Jun. 30, 2018
France’s obsession with Islamic attire
One aspect of the rising Islamophobia in France has been
the social and legal struggle over what is a permissible attire, mostly for
women. This struggle came to the forefront in 1989 with the “affaire du
foulard,” when three French schoolgirls were sent home because they refused to
remove their head covering scarves (hijab). The reason given by the school was
that wearing the hijab violated the law of secularism (Laicite), which was
passed more than 80 years earlier, in 1905, for the separation of church and
state. In 2004, French President Jacques Chirac signed a law that banned all
conspicuous religious symbols in French public primary and secondary schools
but excluded colleges and universities. That law did not mention any religion,
although, in practice, it was applied mainly to Muslim women wearing the
hijab.
In 2015, as Islamophobia intensified with the advent of large numbers of
refugees from Muslim majority countries (Syria, Afghanistan and African
countries), the ban was extended, in practice, to long skirts. A secondary
school in the French northeast made headlines for sending a girl student named
Sarah home for wearing a long skirt that was considered an “ostentatious
symbol” of the girl’s Muslim faith. According to the Collective Against
Islamophobia in France – a civil society organization that monitors
Islamophobic practices in the country – dozens of schools have done the same,
at least since 2014, and the practice has spread more widely now.
It had been the practice that Muslim girls wearing the
hijab would remove it before entering school out of respect for the law, as was
done by Sarah. But the school principal decided that, since Sarah was wearing a
hijab before entering school, the maxi skirt must be considered a religious
symbol and needed to be removed. The fact that Sarah had bought the skirt in a
French discount store did not apparently change the principal’s opinion.
The year 2016 was, as we all know, the year of the burkini.
In Cannes, Nice and other French Cote d’Azure towns, the burkini was banned
outright. In Nice, armed French policemen were seen forcing a woman to take off
her burkini in public. In some towns in northern France, where mayors had
admittedly never seen a burkini, the attire was also banned.
Finally, earlier this month, the scarf controversy was
reignited in a somewhat peculiar manner. A 19-year-old French girl named Maryam
Pougetoux, who was elected leader of the French National Student Union, Paris
Sorbonne chapter, appeared on television to protest a government measure that
would make admission to universities more restrictive.
Students she represented were already demonstrating in the
streets of Paris against the measure. Pougetoux, who comes from a French
working family that had converted to Islam, is a practicing Muslim. She was
wearing a hijab. Officials and others went into an uproar considering her
appearance as a defiance from the side of political Islam. Pougetoux, on her
part, went online to look up the meaning of political Islam.
What do the aroused French, particularly the French
officials, have against the burkini, the scarf and the long skirt? For the
burkini, the official views ranged from “it is not compatible with the values
of France and the republic” as was indicated by then-Prime Minister Manuel
Valls, to “it is clothing that conveys an allegiance to the terrorist movements
that are waging war against us,” as declared by an official of the city of
Cannes, the first city to ban the burkini.
The scarf is apparently considered even more dangerous. The
present French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, described the TV appearance of
Pougetoux as “shocking” and likened her to “youth that are attracted to
[Daesh],” a term used to refer to the Islamic State militant group. The Gender
Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa, declared that the hijab of Pougetoux is “a
form of promotion of political Islam.” President Emmanuel Macron himself, who
ran on a platform of freedom of religion, had dubbed the hijab, on a television
appearance last April, as “not compatible with the civility of our country.”
Some prominent figures of the civil society joined the
official chorus. Essayist Celine Pina said in an entry on Facebook that
Pougetoux’s representing a student union is tantamount to the Muslim
Brotherhood infiltrating the union.
Laurant Bouvet, a prominent civil society leader, wondered
how could a woman, “displaying conspicuously her religious beliefs, defend
values like abortion and feminist principles.” The satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo came out with a cover page depicting a woman wearing a hijab resembling a
monkey.
Earlier this year, the French Education Ministry issued a
“Handbook on Laicite” to remind schools to punish students for wearing
religious symbols. It included long skirts “that appear to comply with
religious requirements.” It also included the scarf as well as the kippah
[yarmulke] that is worn by Jewish male students. The handbook seems to have
been necessary to show that not only Muslims are targeted, but this is
contradicted in practice.
Jewish students from observant families have mostly joined
Jewish schools where boys wear the kippah and girls wear long skirts. Jewish
leaders didn’t think that the new instructions would affect their community.
Nevertheless, Meyer Habib, a Jewish member of Parliament, urged the government
to apply the regulations selectively.
“Jewish symbols must not be treated the same as characteristics
of radical Islam,” he told Ynet as quoted by the New York Times. “We’ve never
killed innocents in Europe generally, and in France specifically, in the name
of Jewish values,” he added.
So, the question remains. Why are so many French, and
particularly French officials, so obsessed with Muslim attire? It may be argued
that this is the result of the Islamophobia that has widely invaded the Western
world, from Poland to the United States, but Islamophobia has not been
translated into laws against Muslim attire, as was the case in France (and
perhaps Belgium too).
Banning the scarf, the burkini and the long skirt would be
unthinkable in the United States, despite Trump’s rhetoric against Islam and
Muslims. Londoners elected a Muslim mayor to run their capital and largest
city. Recently, Canada and Ireland permitted police women to wear the scarf in
an effort to attract more Muslim women to law enforcement.
The French case puzzled many foreign observers. A recent
article in the Washington Post seems to argue that the French attitude toward
Muslim symbols reflects the conflict between the law of secularization and the
Christian religious feelings of the population. “Officials in France – a state
closed for business on every major Christian holiday – are not always
consistent in their attitudes toward secularism,” the author added. Nacira
Guenif-Souilamas, a sociologist at the Sorbonne, explains “France is a
multicultural society that doesn’t think of itself as multicultural.”
Many observers have indicated that France is a special case
because it is home to the largest Muslim community in Europe.
The real reason might not be any of the above, but all the
above at the same time. The “Affaire Pougetoux,” in spite of everything, gives
some hope. Mariam was elected, scarf and all, to represent the intellectual
European elite of the future, the students of the Sorbonne. When attacked by
the politicians, her colleagues came to her defense openly through social
media.
One student from Denmark reportedly told her in the offices
of the student group: “In five years I have never seen this level of
mistreatment of a student leader. You are super amazing. Don’t let the racists
win.”
Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? Let us hope so.
Riad Tabbarah is a former ambassador of Lebanon to the
United States.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of
The Daily Star on June 30, 2018, on page 7.
