“The Burka is Not a Garment, But an Ideological Symbol”

Posted on by

The following video is an excerpt from a recent debate in Germany on a proposed burka-ban. It took place in the Landtag, the State Diet or regional parliament of Baden-Württemberg, in the city of Stuttgart. The speaker is Dr. Christina Baum, a member of the AfD party (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany).

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Transcript:

00:00   Madam president, ladies and gentlemen. As is it so nicely said:
00:06   “Clothes make the man,” and it’s true. Through clothes one can show his personality
00:12   in a positive way. You can generate respect in some people or during some events
00:18   through appropriate garments, and you can even
00:24   show certain beliefs or an attitude to life. For that reason I chose this dress today,
00:30   on purpose, because it expresses tradition and patriotism.
00:33   All that is connecting me with my Germany.
00:42   The burka and all the similar types of full veiling that we are talking about today are
00:48   of course not a garment in the common meaning of the word, but an ideological symbol.
00:54   It makes us realize one thing: the total oppression,
01:00   the invisible oppression of the woman in Muslim culture.
01:06   The invisible woman, despised by a man, and whom he considers and treats as his property,
01:12   is one of the main differences between the conscience of the people of Europe,
01:18   European societies, and those with an Islamic upbringing. Nothing else
01:24   is more seriously visible in the open than the difference between those two cultures,
01:30   and it makes it crystal clear for everyone: the Islamisation of Germany
01:36   is progressing inexorably. Also if you, here in this room, are — of course — strongly denying it,
01:42   I cannot understand how you and I came to such different perceptions.
01:48   In front of the historical, in front of the historical
01:54   backdrop, of that beautiful castle, here in Stuttgart,
02:00   and other wonderful buildings, historical buildings built by our ancestors
02:06   and handed over to us as our responsibility, I am asking you:
02:12   what happened to your self-confidence? What happened to your pride
02:18   in the achievements of our people? And I don’t mean only the material ones,
02:21   but also ideas: freedom, self-determination, and the equality of the sexes.
02:30   Generations of our ancestors fought for it,
02:36   so that we today in Germany could take advantage of those values.
02:42   I’m extremely grateful to them for it. So then when you, as elected members of Parliament,
02:48   reject our law proposal, you are permitting our constitution and the values
02:54   it contains to be trodden upon. Because article one of the constitution
03:01   says — and I’m happy to read it for you — paragraph one:
03:07   “Human dignity is inviolable. It is the duty of all the government powers
03:10   to respect and to protect it.” Paragraph two: “The German people
03:19   are committed to inviolable, inalienable human rights as a foundation of every
03:25   human community, freedoms and justice in the world.”
03:31   However, beneath the burka there’s no dignity.
03:37   Only humiliation and degradation. It seems very clear that the dignity of a woman
03:43   in Germany must be subordinate to freedom of religion. Indeed, also the deputies
03:49   of the Women’s Union in Baden-Württemberg have already demanded a general burka ban;
03:55   however, they either couldn’t prevail or they opportunistically adapted,
04:01   as it became the common practice by the CDU [Christian Democrats] in the meantime.
04:07   Freedom of religion however, is in no way violated by a ban of a face veil.
04:13   Furthermore, between different currents of Islam there is no agreement
04:19   On whether the burka or even the headscarf is at all a religious duty,
04:25   or can be considered a religious sign. The face veil is a cultural symbol
04:31   whose purpose is to clearly underline the place of the woman in the society
04:37   and to make it unmistakably clear to everybody that women are worthless.
04:43   As women in Europe, surely we didn’t fight — long and desperately — for our gender equality,
04:49   only to sacrifice it now to other cultures which misuse our freedom-loving constitution
04:52   and the religious freedom that it contains to obtain the assertion of their values.
05:01   As far as I’m concerned, I don’t give up neither my women rights nor my fatherland
05:04   — out of a falsely interpreted tolerance — in exchange for other religions or ideologies,
05:13   and I invite all the members of Parliament to make sure
05:19   that our freedom and our self-determination are meant equally for all.
05:25   The full veil is not only a sign of oppression, but also a political sign.
05:31   It is a rejection of our society and a claim of superiority for their own cultural rules.
05:37   Mister Wolf [a minister] said it not long ago: “Whoever wears a veil
05:43   is turning her back on society. Whoever wears a burka
05:49   is rejecting integration. And whoever does not integrate
05:55   is not fit to live in our country.” Whoever wears a burka doesn’t fit in our country.
06:02   There I can only agree with the minister. Therefore it’s not easy for us to understand why
06:08   Minister Wolf now intends that the burka ban enacted by the court of justice
06:14   should be restricted only to driving and schooling. Social cohesion —living together —
06:20   does not only happen during official meetings, but above all in society.
06:26   Our society is mainly reflected in what we see in the street.
06:32   Therefore we consider it imperative to demand a ban on the veil in the entirety of public space.
06:38   Constitutional concerns must be brushed aside in the case of such a law.
06:44   All of you are aware of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights.
06:50   According to it, people’s freedom of religion is in no way impaired
06:56   if they are prohibited from covering their faces.
07:02   We wish for more than a CDU “diet” burka ban,
07:08   that is only of a symbolic character. We want to make clear that
07:14   that on our side there’s no tolerance for those who are propagating societal rules
07:20   that are contradictory to our values. We would like today to send a signal from Stuttgart
07:26   to our entire population with the statement: enough is enough.
07:32   Down with tolerance, when it’s about our fundamental basic laws
07:38   and our social order. Ladies and gentlemen,
07:41   honorable professor Reinhardt — who unfortunately isn’t here —
07:44   spare us your accusations, please sir, that we would misuse your narratives.
07:50   I already demanded a burka ban in the AfD [Alternative for Germany] a long time back,
07:56   when he didn’t yet know how to even spell “burka”. Because I have predicted
07:59   this development, and besides, you should notice one thing:
08:08   You have to be quick if you want to attack AfD, because we want not only to talk but also act.
08:14   I’m asking, I’m asking especially the female members of Parliament to think their decisions
08:17   through very well. Perhaps you should try on a burka for this occasion!
08:26   To see how it feels. I did it. But also towards all the fathers
08:32   present in this room I’m directing a question: could you imagine a life under a burka
08:35   for your daughter? Finally, I am pleading with everybody:
08:44   think about it; this is our country and here are our rules that matter.
08:50   And whoever arrives here has to respect them and adapt
08:53   to our behavior and our rules, and not vice versa.
09:02   Let’s preserve — all of us together — the free and democratic Germany
09:06   that we all —I think — equally love,
09:09   and that we all can be proud of. Thank you very much.
09:15   Mister Sutter, a question: were you present during my speech?
09:20   In that case please cite my hateful words.
09:23   I was talking about my love of my homeland, that I would like to keep the way it still is,
09:29   and not more. And please forget the idea that burka is a garment.
09:35   The burka is no garment. The burka is a cultural and political symbol; no more, no less.
09:42   And what I had to experience today during the discussion
09:45   is for me, as a woman, truly painful. Thank you.
 

11 thoughts on ““The Burka is Not a Garment, But an Ideological Symbol””

  1. Germans should know all about how specific clothing expresses political ideology:
    – boots
    – riding breeches
    – brown or black shirt
    – armband

  2. But is the burka a sign of oppression when women wear it willingly? Surely in the West the garment is a weapon aimed at the West rather than a sign of the oppression of the woman in Islam

    • If someone programmed to like it – like the good little cult member they are -, they still victims, I believe. There was this other cult drinking poisoned Gatorade willingly. Were they not victims of the cult leader? I think there is a lot of people who is the victim of Islam: 1.6 billion, but as long as they are part of the system they cannot be helped! We need to disassemble that ideology (this is a multi generation task) but at this point they need to be fought directly because they are still willing participants.

    • Manatthepub-

      Go look up the definition of, “learned helplessness,” as it perfectly describes the typical burka wearer.

      I live in a somewhat moderate Muslim country, and almost none of the independent, educated young women I know would waste a moment wearing a burka.

      I do know one that began wearing the headscarf as an adult, and this was after she married and began having children. I’m sure the choice was entirely hers…NOT!

  3. You saw and heard in that room, the left traitors, trying to shut her down,
    Rufusint to clap her truth telling speech.

    These leftist orwellian nazis are many, and w mud now start to confront them in public, in street, in cafes, bars, wherever you find them.

    Shout them down, dont b afraid, these leftist socialist commies are trying to silence us still, with the weapon they use, the marxist invention of political correctness!

    We haveto go after these evik traitors whovare supporting the destruction and genocidal dissolution of white western christians, and telling us to be silent while they are replacing us with millions of muslims that they are encouraging everyday into our countrys to overwhelm us.

    I prey, some brave germans will go after merkel, schaubal, wolfe, gauck, and this whole german nazi gang who are full on now proceeding in destruction of germany and german peoples, and europe as a whole.

    I want to wake up tomorrow or next day and here that merkel has been suurounded and dealt with and the misleadingly named cdu and die linke new NAziS are all on the run.

    Germans rise up against merkel!!!!

    A miliion on the street could overrun merkels home, office, and overwhelm traitor cops and traitors who are guarding these nazi murderous pigs.

    Germans please find courage, to stop merkel and her gang!!!!

  4. Merkel and company are doing more lasting damage to Germany and Europe than Hitler. As terrible as the awful destruction he caused, a free Europe rose from the ashes. Once Islamised, Germany and Europe are kaput. And the USA won’t be far behind with its disaster of third world, including Muslim, immigration. This all means the Death of the West

    • I really now wonder if this wasn’t inevitable. After 40+ years of socialist internationalism some lemming-like act fits perfectly. We non-dhimmis are still a minority across the West.

  5. Won’t happen in the USA…the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. We have liberty, guns and the Scots-Irish. Don’t Tread on Me!

    • Hijrah is a tried and true method for 1400 years. Do not underestimate it. It can be defeated, as long as the targets recognise the hostity and the persistence and the violence of the attempted takeover.

      • Fitzroy-

        This is the fundamental problem.

        The Ummah is at war on all fronts.

        The West thinks we are still at peace.

Comments are closed.