Burkini: the world upside-down (Translation)

This is the translation of the article which appeared here in French:

http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2016/08/22/burkini--le-monde-a-lenvers

Because I wanted English speakers to be able to read it too. All credit goes to the author of the article, of course.

BURKINI: THE WORLD GONE UPSIDE DOWN.

The debate on the burkini is truly surreal. Take Agnes Cruda from "La Presse".

"The burkini doesn't imprison Muslim women, it frees them" she wrote a few days ago.

Why?

Because if the burkini didn't exist, Muslim women wouldn't be able to go to the beach or the swimming-pool.

Therefore, hurray for the burkini!


TWISTED LOGIC

It is as if I congratulated the 1960s white supremacists to have created the "coloured seats only" at the back of buses.

"Wow, it's so cool to allow Blacks to travel at the back of buses. This way, they can travel, go to work, instead of staying at home... Really, segregation in buses does not imprison the Blacks, on the contrary: It frees them!"

Duh!

Can you imagine the reactions if a journalist dared to write such things about the law which forbade Blacks to sit in the front of buses?

She would be called an idiot and a racist! But, in the case of the burkini, there seems to be no problem in saying that kind of things.

The burkini, liberating outfit...

How, by what twisted logic can one reach such an absurd conclusion?

Some ultra-misogynistic religious men force women to cover from head to toes because their body is dirty and this liberating?

The Western world really has been dropped on its head!

Soon, if it carries on, we will congratulate Islamists who whip their victims because that's less serious than chopping their heads off.

"Wow, the whip, that's progress! Say what you like, it's more humane than beheading, no? Really, ISIS is heading in the right direction..."


AN INSULT TO REAL FEMINISTS

This is the point we've reached.

Instead of destroying a backwards ideology which smothers women, lefties and feminists praise the virtues of the veil and the burkini!

It's a good thing Simone de Beauvoir is not alive any more, this debate would kill her.

The lefties and feminists would never ever hold this type of discourse if it were Catholic extremists who wanted to force women to cover up before bathing.

These people would be down in the streets and would condemn the Pope's misogyny.

But, because it's an "exotic" and "Eastern" religion which forces 1/2 of humanity to wear a burkini on a beach, it's cool and "liberating".

There was a time where the feminist movement used to defend women. Nowadays, it defends an ideology.

That's not the same thing at all.


HURRAY FOR THE BAN ON DRIVING!

Its hatred of the Western world is blinding the left.

Feminists should be condemning with one united voice Islamist misogyny. Instead, they waste time and energy justifying the unjustifiable, under the pretext that the Eastern misogyny (which is "cultural") is more acceptable than Western misogyny (which is "political").

Today, we're being told that the burkini liberates.

What will we be told tomorrow?

That the ban on driving for Saudi women protects them from car accidents?

The Loneliness of the Long-Suffering Autism Parent

It's half-term, but I'm up.

I'm up because T. has an interview and assessment at our local college today.

I'm up, but he isn't.

Once again, his anxieties got the better of him and he's in hiding under his multiple blankets and quilts, the portable air-con machine blowing and buzzing away to create the droning sounds he needs to soothe him.

Once again, my hopes are shattered that he would actually attempt this; but not that shattered, let's face it, I was expecting it. I was hoping to be wrong, I was hoping I was under-estimating him, I was hoping that all the professionals telling me he would be fine with my support were right this time.

But no, as per usual, it turns out that I am yet again the only expert who got it right, no, I wasn't being melodramatic, or over-protective, or dismissive of his abilities. Nope, I had him pegged just right. I knew this would prove too much of an obstacle, I knew this would happen, I knew that I would be left feeling yet again inadequate, unable to get my child to accomplish one of the simplest steps of the day: get out of bed.

Right now, as I can hear the low purring of the machine in the bedroom above my head, I am despondent, but numb to yet again another disappointment. To be honest, I am at the point where I just want to shrug and give up... except I can't, can I? If I give up, then what? What of the future? What will he do? What will become of him?

And so, the cycle continues; I have phoned the college to make his excuses, I am now going to e-mail his school and the Local Authority to let them know that, yet again, they have failed my son in their duty to support him, and I will try very hard not to say: "I told you this was going to happen!" even though I feel that they set him up to fail. Again. And so, we will start the dance again after 1/2 term.

Regrets will be expressed that he couldn't overcome his anxieties, that he isn't seizing the opportunities offered to him, and I will yet again think: But this isn't news! He didn't turn up for his English GCSE last year, because of his anxiety getting the better of him, what made you think that just letting him loose with only mum's support to go to college, a completely unknown quantity, was going to happen? All his life, anxiety has paralysed him from doing things, even things he does want to do, what on Earth made you think this time was going to be different? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it? Because I am out of ideas here.

It feels like a giant game of Jenga here, where they are removing the struts of effective support for my boy, one after the other, and I seem to be the only one to realise that once they remove one piece too many, too early, this human being precariously perched at the top will be left without support whatsoever, long before he is actually stable enough to hold on.

And here I am, writing this in a blog, because those who have the tools to give the support don't seem to understand, whilst those who do understand don't have the tools to give the support, so I am left, yet again alone, to worry about the future...