Did it ever cross your mind that veils and guns have something in common? Of course they do: both are used for self-defense. The Islamic hijab is said to repel men, to make women feel more secure, and to enable them to walk around safely in the city. Whenever sexual attacks against women are carried out – like last New Year’s Eve in Cologne – you won’t have to wait long until a conservative Islamic cleric solemnly announces that women should simply keep men at a distance by i

Joan Wallach Scott, a social scientist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, sees France’s approbation of revealing swimwear, as well as the current burkini bans, as products of ideas going back to the French Revolution of 1789. I believe that Scott misses the point. Women in France can cover as much as they want because France is a free country. They can also cover while being on the beach. The problem is that religion has entered the game while at the time of th