Andalucia, no place for burka bans

You will almost certainly have heard about Barcelona recently deciding to ban the nicad (full face veil) and the burka (complete body covering) from public places such as libraries and markets and there has been a lot of discussion amongst politicians nationally.

It's not just in Spain of course.  France recently decided to ban the veils not just in public building but even in the street, threatening a fine of €150 for anyone caught.  Already businessmen are organising funds to pay the fines.

In Italy recently, a woman in Navaro was fined €500 for wearing a veil on the way to the mosque.  Seven states in Germany have banned teachers from wearing the veil, and the UK MP Philip Hollobone says he won't meet constituents who wear a burqa or niqab in a clear breach of the Equality Act of 2006.  And recently it seems Coín, in Malaga province, has joined in and introduced a burka and nicab ban of its own.

But Andalucia was built on the mixing and cooperation of different cultures.  From the early Umayyads of the eighth century during which Abd ar-Rahman II build the mosque in Cordoba, the cultural centre of al Andalus flourished as an intellectual centre, providing translations of Greek texts into Arabic, Hebrew and Latin.  Ironically these translations enabled many Christians to read their religious texts for the first time.

By bringing together peoples of different cultures, the cultural wealth of Al Andalus was greatly enriched with roots in Arab, Jewish, and Christian traditions, fostering a spirit of toleration and cooperation.  Many still feel that tradition amongst the people of Andalucia today.

And it wasn't only the Moors who encouraged this cooperation.  Alfonso X, the Castilian king for most of the thirteenth century, also encouraged the mixing of cultures.  He  supported a school of languages in Cordoba, and promoted the use of Arab mathematics and astronomy.  In fact it was the use of Spanish as the intermediate between Arabic and Latin that established it as the lingua franca.  Under his guidance both the Qur'an and the Talmud were translated into Spanish.

In my village, the common language of the eighth century was Mozarabic, a mixture of a dialect of Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, and Berber.  Indeed, even some of the coins of the time had inscriptions on each side in different languages, sometimes Arabic and Latin, sometimes Arabic and Hebrew.  Berber was spoken in some areas and written with an Arabic script.

Why then, when Andalucia is quintessentially a hybrid culture, is there a modern move against wearing certain forms of muslim dress?  One argument is that uncovering the face is essential for effective communication, especially in education and public administration buildings.  But then, France has extended the ban into the street so it is clearly about something more than that.

Many of the protagonists of the ban refer to integration, to accepting national identity and values, to accepting our ways.  But we should be very wary of accepting a politician's definition of our ways.  The proposed bans affect only some religious dress, not all.  There is no intention of banning a nun's habit, a Sikh's turban, a Jew's kippa, or a priest's cassock.  So this is aimed particularly at Islamic dress.

There have been times in Spanish history when strict regulation was imposed on what was considered the national character, such as during the Inquisition and also during Franco's time.  And the calls for banning burkas and nicabs sounds reminiscent of those attempts to coerce the submission of a particular culture, to impose observance of some cultural standard.

There are rather feeble arguments claiming the issue is about security and identification, and some even claim it is about women's rights, but this really represents an attempt to stop a particular cultural practice, to force compliance with a declared norm.  After all, recent terrorist attacks involved neither burkas nor nicabs.  And muslim women are free to remove their veils if they themselves decide to.

But fortunately, the suppression of culture rarely works.  Witness the suppression of languages such as Gallego, Catalan and Basque under Franco.  All countries contain a mixture of cultural and historical traditions and our rich Andaluz heritage is based on the Arab, Berber, Jewish and Christian peoples who came to live here.  Our rich culture is based on that fertile mixture of influences, not on the sterile preservation of a single tradition at the expense of others.

It is hard to see how appreciation of the richness of the varied culture of Andalucia can be squared with the rather xenophobic attitude towards Muslim dress.  We surely all have the right to dress as we wish without discrimination, just as we have freedom of thought and religion.  I hope we do not fall prey to those politicians who want to regiment us into some standard national identity, and insist that we all have the same set of standard values and beliefs.

Whenever politicians argue for repressive measures with the intention of protecting culture and national identity, we should all be on our guard.  It is the varied roots of any culture that gives its population the shared sense of solidarity and mutual respect and support, and I hope that in Andalucia, we don't fall into the trap of thinking we are defending Spanish culture by attacking aspects of another.