This was brought up in my summer school class by a Pakistani student.
Consensus was that it's important to disallow systematic abuse of any
group by any other group. E.g. Sweden's outlawing corporal punishment
of children seems like a good idea. But it's also important to
protect freedom of speech. What if an Islamic woman truly wishes to
wear a burqua and is not succumbing to male pressure? When I evaluate
Sarkozy's action from the standpoint of consequences, and reason
backward, the hypothesis I arrive at is that Sarkozy wants to strike
at Islamic community solidarity by essentially emasculating it. This
seems to me a very bad idea. To the extent that it is successful it
will probably lead to increased violence against women. In general,
in the Islamic world, women are treated with respect and kindness.
Legally subservient but in fact much more vested in the community than
tends to be true of un-wealthy U.S. women, Islamic women's role in
preserving family and traditions has real power. This role is
protected by extended family and religious officials. Islamic men are
legally the kings of their households (the same applies among orthodox
Jews) but except in rare and a-typical instances, in neither case are
men actually free to treat women cruelly. This is the opposite of how
things tend to work in the United States and parts of Europe.