Over the past years, France’s practice of secularism has been increasingly used to promote and impose a monolithic conception of French identity and citizenship. Such practice has been particularly discriminative towards Muslim women wearing the hijab, who are often portrayed as oppressed and powerless. Amid the upcoming presidential elections in France, long standing issues of Islamophobia – on which politicians capitalise to gain public support – remain to be tackled. 

FRENCH POLITICS AND ANTI-MUSLIM RHETORIC 

“La France n’est plus la France” (France is no longer France). A recent article by Le Monde reveals the bitter extent of Islamophobia in France. Underpinning this conviction that “France is longer France” is the idea of immigration and Islam being the principal ills of French society. The idea of an irreconcilable gulf between what it means to be French and what it means to be Muslim. 

Of course, let me be clear: such ideas are not representative of every French person. Nor is every French person an Islamophobe. Certainly not. Claiming that they were would not only be fundamentally untrue, but it would be just as hypocritical as the hypocrisy that I take issue with in this article. However, while acknowledging this point is important, it is ultimately neither here nor there. Even though the entirety of France may not point to Islam as a societal evil, the reality is that enough do, thus giving politicians a wide enough platform to openly offend, marginalise, and attempt to suppress the religion and its followers. Amidst the upcoming April Presidential Election, and the sentiment of more than 60% of French people that France is in decline, that there are too many immigrants, and that France does not feel like home anymore, anti-Islamic rhetoric is a fast-track ticket to political success. 

Far-right candidates such as Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour are capitalising on Islamophobia as a means of securing more votes. Emmanuel Macron’s strategy is strikingly similar. In a desperate attempt to attract far right voters to his centrist party, Macron hides behind the guise of “combating extremism,” by making statements and passing bills which drastically affect the lives of and marginalise the country’s 5.4 million Muslims. Illustrating this only requires a glimpse at France’s insulting attempt at giving Islam a “French makeover," or a consideration of the Senate’s recent vote in favour of banning the hijab in sports competitions. The reason? The ludicrous claim that covering one’s head poses a threat to the safety of athletes wearing them. Of course, let us not be confused. Such danger only strikes when the hair is being covered by a hijab. Rather curiously, other forms of head covering such as caps and hoodies seem not to have the same “menacing” effect despite covering the exact same areas of the body. 

These tactics are hardly innovative. The supposed “oppressiveness” of Islam and its “incompatibility” with “French values” is something which has long troubled the mind of the French politician. Sarkozy’s speech to French parliament in 2009, followed by the burqa ban in 2011 made France’s stance on Islam and Muslim women perfectly clear. They are not welcome on French soil.

AN OBSESSION PAST ITS EXPIRY DATE

Yet, surely this obsession with the “oppressiveness” of Islam and the hijab should have long passed its expiration date. Two years deep into the COVID pandemic in which the French government has obliged people to cover their faces every time they leave the house, it seems almost laughable that politicians are still clinging onto the same excuses when it comes to Islam. Security issues, women’s equality, and being at odds with France’s notion of "laïcité" (secularism) are used interchangeably as a justification for France doing the unjustifiable. A notion of secularism which is relied upon to excuse the institutional racism and discrimination that is rampant in the country. A notion of secularism which purports to guarantee and promote neutrality of religion but in fact is used as a means of targeting Muslim women by demanding that they either assimilate to what the French politician believes to be French identity, or to face being removed from public life.

Yet, there is something inherently illogical with such reasoning. Wearing the hijab is a choice that many Muslim women take as a form of religious expression. They do not believe that it jeopardises their dignity or freedom. Nor does it threaten theirs or anyone else’s security. The issue that France takes with the hijab is fundamentally a socially and politically rooted distaste of Islamic visibility in the public sphere. Covering one’s face with a mask due to COVID is seen as a way of averting the threat posed by the virus. Covering one’s face as a form of religious expression, however, is seen as the threat itself. And so, what seeps through these anti-Muslim policies, beside the ironically unmasked racism, is an incredulous sense of hypocrisy and irrationality. When it comes to Islam, France’s application of secularism is not one of the separations of religion and state. It is one of a complete annexation of the religion and its followers from the public sphere. 

This is incredibly dangerous. What may start off as a hijab ban for sports could easily spiral into a full ban of the hijab. This is particularly given the growing confidence of politicians such as Zemmour to champion evocative policies such as the “Islam Programme” which aims to reverse Islam’s negative impact on French society by banning the hijab. Such rhetoric echoes that of Sarkozy’s just before the burqa ban. Both men represent themselves as saviours on an honourable mission of liberating the veiled Muslim woman who is “oppressed” by her religion. 

A CROWN ON THE HEAD: NO NEED FOR SAVIOUR 

Rather simply, however, the Muslim woman is not in need of being saved. While Zemmour and others perceive the hijab as an unsightly symbol of oppression, many Muslim women wear it proudly like a crown on their head. And it is particularly this point at which the irony, if it has not already, reaches its peak. 

In the supposed attempt to promote values of “dignity,” “freedom”, and “equality,” it becomes clear that such freedom is conditional on conforming to the Republic’s notion of what a woman’s dignity pertains. It means accepting that female empowerment is inextricably linked to the female body remaining uncovered. It means accepting a notion of freedom in which women are forced to reveal parts of their body that they would rather not reveal. 

And so, with this in mind it seems only right to reflect on France’s motto of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” (Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity) which supposedly underpins French culture and society. If it is true that France is defined by these values, perhaps the sentiment that “France is no longer France” is not so misplaced. For surely a country based on liberty would not deny a woman the freedom of covering her hair as a form of religious expression. Surely a country based on equality would not perceive a woman who chooses to cover up as being less than the rest of society. Surely a country based on fraternity would not turn its back on its fellow citizen merely because she wears the hijab. Until this changes, France cannot be a country truly founded on liberté, égalité, fraternité. Until this changes, it is true that France will no longer be France. 

Sarah is a Philosophy, Politics and Economics graduate from the University College London. She is currently studying Law and has a keen interest in human rights - with a particular interest in Middle Eastern Affairs due to her Syrian origins.

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