If you’re against governments forcing women to wear burqas or hijabs then you should be against governments banning women from wearing them too

I completely agree.

The French-specific context matters too. I'm British but I follow a bit of French politics.

Ever since the French Revolution, their national sense of self has been tied up in Republican (as in anti-monarchist) values and the separation of church and state. Britain, for example, has the Church of England. British people are much less religious than Americans but the idea of Christianity as an official state religion never really left.

In France, the defense of this ban has used that frame as a justification. It's about separating religion from public life and being more liberal and more French and freer etc.

BUT... (and it's a big but) there is also a racial element at play. The people who first argued for this ban are Le Pen's National Rally. They are former fascists who claim to be not fascists and are nice people really (ahem). Unfortunately, it is a popular policy but a lot of that is down to French exceptionalism. The idea is that the only good way to be French is to be a (white) secular Catholic. Britain, for all its flaws, has bought into multiculturalism. There are different ways to be British but only one way to be 'true' French.

Unfortunately, Emmanual Macron and a lot of other French politicians support this ban and his party even banned a candidate from wearing a hijab is an election poster:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/12/macrons-party-bans-muslim-candidate-for-wearing-hijab-in-poster

It would be nice to believe that Macron is just the ultra-liberal atheist but its really about triangulating with Marine Le Pen's ideas because he thinks this will win him re-election.

I myself am a humanist but I also support religious freedom provided it does no harm to others (and this doesn't). Unfortunately, secular liberal values can be used as a cover for racial prejudice.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

It’s that simple.

I oppose extremism in government of any kind. When you represent only one side of a situation, you can never fully understand or manage it as a whole.

I also believe anyone not involved in the wearing of burkas and hijabs as a daily part of religious life has no say in this conversation. As a white, Anglo-Saxon American, I can't understand the complexities and nuances of the issue the way people who live this lifestyle can.

This really all comes down to us and them. Whether you're the Taliban, Palestine, American soldiers or Russia. We all simply struggle for control, power and land.

Those who speak so vehemently against all this religious oppression and extremism might take care. Installing Sharia law bears little difference to attempting and overthrow of a legitimate election and a subsequent insurrection when that didn't work. Almost every last one of them will cite Jesus's name and the Bible right after Trump's. They campaign for legislation based on moral and religious objections. They call for policies and consequences of failing to act along those religious lines. They seek to mandate where religious symbolism and text should appear, whether it be on government grounds or in the classroom.

I didn't ask for Sharia law and I haven't asked for evangelical law. Live and let live.

How should a woman's photo be taken on a drivers' license or passport?

How is a police officer or a custom's agent going to know who the person in a burqa is?

What about women serving on juries?

Testifying in court? How does one face their accuser if that person hides behind a burqa?

Agreed.
There's a big difference between making sure no specific religion is forced on people and preventing religious people from practicing such an innocuous aspect of their faith.

I agree, but the hijab unlike yarmulkes and religious necklaces is often fetishized over.

Hijab or no hijab women and only women should make that choice for themselves. It is fine if an adult woman is capable of critical thinking and actively chooses to wear it. But we all know that’s not what happens. They condition small children to wear hijab starting early on in elementary school and make sure they feel ashamed for choosing to do so otherwise.

Women aren't, children are. And rightfully so in my opinion.

I am against both, government should not have that kind of power ever!!

Oh... lovely... how far do we extend this???

Let's start by taking God out of American and British schools entirely. Children with no faith at all deserve the right to an education without having God shoved into their ears every morning for the first sixteen years of their lives.

We'll scrap the Christmas nativity, too... its not inclusive of all faiths and no faith at all.

Do away with the Christmas Tree and Christmas parties every year - it wastes precious time that could be spent educating children... and they're too young to decide for themselves if they really want to be a part of all this anyway.

Is the garments actually part of the religion or did some fanatical male decades ago decide that women must be covered ???

That’s how the French want their society to be.
Israel wants theirs to be Jewish .
Saudi wants sharia
Malaysia has the death penalty and physical punishments
Sweden wants immigrants and multiculturalism
It’s what they want. France is a democracy
Big difference between democracy and Sharia (to answer your burka question)

I would be opposed to my government banning them within my country, but I am not really concerned about what the French decide to do here.

At least they don’t allow religious exceptions to paying taxes and COVID vaccine mandates.

my feelings! my feelings!, cut the bullshit. france has every right to ban that shit. france has given those people abetter life, they should adept to france, its a form of respect. if they wanna wear burka's they can go to the middle east, simple right?

Not women by definition. Girls. It is saving girls from being forced into these things as young as 3.

Yeah, anti-hijab laws are total bullshit for a number of reasons.