.... My opponents (outside of Quebec) balk when I describe the obligation of my teacher or postmistress or nurse to show her face as my “social right.” They contend there is no such thing. But the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agrees with me.
In 2014 the ECHR, considering a challenge to France’s 2010 ban by a niqb’d woman, ruled that the secular ideal of “vivre ensemble” (living together) trumps a woman’s right to “disappear,” endorsing both France’s and Belgium’s niqab bans, as well as France’s off-road ban on full-face bike helmets (demonstrating it really is about face cover, not about Muslim women). Quebec has sensibly followed the “vivre ensemble” rubric in its public-sector ban on the niqab.
Enjoy Hallowe’en — and then put the masks away, or wear them exclusively in your private life. Enshrining in law the social right to see each other as a norm is not intolerance. It is protection of the principle of social reciprocity on which a healthy culture depends. [National Post] Read more
