Canada

One question that I would like to ask you is what could possibly happen when they do wear a headscarf? How are the people of Quebec being oppressed by just having these symbols visible? I don't think they'll go up in flames, either.

I can see how you would think that there's no problem just doing it all at home, because materially you're correct. But you also have to consider the effect of having to hide what you see as a fundamental part of yourself. I have a lot of religious people in my family and they really do see Christianity as a part of who they are. In some ways, you can see that banning religious expression is similar to the concept of cultural genocide as it has a disproportionate impact on religions with larger or more overt religious symbols with the goal of eliminating these "differences" so that these people can "integrate better."

These religions just so happen to be primarily practiced by people that Quebecers often believe don't belong here, there is a long history here that (IMO) was most noticeable in 2012 when Syrian refugees were given asylum in many Quebec communities. I think Quebec didn't really care that much until "all the brown people" started showing up and wearing their coverings.

It's my understanding that a head covering is seen as a sign of modesty, devotion to god, and being a conduit for goodness. If a person really does believe that, and sees the covering as mandatory, every time they're not permitted to wear it will affect them emotionally and spiritually, especially in the sense that the god commands it and it's not really optional if you are a devout person. In a school setting, a lot of kids were allowed to wear their coverings, to display and practice their beliefs, and now it will be banned. How will that not affect these kids and make them feel lesser than other Canadians?

To your point, the women that cover and do not want to will benefit from this law. Of course, that's great. But how many of them are there? This law will either negatively affect or not affect more groups of women than it helps:

• Women who do not cover and do not want to (unaffected)
• Women who cover and do not want to (helped by this law)
• Women who cover and want to (banned by this law)

I also would like to point out that some Muslim men and boys wear coverings too, so this will also affect them negatively.

Though I can't say for sure whether it's really the same, I can see some parallels to certain other religious and even indigenous beliefs that talk about devotion, acting as a conduit for good in the stewardship of nature and humankind, and having a responsibility to keep this relationship alive by continuing to practice their religious and cultural rituals. This perspective is obviously complicated by the issues we have been talking about that occur in the Muslim community, but unfortunately I think we have a situation here where a religious institution has both good and bad elements.

All in all, my life won't change with this because I'm not a Muslim and don't live in Quebec. But the power of the state being used to ban certain types of non-verbal expression is like, really fascist and I'm endlessly disappointed in Quebec for being so scared of brown people that they'd ban all religious expression. I grew up in Brampton and knew a few people (boys and girls) who wore topi and hijab and it didn't affect anyone else, so it's just weird to me to restrict all people's rights because of something like this.