Modesty, bodily privacy, and human dignity…

The international press and the blogosphere has been full of news items about banning the burqa in various European countries. (Phyllis Chesler offers many strong arguments in favor of banning the burqa.) This is part of the ongoing controversies regarding shari’a law and Muslim demands for the veiling, isolation, and abuse of women under the pretexts of honor, shame, and “modesty.”

Such intrusive demands for us to change our ways to accommodate Muslim gender apartheid have nothing to do with modesty as we know it in a society founded upon Judaeo-Christian principles. In fact, the Muslim idea of “modesty” is the very antithesis of ours.

For Muslims, veiling the female body to the point of anonymity with the chador, the niqab, or the burqa, becomes a denial of human dignity and a denial of the equal value of men and women in the eyes of our Creator.

For us, decent clothing for all people – including men, women, and children – is a basic requirement of human dignity. Rabbi Daniel Lapin recently appeared on the Glenn Beck show, where he said that, according to the Torah, clothing the naked is an even more meritorious deed than feeding the hungry, because clothing is essential to human dignity.

…versus totalitarianism

The news is also filled with controversy about the recent TSA “naked body scan” and “crotch grope” policies for passengers boarding aircraft in US airports.

I should not need to remind our misguided policymakers that, even in athletic venues such as the gym and the beach, practicing Christians and Jews of both sexes and all ages cover the buttocks and genitalia, and females of all ages cover the chest. This, of course, is the minimum; in other venues, we cover a larger portion of our bodies, dressing in whatever manner is appropriate for the circumstances. We do this to preserve our own dignity as human beings created in the Lord’s own image, and to avoid distracting others with inappropriate temptations.

Despite the recent policies of the TSA, we consider staring at, touching, or groping the private parts of a stranger to be taboo. It is also taboo to peep at, or photograph, a stranger in the nude or even in his or her undergarments. If a private citizen did such things, he or she would end up in prison, and rightly so. Government employees should be under the same rules as the rest of us.

Stripping an unwilling person of his or her clothing, as is commonly done with prisoners, is a deep insult that is intended to shame and dehumanize. The person stripped naked is exposed to ridicule and abuse, and has lost control of his or her fate. Even though I suppose someone will invoke Godwin’s Law, I cannot help but be reminded of the naked prisoners in concentration camp photos from the Third Reich. Yes, there is such a thing as a slippery slope, in which we allow our government to get out of control and to become totalitarian. This is a path that we must never take.

Airline boycott?

Rep. Ron Paul has recently complained of having been repeatedly groped in a “disgusting” manner while flying on official state business, on account of the fact that he has metal in his knees. He rightly points out that this is unconstitutional. He recommends that, whenever we can, we use other means of transportation and not fly on commercial aircraft until this intrusive nude scan/crotch grope policy is discontinued. He also favors a national “opt out” day. Even though readers of this blog, including myself, strongly disagree with Ron Paul on many other things, on this particular point I concur that he is right in saying that the current TSA procedures are an unacceptable governmental intrusion into our personal modesty and dignity and our Constitutional rights.

I recognize that the current scan-and-grope TSA policy is the fault of the Obama Administration and not of the airlines. While that is true, at this point, the only effective way we have of making our anger known to the government is to refuse to participate in their totalitarian activities. Wherever possible, I plan to use other means of transportation that are not yet under this level of government intrusion.