On something of a technicality. As the story below describes, the vote did not go off without a hitch. Nevertheless, a number of communities in the region have taken up the issue on the municipal level, including Barcelona, and the Spanish senate has approved a ban. "Catalonian parliament rejects burqa ban," from Agence France-Presse, July 1:
BARCELONA -- Catalonia's parliament rejected Thursday a move to ban the wearing of the Islamic burqa in public places across the Spanish region after reversing an initial vote.
A resolution moved by conservatives and centre-right nationalists was passed, but opponents said there had been a technical error and some absentees at the moment of the vote.
After the session was suspended, the parliamentary speaker ordered the vote to be put again, prompting a walk-out by the motion's supporters and a victory for its left-wing opponents.
The motion would have called on the government of the northeastern region to ban the Islamic women's garment which conceals all but the eyes, in the street as well as in public buildings.
Right-wing deputy Rafael Lopez said it was a question of values, of voicing opposition to clothing which he said kept women in a "degrading prison."
Left-wingers said they did not approve the wearing of the burqa but called the motion politically-motivated with regional elections coming up this year.
So, politics matter more than principles?
Nine municipalities in Catalonia, including Barcelona, have banned the use of face-covering Islamic veils in public or are considering doing so.
Human rights group Amnesty International had called on the Catalan deputies to reject the motion.
"Any wide-ranging ban will violate the rights to freedom of expression and religion of those women who choose to wear a full-face veil as an expression of their identity or beliefs," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's expert on discrimination in Europe.
"Women should be free to choose what and what not to wear. This is their right under international human rights law."
While you're at it, tell that to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. And while you're at it, tell it to the women who have been harassed, threatened, raped, and subjected to beatings and honor killings in the Muslim world for choosing not to wear the veil, or for not veiling enough. Or are those countries "more equal than others" in being allowed to state the norms of behavior for their societies?
Spain's upper house of parliament last week approved a motion calling on Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government to ban the Islamic veil in public.
Earlier this month Justice Minister Francisco Caamano said the government planned to restrict the wearing of the veils in public places under a proposed new law on religious freedom.
Immigration from Muslim countries has grown in Spain since the 1990s, with Catalonia in particular being home to a large community of Pakistani origin.
There are now about one million Muslims among Spain's population of 47 million.
Spain and Catalonia will pay dearly for this dhimmitude. And there won't be any Amnesty International left if and when islam rules the roost. The islamic barbarians don't give a hoot for any human rights.
Spain: Catalonian parliament rejects burqa ban
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Foolish dhimmitude in Al-Andalus.
Who cares?
Who wants to look at hairy legs and armpits anyhow?
Their women are mostly ugly under those bags.
The really attractive women are usually converts who have refused to cover their beauty.
There is no freedom to enslave oneself. The burqa is a clear case of self-enslavement and not only should it be banned, but any man walking with a be-burka-ed women should be arrested and charged with human trafficing or something analogous.
As this article indicates it was "left-wing opponents" who were responsible for this stupidity masquerading as something enlightened. Yes, some conservatives don't "get" Islam, but far, far more of those on the Left don't "get" it. In fact, many on the Left in one Western country after another look upon virtually any criticism of Islam as evidence of bigotry, which, of course, is extra stupid.
In the fight against Islamic supremacist designs, Western conservatives can be counted on to a much greater degree than can liberals. Shame, deep and everlasting shame, on modern liberalism for this. And please, no one bother to comment yet once again that this is a conservative blog. For the most part (not entirely though because some liberals do comment here and "get" it) it is PRECISELY because conservatives understand what we're in for from Islam far better than do the PC/MC, touchy-feely, kissy-face, huggy-bear, oh-so-wonderfully-tolerant, any-criticism-of-Islam-is-racist liberal crowd. One knows this or should know it.
In the early 1990s, Australian journalist Geraldine Brooks visited the Islamic University of Gaza.
She described her experiences there, in chapter 8 (in partial sarcasm entitled 'the getting of wisdom') of her 1994 book 'Nine Parts of Desire', which despite moments of fuzzy-headedness, does also contain some very telling anecdotes and observations.
She writes:
"The campus of the Gaza university is split down the middle, with one section for men and one for women. When I visited the women's campus in the spring term of 1993, I wore a scarf and a loose-fitting, long-sleeved ankle-length dress, since I knew the institution strictly enforced hijab. But my arrival at the women's gate caused a flurry anyway. 'We have to find you a jalabiya', explained Asya Abdul Hadi, a recent graduate, pointing to her own neck-to-toe button-through coat. 'Even on the women's campus, we have men professors'.
"Eventually, someone found a baggy blue serge garment that belonged to a student at least five inches taller than I. Grabbing a fistful of fabric so I could walk, I tottered after Asya into the high-walled campus...".
A little later, she is in the women's cafeteria, talking to a 30 year-old administrator named Majida. She reflects:
"Driving from the huge military roadblock that divides the Gaza Strip from Israel, I hadn't seen a single unveiled woman.
'There is no coercion', said Majida. I gazed down at my dowdy serge sack. 'Of course, we can impose it here, inside the university. But outside we don't impose it. The relationship is with God, and each woman can decide for herself'.
"I sipped my Coke and said nothing. I had been in the emergency room of a Gaza hospital when a young Palestinian nurse came in, shaking, her uniform covered in wet, brown stains. 'It was the boys in the market', she said. 'They told me to cover my head. I told them I was Christian, but they said it didn't matter. They said, the Virgin Mary covered her head, so why not you? **They threw rotten fruit at me and told me next time it would be acid**.'" (my emphasis added - dda). END QUOTE.
I wonder if there may be some regional thumbing-of-the-nose by the Catalonians toward the dominant Castillians involved in this. Spain still has some simmering secessionist movements (most notably the Basque Pyrenees in the north), and bitter memories of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s where regional loyalties played quite strong roles in the fighting. Barcelona was one of the cities that was heavily bombed by the Nationalist forces in Madrid.
Several years ago I attended a professional meeting in Barcelona, and upon arriving at the airport was quite surprised to see the airport signs written in three languages. First was Catalan, second was English, and at the bottom was Castillian, the "official" version of Spanish. Catalan, not Castillian, was spoken on the streets. Upon inquiring about this, I was informed that Catalonians consider themselves superior to Castillians, and vice versa, and that they are quite bitter rivals.
Whatever their recent historical squabbles, perhaps Spaniards should remember that once upon a time they faced a far deadlier foe - and now it's back. It was when the houses of Aragon and Castille teamed up in the remarkable marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand that made possible driving the Moors out of Spain, finally and irrevocably, after more than 750 years of Muslim infestation. Where are such leaders today who remember and act to safeguard their proud history and will not let petty squabbles prevent them from recognizing and dealing with this larger danger?
Where are such leaders today who remember and act to safeguard their proud history ...
I think one should ask: "Where are the masses today who remember and act to safeguard their proud history...?"
Or perhaps, "where, (except in a muslim world), are the masses who are proud of their history"?
Technical issue - period. People need to be identifiable -period. One doesn't know what the hell could be under that thing. Stupid.
"I sipped my Coke and said nothing. I had been in the emergency room of a Gaza hospital when a young Palestinian nurse came in, shaking, her uniform covered in wet, brown stains. 'It was the boys in the market', she said. 'They told me to cover my head. I told them I was Christian, but they said it didn't matter. They said, the Virgin Mary covered her head, so why not you? They threw rotten fruit at me and told me next time it would be acid."
Muslim boys already transformed into woman-hating sociopaths courtesy Islam and their false prophet.
If stoning to death of adulterous women were permitted in the US, there would be a shortage of stones. In a survey of 100 American married women an alpha man seduced 75% of them. The others refused the invitation for undisclosed reasons, it might have been because they were lesbians. Iranian men understand the nature of married women, the fear of stoning has made the adulteress a rarity.
Morris
You better check your facts. The 75% figure is ridiculous!
Your pro-Muslim bias is quite obvious. So you think that Iranian men "understand the nature of married women" - you imply that the fear of stoning keeps them in line. Just what keeps sadistic Muslim males in line, so they don't beat women, commit honor killings, rape Infidel women, commit acts of jihad, perform female genital mutilations, kill apostates from their brutal religion, and so forth?
You really should consider deleting the "Wise" from your moniker, and substitute something more appropriate such as "Doofus"!
Iranian men understand the nature of married women, the fear of stoning has made the adulteress a rarity.
I understand the nature of a muzzlum. If the punishment for stoning an adulteress were stoning, the fear of stoning would have made an adulteress-stoning muzzlem a rarity.
A muzzlum man, like a dog, respects only stick and stones.
Oho. Looks like 'Morris Wise' has outed himself as a Mohammedan misogynist boggart, or else as a creepy *non-Muslim* misogynist of the very nastiest kind, insulting every married woman here present with his sweeping accusation - on the basis of *just one* probably-highly-dubious 'survey' (*very* small sample size - and where and when was it done? by whom? - Playboy magazine?? ) that the only women in the free world who haven't committed adultery, are lesbians.
Ignore him henceforward, everyone.
His opinions are beneath contempt.