SAVING MUSLIM WOMEN FROM A PIECE OF CLOTH
Lara Marlowe, Irish Times, 7/12/03
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2003/0712/4079938464OPLARAM12JUL.ht
ml
Nothing is as certain to make you unpopular in a French gathering - whether
left-or right-wing - as saying you don't understand the fuss about le
foulard islamique.
I recently committed the faux pas of asking: "If a Muslim woman wants to
wear a headscarf, what's the problem?" The decibel level of the dinner
conversation exploded. Normally rational French men and women, including
one of Arab origin, tried to outdo each other with denunciations of Islamic
fundamentalism. For a reporter who has worked in the Islamic Republic of
Iran, where men are obsessed with forcing women to cover their hair, it
sometimes feels strange to live in a society where the majority seem
determined to force women to uncover their hair.
It was an example of what the former cabinet minister, Jean Glavany, called
the "plus laic que moi tu meurs syndrome", which translates roughly as a
nose-thumbing taunt of "I'm more secular than you are." Mr Glavany heads
the socialist party's "Permanent University of Secularism". In an
interview, he accused the right of "trying to appropriate the issue." Over
the past two months almost all French politicians, including President
Jacques Chirac, have become involved. The debate is meant to encompass
secularism in general, but invariably zeroes in on the headscarf.
It is partly an attempt to placate the millions who voted for the extreme
right-wing, anti-immigrant leader Jean-Marie Le Pen last year. It may be
related to September 11th and events in Palestine, Algeria and Iraq. In any
case, "it's not caused by an upsurge in veiling in France," Mr Glavany
admitted. "The numbers are levelling off." At the end of July a tribunal in
Lyons will decide whether Nadjet ben Abdallah (33), a lawyer of Algerian
origin, has the right to wear a headscarf at her government job. She sued
after being suspended. "I don't represent all the headscarves on the
planet," Ms ben Abdallah said after her July 3rd hearing. "I'm a work
inspector. I like my profession and I am a Muslim. I don't want to have to
choose between the two." Other highly publicised cases have strengthened
the perception that Muslims are attempting to impose their lifestyle on the
secular republic. The mayor of Evry tried to shut down a grocery store
because its owners, Mohamed and Abdel Djazari, refused to sell pork or
wine. Franprix supermarkets withdrew the brothers' franchise, though a
kosher Franprix in Paris has been in business for over a decade. A
right-wing deputy of Arab origin has called on inhabitants of towns where
swimming pools provide women-only hours at the request of Muslim
associations to sue their mayors. No one has complained about similar
arrangements for Jewish groups in Strasbourg and Sarcelles.
On July 3rd President Chirac established a commission on secularism.
Prominent politicians, including the Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin,
have called for a law banning the wearing of headscarves at school, and the
presidential commission is to make a recommendation by the end of this
year. Bernard Stasi, the president of Mr Chirac's commission, was asked by
Le Monde whether the resurgence of the debate on headscarves risked
stigmatising Islam. His response conveyed the ambiguity of the government
position.
"We mustn't start a war against a religion, nor give them the feeling
they've been ostracised," Mr Stasi replied. "That said, everything depends
on the image that Islam gives of itself. If a religion has an aggressive
behaviour, one mustn't be surprised if it inspires reactions." The "give
'em an inch and they'll take a mile" argument is used most often against
the headscarf. It was summarised by Alain Juppe, a former prime minister
and the head of Mr Chirac's UMP party, in an interview with Valeurs
Actuelles magazine.
Mr Juppe said legislation would be necessary "to defend secularism". He
mentioned mayors segregating swimming pools. "Why wouldn't the next step be
separate train compartments for men and women, beaches reserved for one sex
and forbidden to the other? This system has a name: apartheid." A few,
isolated voices have noted that a law against the wearing of headscarves
would further impede the integration of France's Muslim children by forcing
them into Koranic schools. And it would probably violate Article 9 of the
European Convention of Human Rights, which the French helped draft...
Why should a scarf be so offensive on the head of a Muslim schoolgirl, but
perfectly acceptable if it's Hermes silk worn by the British queen or a
lady from the 16th arrondissement? And why does it pose no problem in the
US, which has often showed anti-Muslim bias?...
Why should France, the self-proclaimed country of human rights, feel
compelled to save Muslim women from a piece of cloth? Yes, protect the
secular basis of the French republic. Resist attempts by religious groups
to impose their beliefs on others. But stop poisoning inter-faith relations
with your headscarf obsession.
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