The news that the Dutch Government was about to announce a ban on wearing the burqa in public places prickled first-year and Palestinian Muslim Rasha Ali. “Why are you trying to take away their dignity?” she asked. The burqa – a traditional Islamic garment covering the entire face and body except for a mesh screen for the eyes – is the most concealing dress worn by Muslim women.

Geert Wilders – a conservative independent politician, best known for favoring restrictions on immigration and opposing Turkish E.U. membership – suggested the ban. The idea for the ban quickly gained support from two parties in the ruling right-center coalition.

“That women should walk in the streets in a totally unrecognizable manner is an insult to everyone who believes in equal rights,” Wilders said to BBC News. “This law is a comfort to moderate Muslims and will contribute to integration in the Netherlands.”

The measure mimics laws, both national and local, recently passed in France and parts of Belgium, Italy and Germany.

The Dutch Government sees a potential terrorist threat under the guise of the burqa, especially since the assassination of director Theo van Gogh, a pronounced critic of Islam, by Islamic fundamentalists in November 2004.

Ban proponents say that the garment is oppressive towards Muslim women and an obstacle to their proper integration.

Statistics show that a relatively small number of women wear the burqa (not more than 200). However, the ban could affect the whole Muslim population in the Netherlands, which totals almost a million.

“Often women are seen as carriers of the culture and the cultural identity,” said Kathryn Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of Women’s Studies.

In response to the commotion, a number of Muslim women have left the country for less restrictive countries on the continent.

“This is another way in which the dominant culture places their values on another population deemed as ‘other’,” said Skinah Hamlin, Director of Multicultural Education. “How can we assign meaning to the community without going to the community itself? The analysis does not empower; it is not from the perspective of the people.”

“The people who practice a particular religious observance should always be the ones whom we ask about that particular religious observance,” said Jane Redmont, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. “We should hear from the women themselves.”

For many Muslims, headscarves such as the burqa have traditionally been a symbol of religion and womanhood, and a testament to their devotion to Allah. Yet, Muslims disagree over the compulsory nature of the head covering, generally associated with Sura 24:31 from the Quran.

“You should wear your hijab because your beauty should be kept only for your husband,” said Bita Emrani, an Early College student with Iranian heritage.

Junior Nikki Mosuro, albeit having never worn a hijab herself, decried the motivation for the ban: “It’s wrong to take away someone’s humility when most people in the world don’t have it. They are not empowering Muslim women to go against their faith. That is not empowerment; that is oppression.”

Recent polls rank an impending terrorist attack as the top concern of the Dutch population. Most commentators, however, agree that the currently discussed ban on the burqa springs from deeper issues of discrimination in the fabric of society.

“We are a very ignorant society that doesn’t try to understand other people and other cultures,” said senior and Turkish citizen Hatice Dogan. “We don’t want to understand other cultures; we try to change them, and that is very problematic.”

Undoubtedly, with their contextual complexity, such cases when a law goes against someone’s religious beliefs present a challenge for contemporary democracy.

According to Schmidt, “One of the key questions of democracy is ‘How do we make it possible for people to live together even when they don’t share the same fundamental beliefs?'”

Ali herself questioned the government’s ability to secure this vital yet delicate balance. “They have a problem with somebody being modest and covering themselves, and they don’t have a problem with somebody having piercings everywhere and walking around naked.”

Max Carter, Campus Ministry Coordinator, said that America is not exempt from similar issues of controversy – such as the Amish having to deny their beliefs in order to observe state laws about compulsory school education even after age 14, or Quakers refusing to join the military – cases often end with incarceration for the faithful.

The Netherlands is now torn between preserving its core virtues of freedom and social tolerance, and the need to protect itself from gruesome acts of terrorism.

Yet, Redmont’s words of concern pose a difficult question. “Once you start discriminating against one group, it is a slippery slope. What are you going to ban next?”

Muslims attribute the wearing of headscarves to a Quran passage found in Sura 24:31, which reads: “And say to the believing women that they cast down their looks and guard their private parts, and display not their ornaments, except those which are outside; and let them pull their kerchiefs over their bosoms and not display their ornaments save to their husbands and fathers.