Word: amara
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...burqa confiscates a woman’s existence. By and large, those who wear it are victims," said Fadela Amara, France’s Secretary of Urban Policy, and a Muslim woman herself. This is the going attitude toward the Islamic veil in France these days. Since 2004, French girls have been banned from wearing headscarves in state schools, and in January of this year, a French parliamentary commission recommended a partial ban on women wearing Islamic face veils in government offices, schools, on public transportation, and in hospitals. Such a ban would be discriminatory toward Muslim culture...
However, even if one takes the view that all veils are physically limiting in some way—and there are highly popular types of Islamic veils that seem to limit nothing but shaking your hair in the wind—who is Amara, or anyone else to say that these women are limiting themselves because of oppression and are thus "victims"? Women all over the world change their appearance in ways to reflect the opinions of other people, whether they be men, other women, or their families, and we certainly don’t see all these other forms...
...Amara was able to track down and visit Ismail the next day—but as her lawyer, not her professor. They discussed her options, including raising media awareness or contacting Israeli government officials for help...
...nervous before she traveled,” Amara said. “I knew that they would give her a hard time and that she would be interrogated. But I did believe that she would be let into the country...
...immigration officer read her e-mails, Ismail was told she would never be allowed to enter the country. Ismail was then taken to a detainment room in a separate part of the airport, where she was held the next day. When she asked to call her family and Amara, Ismail was repeatedly told to wait...