Throughout the past week we read and discussed the graphic autobiography Persepolis; in which the author, Marjane Satrapi depicts her life in Iran post the fall of the last Shah of Iran. She starts off the book by telling her experience in the 1980’s when it became obligatory to wear the veil at school. This issue relates to a modern controversial situation on whether it should be legal or not to allow muslim women to wear the full veil. France, a country where over five million people are of Islamic faith has recently adopted a law that prohibits women to wear the full veil. This situation has been deemed controversial and created a myriad of debates on the topic. On one side, the law enables a stronger sense of safety. In a world where extremist groups enable suicide bombers to cause mass killings in big metropoles, the law allows for a more thorough check on what people have attached on them and prevent lethal items to be transported to certain locations. This being said, the other side includes the element of faith. Not allowing women to wear the full veil breaches the important islamic rule for women to cover themselves from anyone else other than their direct family and husband. The dilemma that is then faced is whether to prioritise public safety or religious integrity.

In an age where facist/racist extreme right wing movement idioms are being normalised, certain minorities such as the Islamic population in Europe and the U.S have been oppressed by populist groups that pick on the recent fear revolving around islamic extremist groups to create a common enemy. Leaders such as Donald Trump in the U.S, Marine Le Pen in France or even Geert Wilders in the Netherlands have all had the recurrent objective to oppress the muslim minorities, by either attempting to ban them from entering the country – Donald Trump- or by attempting to ban Korans in France and the Netherlands. Banning the veil in public in France can be seen as a first step towards further objectives in the right wing agenda.

Although banning the veil can be seen as a baby step towards more radical objectives it cannot be denied that the fear of public attacks has  been a common fear through the western world. Banning the hijab / the veil allows for a sense of safety to be felt by the general population since it becomes harder to hide lethal weapons to be hidden. This also enables police forces to identify offenders that use the veil as a masking device.