Where I saw the news posted originally, I saw a comment saying it was initiated out of blatant xenophobia from the right, yet was partially co-opted by some of Switzerland's left as a move to liberate women. On one hand, it is clearly targeting and restricting some perfectly consenting practicing Muslims, but on the other, it could be argued that face coverings are oppressive to some women who may not have a say in what religious customs their family enforces. I am an atheist myself, and I consider myself critical of misogynistic aspects of many popular religions and cultures. That said, I fully respect the rights of any consenting adult to do whatever the hell they want so long as it doesn't hurt anybody.
What are your thoughts? How would a socialist society approach this subject, and religion in general?
I apologize if this is not the sub for this sort of question, feel free to remove it if so. I also apologize if I worded anything insensitively, I mean no offense at all.
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The big news here is that the Swiss government produced findings of law that Quad9 is exempt from both law enforcement and intelligence data-collection and retention requirements, as well as KYC.
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/07/europe/switzerland-referendum-face-covering-intl/index.html
As an Atheist I have mixed feelings about this. I consider myself a strong secularist and feel religion should be kept a private matter, out of government, out of publicly funded schools, and religious freedoms should not come at the expense of dignity and freedoms of others.
But something about this news doesn't quite sit well with me. They're not just banning burqas in public institutions. Women will not be able to wear them on the street. The argument is that the burqa is a symbol of repression of women. But their solution to this is actually taking away the right of women to wear what they want? There are protests in Geneva by people from all walks of life, including Muslim women. To propose that these women are wearing burkas because they've been brainwashed to succumb to their own repression, even if true, comes across a bit paternalistic to me.
I feel there is an outrageous level of downright cynical duplicity in the arguments for this law, but perhaps I'm wrong and would like to get some feedback from this sub on this whole issue?
While we're on the subject, I would like to learn more about what the Quran says about what women should wear. And please: I know some Muslims on this sub enjoy giving lengthy one page responses with 10 Hadiths. I appreciate it, but I'll be honest, I won't read it. Please just give succinct answers with Surah references. And I much prefer actual Quran references rather than Hadith.
