By asking of course where therefore set sail

Cloak women Indispensable! And all women, and as completely as possible. Injunction without ambiguity: "whoever you are, mother, sister, daughter, wife, voilez your head." ... Armor you and of indecent assault; before you compile the bulwark of modesty; environnez finally your person of a wall that stops your own eyes and the eyes of others. "One who speaks adds:"Do you eliminate never the discipline of the veil, not even a single moment." "It says that this veil must be full. Above all, that is not only a piece of fabric on the skull! Indeed... "the whole woman is that head".

No, the author of these radical teachings is not a Salafi imam, but although Tertullian, the first father of the Church of the West (155 env.-ca. 225), in a treatise written in latin, probably before 207, "the veil of the Virgin" ("De Virginibus velandis") (1). The need for the veil is so central to his eyes, that he returned in several works - "De corona", "Oratione", "Against Marcion". More striking still: this intellectual, who lived in Carthage, gives as a model for the Christian "women of Saudi ...." "not only to obscure the head, to also cover the entire face, so that leaving opening for an eye, they like better give up half of the light to prostitute their entire face.

It should be noted in passing that these lines, written several centuries before the Qur'an and the birth of islam, recall how is ancient in Arab cultures, the practice of hide the female face. But Tertullian this plea for the sailing course leads to more severe, and towering questions. What is this fear of the feminine to consider, in several great religious traditions, the spectacle of the body as a threat, a Supreme danger Various excuses have been advanced: Paul, taken over by Tertullian, women would have seduced angels and caused their loss - that's why should be exempt from the eye. On the other hand, it is not only to preserve morality, but to sanctify the principle of love and dignity of the couples. However, these agreed legitimacy never reaches cloak a terrible male anxiety towards the feminine, the springs, the meandering and events under the control of a psychoanalysis of crops still in the works.

If is elucidated this conundrum, it would be to understand why and how this culture has transformed this panic, to the point of appear if dispose of it, then that another has maintained it, cultivated, reactivated. Because the injunction of Tertullian failed: Christian women only are not veiled - religious apart, their CAP indicating the cessation in the world. In contrast, the ancient veil has survived in the Arab world and islam took and codified the heritage. Should still determine what was gained and what was lost in each of these developments, because it would be too simple to oppose only, in the report to the female, each light progress obscurantism of others. Should not forget the struggles of women for their emancipation in many Muslim countries.

The novelty of our time, is that, because of globalization, these parallel stories meet, with backdrop of a streak of confrontation, of provocations, wishes of coexistence and tolerance. The France enacted new laws or applied ancient, one cannot forget that the puzzle is outside the legal field. He is also religious, political, existential, psychological, sexual, cultural and philosophical, crossed registers so entangled that it is doubtful that a solution exists, satisfactory and simple. It is therefore for a long journey that it must be accepted to embark. By asking, of course: where therefore set sail