Civil Liberties, a Comparison between France and Yemen
Civil Liberties in Yemen
According to the Gender Index, women in Yemen have very low civil liberties, particularly concerning their Freedom of movement . Customarily, a woman needs to ask her husband or guardian’s permission in order to leave the household. These same criteria hold true for obtaining a passport. Despite being able to travel with a passport, this right appears to be violated in reality. Furthermore, on a legal level, women are obliged to live with their husbands, who in turn decide where the family will live. Legally, women may have an education and work however this depends on the guardians or husband.
In terms of Freedom of dress, Yemeni women are restricted socially and religiously. Legal requirements to wear a Veil do not exist. However, due to norms, women cover heads, faces and bodies. Not being covered in this manner may induce harassment. http://www.genderindex.org/country/Yemen
Civil Liberties in France
The 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen set the tone for civil liberties in France . At the time, there was also a Women’s Petition to the National Assembly to propose female equality but this did not suceed and women only obtained the vote in 1944.
In 1983 Yvette Roudy passed a law against sexism and in 1996 female ministers of all the political streams signed the “Manifeste des 10” for equal representation of women in politics.
In terms of freedom of movement, there is no restriction of movement for women. In addition, women may live alone or with others and homosexuality is recognised and permitted. The PACS (Pacte Civil de Solidarite) allows women to unite with men or women under the law.
However, freedom of dress in France is somewhat restricted. The 2004 law forbids the wearing of religious signs in public institutions and the 2011 law forbids the integral veil.
A comparison focused on Freedom of Dress
The issue here is two-fold. On the one hand, the restrictions on Yemeni women demonstrate the issue of inequality and show the power of social and religious constructions within society in maintaining these inequalities. On the other, Yemen does not legally hold any restrictions on freedom of dress, whereas France does. Although the SIGI Gender Index mentions that harassment may occur if women do not dress with the veil, the index does not specify the extent of the harassment. The extent is important for our analysis because harassment occurs in France as well in relation to dress. The forms are various: be it disrespectful looks, verbal abuse or inappropriate physical actions.
The mention of societal norms by the SIGI Gender Index for Yemen also rings true in France. In the latter, the code is aligned with what not to wear (religious symbols), whereas in Yemen, the emphasis is stressed on what to wear. Both of these are forms of restrictions with varying impacts on women. Indeed, such restrictions in France may not impact the life of a secular woman however; a religious woman will be limited in her liberties.
To conclude, the author thinks there should exist a liberties index for Western countries in addition to other countries in order to open the debate as to what is considered a liberty. France, a country which promotes the notion of Human rights, also restricts its citizens in their dress. The debate surrounds the notion of liberty through restricition, is it possible?
References
See also
- Freedom of dress
- 2009 2009 Social Institutions and Gender Index