http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=132893&d=13&m=2&y=2010
Saturday 13 February 2010 (28 Safar 1431)
Hijab and French values
Iman Kurdi I Arab News
THERE has been a storm of controversy in France over a
candidate for the country's regional elections. Ilham Moussaid is a candidate
for the NPA in the Vaucluse, a department in the Provence region of France. The
NPA is a new party and stands for Nouveau Party Anti-Capitaliste, or New
Anti-Capitalist Party, a Trotskyist (yes, they still exist!) party led by the
charismatic and popular Olivier Besancenot.
So why is the inclusion of the young Ilham Moussaid on the
Vaucluse list so controversial? She wears a hijab or veil is the answer.
It is a first, it seems, not just for the infant political
party but for France as a whole. Never before has a woman with a veil on her
head appeared as a candidate in a French election, be it local, regional,
presidential or European, none. The other parties have been quick to attack
this apparent assault on French republican values. Martine Aubry, the leader of
the Socialist Party, stated that she would not accept the presence of a veiled
candidate on one of their lists. President Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling UMP party
has also attacked NPA's choice with Prime Minister François Fillon calling it a
"manipulation".
It's a polemic that is hard to understand from an outsider's
point of view. There is no issue with a Muslim presenting herself for election.
Indeed there are a number of Muslim women candidates up for election. The issue
is purely one associated with the hijab.
I find it rather amusing that Moussaid's style of hijab is so
French that it would not pass as acceptable in the Middle East. She would
certainly not have her ID card approved in Saudi Arabia dressed that way. Her
veil consists of a scarf tied over her hair, with her ears and the top of her
neck visible. This is not niqab, just a modern interpretation of the hijab. It
is similar to that worn by France's best-selling rap singer Diam's, who has
also caused controversy by her decision to start wearing the Muslim veil.
Diam's veil was described by Fadela Amara last week as "a real danger for young
women...because she is presenting an image of women that is a negative image".
There is no denying that the hijab has a negative image in
France. Moreover there is the implicit notion that the hijab is anti-feminist.
When Olivier Besancenot responded to critics by saying that a woman can be a
feminist, a secularist and veiled, it created hoots of derision in the press.
So can a woman who chooses to wear a hijab be a feminist and
a secularist?
The secularist is more important in terms of the controversy
over Ilham Moussaid. Secularism or laicité is a core value of the French
Republic; it is enshrined in its constitution. Not only does it formally
separate church and state by a law passed in 1905 but it firmly pushes religion
into the private sphere. "Religion is a private concern and has no place in the
public sphere" is an argument that you will hear again and again. Hence it is
argued that Ilham Moussaid is free to practice her religion in private, but
when she wears a religious symbol on her head, she is taking her religion into
the public sphere and cannot become a representative of the French state.
I can just about see the logic of the argument and yet when I
hear Ilham Moussaid say she is committed to secular values, I find her
credible. I don't see why wearing the hijab is in itself contradictory to a
view of the world where religion is considered a personal choice and where
religious dictates are to be excluded from governmental decision-making.
Moreover, secularism is based on a strong assumption of
equality. The idea that underpins it is that all citizens should be equal and
that no citizen should be favored over another because of religious
affiliation. Similarly, gender equality is also a core value of the French
Republic. So can a woman who wears the hijab be a feminist? It is interesting
how in parts of the West, and perhaps in parts of the Arab world too, the hijab
is associated with conservative views and thought of, to quote Fadela Amara
once again, as something which gives a negative view of both Muslims and women.
At core the image of covering up is key. The mental image of forcing women to
cover up implicitly assumes both a sense of shame in revealing female flesh and
a sense of holding women back, of keeping them restricted. Intuitively wearing
the hijab suggests a lack of freedom and consequently also a lack of equality.
But coming from the Middle East this question sounds
baffling. In a country where it is the norm to wear the hijab, you quickly
notice that it is shared between women of many different political persuasions.
Hence you can come across an extremely conservative woman who believes men have
superiority over women as easily as meeting a fiercely feminist woman who
campaigns for equality between men and women yet wears a hijab.
In reality wearing the hijab is neither incompatible with
feminism nor with secularism. When Olivier Besancenot says that a woman can be
feminist, secularist and veiled he is right. She can be, though she might not
be.
The truth is that the majority of pious Muslims are not
secular by the very nature of what they believe in. Islam as a religion sets
out an overt social and legal code that can negate the idea of religion as a
purely private concern. Though you can be a Muslim who believes in the
separation of church and state and who believes that all religions are equal,
many are not.
Similarly wearing the hijab neither makes you a feminist nor
stops you from being one. It is your beliefs and not what you wear on your head
that determines who you are, even if you choose to wear a veil on your head out
of religious conviction. (ik...@hotmail.com )
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