‘Might is right’ not the way
This is a response to “Veil ban overreaches [Opinion, April 16].
If the French government bans the burqa, it will impinge on the freedom of a group of women to practice their religion as they feel fit.
Each person’s interpretation of religion is different. The understanding of that diversity of thought and conscience established inalienable rights in modern civilization. One of those rights is the right to practice your faith as you feel fit, not as someone else in authority feels fit.
We cannot in this day and age and in a liberal, secular country such as France afford to have “might is right” as the underlying law of the land. The banning of the burqa is taking political might and hedging it against a basic human right.
If the French wish to integrate the burqa-clad women into their society, then alienating them by depriving them of public services will hardly achieve the desired results. You cannot take away peoples basic human rights and expect that they will embrace you after that. You are dealing with women, not robots.
— Manahil Shahnawaz, Pakistan