THE WEAPONIZATION OF LA LAÏCITÉ: FRANCE’S CONSERVATIVE RIGHT PARTY PROPOSES HIJAB BAN
BY IDA GHOHESTANI
In early April, the French Senate voted to approve an amendment to President Emmanuel Macron’s “Anti-Separatism” law, banning women under the age of 18 from wearing hijabs in public, as well as a secondary amendment banning parents and guardians from assisting their children on school trips dressed in “religious clothing.”
This move by France’s Conservative-led senate is one of many aimed at targeting France’s Muslim population, feeding into the xenophobic rhetoric of France’s Far Right National Rally Party, known as the National Front Party, in order to win back voters lost from the previous election for the upcoming 2022 presidential election.
In an interview with NPR, political scientist Jean-Yves Camus addresses the conservative party’s reasoning behind the proposition of such amendments: “The conservative right sees that some of their previous voters have switched to the far right, so they try to win back those voters. If they want to win back those votes, they have to propose legislation that is at least as xenophobic.”
This newly proposed law is not only an attack against Muslims, particularly hijabi-women, but on all minority groups living in France. The othering of minority groups within the country, which was once largely characterized by hateful rhetoric, has become mainstream through the legislative process. The “anti-separatism” bill is not the first, nor the last, piece of legislation that uses the principle of la laïcité (separation of church and state) to further marginalize communities within France who are seen as being “not French enough.”
Many have taken to the streets and social media to protest the Senate’s passing of the bill, and many academics believe that the bill will be struck down by the country’s constitutional council. But allowing such a law to go through the legislative process at all has signaled to the French-Muslim community that their rights will constantly be up for debate within the country.
This new proposal follows the 2010 burqa and niqab ban, which has been regarded as a violation of human rights by United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the 2016 burkini ban, which has since been lifted, as well as a wave of anti-Muslim legislation throughout Europe. Similar legislation has been passed in Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands, and in 2016 German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for the prohibition of full veil coverings. More recently, in March 2021, a proposal was passed by Switzerland’s right-wing Egerkingen Committee and put to a nation-wide vote to ban facial coverings in public.
The French government should respond to these developments and work towards strengthening its relationship with the French-Muslim community, as opposed to alienating it.
The legislation passed with a 51.2 percent majority vote by the Swiss public and was defended by the conservative Swiss People’s Party President Marco Chiesa, who echoed the sentiments of French government officials, saying, “The burqa creates a barrier between the person wearing it and the environment and thus prevents integration into society.”
Legislation specifically targeted towards Muslims has run rampant throughout Europe, largely pushed by conservative and nationalistic parties, with countries like the United States and Canada remaining silent on the human rights violations being committed.
“The law introduces numerous human rights concerns and is a very irresponsible attempt at using the language of separation of church and state to marginalize a segment of the French population,” said Steve Swerdlow, a human rights lawyer and an Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights at the University of Southern California. Swerdlow further emphasizes that Macron’s silence on the matter is deeply troubling.
Macron has previously voiced concerns over the veil, having said that it is not in accordance with “French civility,” as well as saying that Islam is “in crisis” all over the world. His rhetoric has undoubtedly emboldened the conservative and far-right parties within France to push Islamophobic sentiments and legislation across the country.
The argument against Muslim coverings is two-fold: one of which being the separation of church and state, and another of mitigating Islamic extremism and promoting national unity. The former in the case of France rests on the principle of la laïcité (secularism), which has been weaponized to strip Muslim women of their rights to thought, conscience and religion, as outlined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The latter presupposes an inherent Muslim disposition towards committing acts of terrorism and rejects the notion that one can be both Muslim and French. Both arguments are inherently Islamophobic and not only threaten Muslim rights, but risk France’s relationship with Muslim countries, particularly within the Middle East.
The French government should respond to these developments and work towards strengthening its relationship with the French-Muslim community, as opposed to alienating it. The first step should be the government rejecting the Conservative Party’s amendments to the “anti-separatism” bill, and the next steps should be revising the rhetoric used when discussing Islamic extremism and the French-Muslim community.
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Ida Ghohestani is a sophomore at the University of Southern California majoring in International Relations and French. Her research interests include terrorism/counterterrrorism, civil wars and conflict in the Middle East, and U.S.-Iran relations. She is participating in a foreign affairs reporting class taught by Professor Phil Seib, a collaboration between the Pacific Council and the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
