Dress codes: anxieties and solutions

France is confused about how to make the banning of the burqa legal. A parliamentary commission will soon meet to investigate how they can ban any cloak that covers most of the face of a woman.
André Gerin, a Communist Party mayor of a Lyon suburb with many Muslims from North Africa, began the debates in late June by initiating a motion calling for this parliamentary commission. The French state had to answer his request.

“The burqa is the tip of the iceberg. Islamism really threatens us” he was complaining in a letter to the government for them “to do something”.

Sarkozy responded by saying that “the burqa is not welcome on the territory of the French Republic.” He did not specify how it would be made unwelcome. Guess still working on that part.

French domestic intelligence issued a report saying that only 367 women in France wore a full veil, while recently a woman was refused entry to a bank because employees thought a head scarf was illegal.

To all these anxieties in France, there is one possible answer. It comes from Sudan and the already famous article 152 of the Sudanese Criminal Code.

This article is used by the Public Order Police in Sudan to harass women about their dress code. Article 152 exists in Sudan since 1991. Maybe French government can check also the practicalities and implementation of such an article. It stipulates that any conduct or clothes in violation of public decency (I am sure it can be defined in a more secularized way) should be punished with 40 lashes or a bail or both. France can change some parts, but the control effect can stay the same, because after all is the same concept: best way to police women's bodies.
Thirteen women were arrested on July 3, 2009 in Khartoum under article 152 of the criminal code. The 13 women in question were arrested because they wearing trousers. They have been sentenced to 10 lashes and a bail of $100. Three of the women including a well-known journalist-Lubna Hussien- refused the punishment and asked for a lawyer and a court case. Lubna and the other three women were granted a presidential pardon, which the women refused. They have instead challenged the judge to eliminate article 152 of the criminal code.
The article is vague on what constitutes indecent clothing and stands against the country's Interim National Constitution that came in place after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005. However, it is still being used to harass women in the streets of Khartoum and around Sudan. French authorities can have their exceptions too, no doubt.

There is a petition against article 152 here. There is no petiton against the French parliamentary commission.