully identified as the legal voters.

story

Justification can be found for nearly anything if you look hard enough, the question here is motivation. Are they really concerned that votes are being illegally cast or are they looking to disenfranchise Muslims with more extreme views?

I suspect that a lot of people won't care because they never intend on voting with a veil so it ends up falling under one of those "doesn't affect me" categories. I always vote on the side of human rights. The veils do not put anyone in danger so leave them alone. Not liking someone's point of view is called being human but limiting their rights because you don't like them is called injustice.

[Bryn Mawr]

Originally Posted by koan

Quebec, Canada, is seeking to add regulations that fully veiled people may not cast a vote. The justification seems to be that they can not be fully identified as the legal voters.

story

Justification can be found for nearly anything if you look hard enough, the question here is motivation. Are they really concerned that votes are being illegally cast or are they looking to disenfranchise Muslims with more extreme views?

I suspect that a lot of people won't care because they never intend on voting with a veil so it ends up falling under one of those "doesn't affect me" categories. I always vote on the side of human rights. The veils do not put anyone in danger so leave them alone. Not liking someone's point of view is called being human but limiting their rights because you don't like them is called injustice.

Then how do you feel about fully veiled people going through customs without being forced to unveil?

[koan]

I think they'd better hope they don't set the metal detector off.

[freetobeme]

We have a right to expect people to identify themselves, there are exceptions for medical circumstances. Reasonable accommodation will allow them to unveil in front of a woman.

There is no 'agenda' to disenfranchise female muslims, but maybe an expectation that when you live in Canada, you expect to be part of Canadian society. Maybe 'reasonable accommodation' should mean that they should accommodate the host country they choose to live in.

[koan]

Canada has no "society" of it's own. That's our policy. We are a MOSAIC

We specifically don't do the melting pot thing as part of our national identity.

[freetobeme]

Canada certainly does have a cohesiveness, or a society; no country can survive with it. Besides, the mosaic isn't working, people have to be part of society, keeping them apart or isolated within their own cultural/tribal enclaves doesn't work.

The belief that somehow it is good for the country to encourage domestic ethnic separatism, which can include private schools with a medieval curricula, is astounding, no country can survive with out an identity. We need to highlight our similarities, not our differences.


http://www.friendshipgarden.easyfree...eff,16140.html

[koan]

We don't keep them apart, they congregate in their own areas of the city and they like it that way and we support their cultural events and encourage that.

What part of it isn't working?
Last I heard, our dollar was doing quite well.

[freetobeme]

Nothing to do with our dollar.

We pay them to stay apart, (with our taxdollars) yet we condemn apartheid. We pay them to do their dancing, we eat their food, but official "diversity," is simply an insidious form of racism. "Diversity" propagates fear and dislike of those who are separate; a diverse unintegrated community is less likely to trust anyone – when neighbours are no longer able to communicate because they can't or don't speak English/french , that is when we see a place divided.

[koan]

We pay them to do their dancing?

It's odd because I didn't grow up with a sense of heritage or roots to any culture so I'm pure Canadian to the bone. I went to England on an ancestry visa but still don't get the whole cultural attachment thing. I lived off Roncesvalles in Toronto, which is Greek town, did my shopping in Chinatown on Spadina, because they had the best papayas, worked in an Italian district where they made the best coffee and never once did I think is was a shame I couldn't get all these things in one place.

The only barrier to integrating is whether or not you are willing to walk down the street in every area and say hello to everyone you meet. That's what I do. I talk to perfect strangers every time I go out. My brother got married in a mosque. That's the oddest place I've been. No one stuck a head scarf on me or whispered behind my back about my ankles showing. They were incredibly nice people.

In Whitechapel I saw a woman with a full veil carrying about 8 bags of groceries and wanted to offer to help her carry it home but didn't want to scare her. When I think of it now, I wish I had. I bet she would have been quite grateful.

So, if you're looking for a way to help integrate cultures, tell me who you talked to today that doesn't look and dress like you.

[gmc]

posted by koan

Quebec, Canada, is seeking to add regulations that fully veiled people may not cast a vote. The justification seems to be that they can not be fully identified as the legal voters.

story

Justification can be found for nearly anything if you look hard enough, the question here is motivation. Are they really concerned that votes are being illegally cast or are they looking to disenfranchise Muslims with more extreme views?

I suspect that a lot of people won't care because they never intend on voting with a veil so it ends up falling under one of those "doesn't affect me" categories. I always vote on the side of human rights. The veils do not put anyone in danger so leave them alone. Not liking someone's point of view is called being human but limiting their rights because you don't like them is called injustice.

Don't you find the double standards irritating?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/...ahawy_ed3_.php

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are in fact the only three Arab countries without suffrage for women. All three are close U.S. allies, and yet the Bush administration, which made much of women's participation in Afghanistan's recent elections, is strangely quiet on women's rights and suffrage in these Gulf countries. The silence is particularly ironic considering that Iraq was the first Arab country to give women the vote, in 1948.

If you as a western woman were in saudi as a visitor not only would you not be able to walk around dressed as you do at home just going out on your own would be a matter of some difficulty and yet no westerner complains about unfair treatment and demands to be allowed to dress in saudi as they do at home for the simple reason they would not get anywhere. Get stuffed would probably be the politest response. Yet when we object to people dressed as tents when their identity needs to be checked and it's racist. It's not racism when their is perfectly valid reason for having the veil removed. If you want to live in a foreign country yo should accept their customs.

The women concerned are getting more rights than they did at home, If they don't appreciate it maybe they shouldn't be allowed to vote.