I agree with the correspondent who is finding this exchange interesting (why
don't you all let me get on with my work!).
I'd like to see a secularist society where belief, observance etc is kept in
the private domain.
However what is at stake, for Muslim women and especially in France, is the
requirement to cover the head if they are to observe their own faith; and if
one accepts the right to believe, doesn't this follow? (What about male
observant Jews in French schools by the way?).
Isn't the only proper approach to keep the curriculum and practice of state
schools totally secular but not to bar pupils from doing whatever they have to
do as individuals to observe their faith? But where do we draw the line? I
couldn't countenance female circumcision; and Taliban-style observance is
somewhere on the continuum between that and the girls' headscarves.
By the way, my great-grandfather's many children were withdrawn from religious
education back in the 1890s: 'Stand up all those children whose father
doesnt't believe in God' and they all trooped out of the morning assembly,
duly humiliated.
Jenny
Richard Price <[log in to unmask]> on 11/12/2003 11:49:04
Please respond to HE Administrators equal opportunities list
<[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
cc: (bcc: Jenny Woodhouse/PER/Central-Admin)
Subject: Re: Gideon Bibles
I disagree with this - why is it inappropriate in the 21st C to separate
religion from the
functions of the state? This issue is a matter of conscience and the basic
beliefs of the
enlightenment were that individuals had rights to their own personal beliefs
but could not expect
those beliefs to be given priority/primacy outside that individual observance
and practice. The
risks of permitting religious observance into the state's business are
enormous - look at the
current US government and the way it uses its religion to justify
neo-colonialism; look at the
Taliban's governance of Afghanistan (how did women and people of different
faiths fare there?), the
medieval inquisition, the collusion between Catholicism and Fascism in 20th C
Spain etc etc. Quite
why the 21st century should return to these practices I cannot see.
Richard.
-- Begin original message --
> From: Jenny Woodhouse <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 11:23:14 +0000
> Subject: Re: Gideon Bibles
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Reply-To: HE Administrators equal opportunities list
<[log in to unmask]>
>
> Are nuns let into secular / state schools?
>
> There's an awful lot left over from 18th-century revolutions (which were
> white, male, middle-class by the way) like French anticlericalism and the US
> citzens' right to bear arms, which isn't really appropriate in the 21st
> century.
>
> Jenny
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Judy Evans <[log in to unmask]> on 11/12/2003 11:01:57
>
> Please respond to HE Administrators equal opportunities list
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> cc: (bcc: Jenny Woodhouse/PER/Central-Admin)
>
> Subject: Re: Gideon Bibles
>
>
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> I have just emailed a letter to the Guardian on exactly this issue! Will
> we now see nuns required to remove their wimples and veils in French
> schools - I bet not!
>
> Judy
> --
> Judy Evans
> Head of Management Information
> London Metropolitan University
> London North Campus
> 166-220 Holloway Road
> London N7 8DB
>
> tel: 020 7133 2006
> fax: 020 7133 2065
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Susanna Hancock wrote:
> >
> > On the subject of religion, how can the French get away with their
> > stance on the wearing of head scarves, as highlighted on the news
> > this morning, with the new legislation on religion and belief? Is this
> > a naieve question?
> >
> > Susanna.
> >
> > Susanna Hancock
> > Equal Opportunities Manager
> > Human Resource Services
> > Middlesex University
> > Trent Park, Bramley Road
> > London N14 4YZ
> > Telephone: (+44) 020 8411 6873
> > Mobile phone: 07946 411874
> > Email: [log in to unmask]
>
-- End original message --
Richard Price,Staff Welfare Officer.
Mantell 1A18, University of Sussex, Falmer,Brighton. BN1 9QN
Tel. 01273-877712; Internal 7712
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