Are We Missing Anyone?

FAIR examines the thoroughness of U.S. media coverage of the ban by the lower house of France's parliament on the wearing of a niqab or burqa in public.

The NY Times, the LA Times, and the WaPo among them quoted the views of 11 named sources, 10 of them officials of the French government; 2 of the 11 were Muslim; only one of these voices opposed the ban.

Still, they did manage to include, if barely, supporters and opponents of the ban, government officials and clergy; Muslim and non-Muslim — oh, and CNN made sure we heard from a USian, non-Muslim woman: Mary Matalin, who, while favoring the burqa-ban, was very appreciative of a Muslim woman's veil

The veil is a beautiful thing. All my Muslim girlfriends say it's great. It's not only respectful and mindful of their religion, it's great for bad hair days. So we get that. But the full-face burqa, nyet.

So, that's everybody heard from, right? Well, except for Muslim women, of course. The people whose choice of dress and religious expression is specifically being limited by this law. No need to interview any of them. I mean, if their thoughts on this or any matter were of value, France wouldn't need this law to tell the silly twits how to dress themselves, n'est-ce pas?

For the record, I do think the burqa/niqab is a tool of the patriarchy/kyriarchy. So is passing a law, in the guise of support for women's rights, forbidding women to wear such a garment. So is a discussion as to whether such a garment should be banned which excludes the voices of the women who are targeted by it.