Why do some cultures require women to wear veils?
In 2009, French president Nicolas Sarkozy gave a speech that called burqas “a sign of subjugation, of the submission of women.” Sarkozy vowed that burqas, the facial veils worn primarily by Muslim women, would not be welcome in France because the country didn’t believe that women should be “imprisoned” or “deprived of identity” [source: Carvajal]. Veiling has been a particularly hot-button issue in France, which has the largest Muslim population in western Europe. Just a year earlier, the country made headlines for denying citizenship to a woman who wore a veil. Despite the fact that her husband and children were born in France, authorities claimed that the woman had not assimilat
