France and the hijab: Allow women their freedoms

In 1933, the actress Marlene Dietrich arrived in Paris, one of the highest paid stars in the world. She was wearing trousers, despite a warning that she would be arrested for doing so. She declared “I dress for myself, not for the image, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.”

It was only in 2013 that it finally became legal in France for women to wear trousers, although, of course, many had already been doing so.

I was reminded of these facts when the news broke last week that France had opposed a rather charming social media image exploring diversity and womanhood, created and shared by the Council of Europe. And like France’s law about trousers, the opposition today to what women want to wear, feels even more outdated.

Attitudes of women are changing and so is the world. And those who insist that women must be subjugated to their antiquated and parochial laws (including women who insist on them) are starting to find themselves as lone voices, and thank goodness for that.

A hijab is a veil worn by certain Muslim women in the presence of any male outside of their immediate family, which covers the head and chest. Another interpretation can also refer to the seclusion of women from men in the public sphere, whereas a metaphysical dimension, may refer to “the veil which separates man, or the world, from God”.Stanislas Guerini, one of the co-founders of Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move party (LREM), took to Twitter to critique Zemmahi, an engineer who is running for her local council, for wearing her hijab, a religious head covering worn by some Muslim women, in a promotional image.

“Wearing ostentatious religious symbols on a campaign document is not compatible with the values of LREM,” Guerini wrote, after a prominent far-right politician shared the photo. “Either these candidates change their photo, or LREM will withdraw its support.” The National Assembly, France’s lower chamber which is dominated by President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist La République En Marche (LREM) party, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill on February 16 before it was passed up to the conservative-led Senate.

The legislation has been debated in a highly charged atmosphere in France after three attacks late last year, including the beheading on October 16 of teacher Samuel Paty, who had shown his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free speech.

The law does not specifically mention the word Islam, but French Muslims have for months protested against it, saying several of its measures single them out.

Amnesty International last month warned the proposed law posed a “serious attack on rights and freedoms in France” and called for “many problematic provisions” of the bill to be scrapped or amended.

Inherent in the colonial attitude is the belief that one’s “civilization”—its language, its values and its practices—is an improvement on the lives of those who are colonized. This belief manifested itself drastically in the attitude toward Algerian Muslim women, who were seen as both oppressed and exotic. Under this mindset, their “liberation” could become the moral justification for imperialism’s violent casualties.

This dynamic is perhaps best illustrated during the Algerian War of Independence, when a series of public unveiling ceremonies were organized in 1958. During these ceremonies, many of which were arranged by the French army, Algerian women removed their haiks (traditional wraps worn by North African women) or had them removed by European women, before throwing them to the ground or burning them. Often, speeches were given afterwards in support of the French and the emancipation of Muslim women.

The image in the online campaign was of two smiling women spliced in half and joined together, on the left wearing a hijab, on the right without. The text read: “beauty is in diversity as freedom is in hijab”, followed by the line, “how boring would be the world if everyone would look the same? Celebrate diversity and respect hijab.”

It was part of a bigger campaign to tackle hate and discrimination. The Council of Europe, with its 47 member states and population of approximately 820 million (of which around 140 million are Muslim), said that the tweets reflected statements made by individual participants. As a Muslim woman, and as someone who has spent decades looking at representation, expression and Muslim social trends, I can say that many (not all) Muslim women who use a cover would say they find “freedom” in hijab to be true.

But in the 2020s, where with a straight face can you tell a woman that her own experience and her own autonomy is not as she says it is?

France’s opposition to choices by Muslim women regarding their attire is well-known. Somehow Muslim women who wear the headscarf are oppressed and submissive, while at the same time, being offensive, anti-freedom and an existential threat to the French state.

But this has nothing to do with wearing hijabs or niqabs. We know this because of the contradictory position that France seems to hold. A Muslim woman can be fined for wearing a niqab while at the same time someone in France can be fined for not wearing a face mask. In 2018, an Algerian Muslim woman was denied French citizenship for saying she did not want to shake hands with a male official. Today, rules suggest shaking hands is not a good thing (for Covid-19 related reasons) and that a woman’s space should be respected (for #MeToo related reasons).

These getting-your-knickers-in-a-twist controversies about the hijab are so predictable, I predict another one will be along shortly. And another one after that. It is why in general I have largely refrained from writing about them. It is the same outrage recycled, with no change in the conversation.