Do Clothes Make the Nation?

What kids wear to school is not a trivial matter. Plenty of thoughtful people (Bill Clinton) think school uniforms are a good idea. Elite private academies and parochial schools have imposed dress codes and uniforms for decades.

The attempt by the French to bar Islamic dress is unsurprising. Since the Dreyfus case France has been relentlessly and aggressively secular. Catholicism was viewed with suspicion by most of the political class which was more anti-clerical than even-handed.

So, in a real sense, the French actions are not an anti-Islamic innovation. They are a continuation of the efforts that ensure that its citizens think of themselves first as Frenchmen, not as Catholic, Jew, or Muslim.

The French actions are not without historical precedent. Ataturk banned Islamic dress in Turkey after the overthrow of the Ottoman Empire in order to strengthen the new republic. Modernizing Tsars like Peter the Great forced Western ways on the Russian nobles (including western clothing) as part of their efforts to link Russia to Europe not Asia.

Habits of dress are often more important than politics and debate. David Gelernter understands this and makes the point repeatedly. In 1939: The Lost World of the Fair he shows how the "ought culture" of the 1930s was reinforced by little things on a daily basis. Among these were neckties which middle class men wore even when they were dining with their families at home.

Gelernter also makes an interesting point about Iran's frustrating diplomacy in the last decade of the Cold War. The mullahs aggravated both the US and USSR. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the atheism of Leninism did not make them pro-American. The CIA coup and on-going support of the Shah did not make them pro-Moscow. A Middle East expert remarked that the first thing an Iranian Mullah noticed about the Americans and Russians is that both wore pants. Whatever the political differences between the two nations, they were united by culture- a culture the Iranian leaders did not share.