A Catholic woman veiled in Shkodra (Albania) photographed by Kel Marubi early twentieth century
The law proposal of Jean-Francois Cope to ban the wearing of the burka in public space historian recalls other experiences that we probably did not draw all the lessons.
Thus, Albania between the two world wars has also had its law banning the full veil. In August 1929 the Government of Ahmet Zogu took this decision after a proposal by the head of the Muslim community who then judge the custom contrary to civic education.
First act of emancipation of Muslim women? The writer Migjeni contemporary facts, gives us behind the scenes in his novel, entitled "It reopens the gates ..." (Translated into French and published in Chronicles of a northern city , Paris, Fayard, 1990, p. 215-225). He describes the reaction of the people of his city, Shkodra, located in northern Albania:
The house was plunged into silence. it reigns like an atmosphere of agony. Yes, it is an agony that is, without distress. In hundreds and hundreds of other homes like this, a secular past, so deeply felt and lived by all, is dying. It removes the cornerstone of the citadel millennium and many hearts are torn to see collapse. Others, instead, rejoice as if we had brought down some monstrous beast bane of the existence of each. The headline of the newspaper, this reform, the abolition of the veil among women as a sarabande form of evil spirits who come to torment the brains numb, unaccustomed to design such things. So far only bothered with little or family concerns most prosaic Here are the heads suddenly haunted by a concern that affects everyone, by a collective problem, and owners of these heads are found like fish on the beach. Remove the veil on women: no one had ever thought to see it in his lifetime.
The real shock is described in men and women. Especially among men, afraid to know their women exposed to the gaze of other men. Among women, Migjeni describes feelings more mixed, some were happy, others are more mixed or even opposite.
Two days before the implementation of the ban, followed by family the narrator meets that men can "see their relatives one last time, because God knows when they would be given them again!". Because men do not intend to oppose the law. But they did not intend to leave their wives and daughters out into the street without a veil. And that's where Migjeni fly in this new fact: While the headscarf ban, but with what consequences for women? That of not being able to leave the private space, chosen by men as an insult considering letting walk the streets their wives bare heads. And men to get out in the tale of a new tip Migjeni : Reopen the gates between the backyards of houses (not visible to the street) to let the women go from house to house without going on the highway ...
Arguing the headscarf ban by the desire to liberate women from this example seems a possible error. Because nothing says they let women out, we now require to wear the full veil, once it is forbidden ...
If wearing the burka may seem shocking to many is probably the republican system to respond by winning his own authority, without law, but only by the only force that can model propose ...
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