[lbo-talk] migration & "submission"

[Seth Ackerman]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> [Laura Agustin was on my radio show last November talking about her 
> book on "trafficking" 
> <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#071115>. Here's 
> something she just sent along.]
>
> Here's a piece I just published in the Guardian. I don't mention sex 
> workers or trafficking, but I refer in the discussion of radical 
> feminism to the group Ni Putes Ni Soumises. Here a migrant woman was 
> judged to be 'in total submission' to the men around her, in the same 
> logic that so many are called 'trafficked' women.
>
>
> My original title was 'Which migrants assimilate best? How do we 
> know?' which editors predictably changed to...
>
> What not to wear – if you want to be French
> France says Faiza Silmi can't be a citizen because she wears the 
> niqab. She shouldn't be judged for her choice of clothing
>
> Laura Agustín
> Wednesday 6 August 2008
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/06/france.islam>
>
> A woman from Morocco who has lived in France for eight years with a 
> French husband, has three French children and speaks fluent French, 
> was refused citizenship recently on grounds of being insufficiently 
> assimilated. The conseil d'etat said Faiza Silmi's way of life does 
> not reflect "French values", particularly the goal of gender equality. 
> The judgment claims she lives in "total submission" to the men in her 
> life because she wears the niqab, which covers all of the face except 
> the eyes. 

I think this piece sidesteps a deeper question. By focusing the argument 
on whether Silmi's niqab does or does not signify her submission to men, 
it leaves open the possibility that court simply made an error of fact 
when it rejected her citizenship application. An underlying question 
left unresolved is: would it be legitimate for the court to deny 
citizenship to migrants whose patterns of gender relations really do 
signify submission in some patently outrageous way. Is that legitimate 
grounds for denying citizenship?

Seth