Rousseau is alive and well

Here is yet another article about France's headscarf law: "France could learn from us." Although the tone is just a bit too self-congratulatory (as if Canada had all the answers), there are some revealing tidbits. For example: "For supporters of the law, the headscarves symbolize oppression." And: "in his speech to the nation on the new law, French President Jacques Chirac referred time and again to defending the 'equality of the sexes.'" This reminds one of Rousseau's dictum that in an ideal republic, where the general will takes priority over particular wills, people must be forced to be free. Funny how efforts to end perceived oppression end up becoming oppressive themselves.