Last week, the swiss canton Ticino voted on new legislation that makes it illegal for people to wear garments that hide or obscure a person’s face in public. While the text does not mention Burqas specifically, the new law is squarely aimed at them. The proposition passed.

While there is only little controversy in Switzerland in this regard (the overwhelming majority regards Burqas as a hideous piece of applied misogyny. So do I), the media did try to drum up some controversy in the weeks leading up the vote.

In an interview (see here, warning: in german) Nora Illi, member of a radical islamic group in Switzerland, stated that the proposed legislation was about as sane as prohibiting whaling on Lake Zürich.

Mrs. Illi loves the Burqa, and therefore strongly opposes the new legislation. In the same interview she goes on to say that prohibiting the Burqa would curtail a woman’s freedom, and that she knows no woman in Switzerland who is forced to wear a Burqa or Niqab.

In a word: Bull. First, there are women in Switzerland who are forced to wear that abominable garment. The reason Illi doesn’t know them is probably because those women aren’t allowed to venture outside alone or meet other people.

But there is more. It is important to remember that Mrs. Illi has converted to Islam, and hence is indeed wearing the Burqa voluntarily – or for fun. In this she is literally the one-in-a-million exception; the rest isn’t that lucky. Unfortunately, Illi is ignoring that fact.

When she likened the new legislation to ‘prohibiting whaling in lake Zürich’, though, she hit the nail on the head. For two reasons:
First, if there were whales in Lake Zürich, whaling would be prohibited in a heartbeat: to save the whales.
Moreover, Illi forgets that in this regard she’s only a make-believe whale. She, unlike the others, can stop any time. This make-believe whale is doing the rest no favor in advocating their hunt. In other words: Illi is prepared to sacrifice women’s liberation around the world for her privilege to wear a hideous piece of clothing.