Thought for the Day, 26 June 2009

Catherine Pepinster

President Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked controversy with his recent remarks about the complete head to toe covering called the burka which is worn by some Muslim women. The burka, said the president, is not a religious symbol but a sign of subservience and debasement.

There are, of course, some Muslim women who choose to wear the burka and see it as part of their faith. But for President Sarkozy and others in the West, with our emphasis on sexual attractiveness, hiding a woman's body in this way is unpalatable. Some female columnists have said that such dress renders a woman invisible.

And yet there are people we Westerners render invisible too, who we often fail to notice, who might as well be shrouded head to toe.

This week, a 22 year old law student, Riam Dean, gave evidence at an employment tribunal where she is suing her former employer for disability discrimination. According to Riam, who was born without her left forearm, the store where she worked as a sales assistant decided she should stay in a stockroom because her prosthetic arm didn't fit with its policy on looks. The language used in Riam's evidence was like President Sarkozy's: she talked of being made to feel that she should cover up and that she was debased.

Riam also spoke of being taught that beauty lies in perfection rather than in diversity. Certainly, society regularly reinforces this idea. Think of how Susan Boyle, the singer made famous by Britain's Got Talent, has been treated. She was put down by being nicknamed the Hairy Angel. And she's since undergone a revamp, moulded into a more acceptable version of what a singer should look like.

But for others like Riam, there is no opportunity to be remoulded. The prophet Isaiah's foretelling of how Christ would be treated in his moment of affliction on the cross is also a powerful account of society's rejection of those who don't measure up:

"He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him," wrote Isaiah. "He was despised and rejected by others."

In sharp contrast to this attitude, I have always been struck by what so many people have told me who have visited the pilgrimage site at Lourdes. They say they don't go there believing that they will necessarily be cured but because the town is the reverse of normal life. They feel empowered because the sick and disabled are at the centre of things, where their needs matter more than those of the supposedly physically perfect and where they aren't invisible. It is a place where, as Christ urges us, the last will be first and the first last.