When I was a Muslim, I believed that the hijab was a symbol of a woman’s high worth.
I was told that the bodies of women are hidden from view because they are jewels so precious that they must be guarded. As a believer, I didn’t view modesty as merely an expression of piety. It also was a sign of self-respect. In my modest clothing, I felt treasured not oppressed.
Today I am an apostate, and, in hindsight, I can see that even treasure is a kind of property.
While I walked my path from believer to kafir, attempting to resolve the tensions in my heart and mind, the tensions between the Muslim world and the secular West only became more glaring.
As a fifth town in France bans the “burkini,” we can rest assured that symbolic gestures remain important as ever. The loose-fitting Islamic swimsuit has become a fault line for increasingly heated debates about what it means to be French.
The ban is meant to tackle the most visible symbol of values some consider to be an affront to Western, secular society.
As a public apostate of Islam, I am well aware of the dangers of Islamic extremism but I wholeheartedly oppose bans such as this. They do little to combat the roots of that extremism. Like attempting to cure a malignant melanoma by applying a coat of makeup, a ban on religious expression is cosmetic in nature. It does nothing but hide the underlying disease.
It may, in fact, do considerable harm to the most powerless of Muslim women – those in conservative households. With a burkini ban, a freedom once available to them will now be taken away. Those women will not begin donning bikinis – garments abhorred by their community and forbidden by their religion – they will, instead, stay home more often, and be more isolated than ever before.
In this seclusion, their vulnerability to the pressures of their community and the lures of extremism can only increase.
Worse, because of a ban, modest clothing may be elevated to something more than simply religious piety – it will become a symbol of political dissent. Even Muslim women who would not have worn a burkini will have reason to view the garment in a sympathetic light. It will instead come to symbolize unfair persecution. If my country chose to ban religious clothing when I considered myself a Muslim, I would have judged the values of the West as similar to those I grew up with – and who would want to trade one set of chains for another?
There can be no doubt that in a world where brutal acts of terror have become too common, a ban such as this feels good. We may feel that we are finally taking control of our world and fighting back against the scourge of extremism. In the end, however, the feeling is just that — a feeling.
In this climate, a false hope may ease our anxieties. But false hopes are not better than none at all, and a sense of accomplishment where none has been earned is more insidious than it seems.
Meanwhile, the difference between the right to express a belief and the societal acceptance of its virtue is increasingly confused. Muslim women should have the right to wear whatever clothing they choose. We have no obligation, however, to respect their choice as empowering or moral. There is nothing wrong with believing that secular values are superior to Muslim ones; there is something wrong with forcing those values onto others.
We must tolerate modest dress not because we accept the values which underpin it, but because we believe in the importance of our own values, the cornerstone of which is freedom of expression.
I was once one of those who believed in the importance of female modesty in public, one of those who may have worn a burkini to the beach. When I left Islam, I left because of the force of arguments. I was persuaded to change my views and behavior, but never obligated to do so. The religious obligation of modesty, one I once believed in wholeheartedly, was abandoned when I recognized that the clothes on my back do not define my worth, that a woman’s dignity is not reliant on her sexual purity.
We must remember that only good ideas can confront bad ones. Muslims can be convinced to embrace liberalism, as were Christians before them. No doubt, however, that the path forward is arduous, but it is one we have successfully walked before.
