In March 2021, France’s senate passed a significant amendment to an already controversial bill. This amendment bans the wearing of hijab by any minor, or by women who accompany their children on school trips. France, and by extension Western Europe, has long grappled with the issue of public displays of religion, particularly the wearing of face/head veilings by Muslim women. The attempt to control what Muslim women can and cannot wear within the public sphere is indicative of a much larger issue for European society. Europe currently fails to identify a way in which Muslim women can participate in societies in the current European narrative about Islam. The actions to combat this narrative of the oppressed Muslim woman are often almost as regressive and removing of a Muslim woman’s agency. This cognitive dissonance and limited attempts to engage with what causes the lack of integration in these European democracies needs to be addressed.
Since the mid-2000s, countries like France have widely debated the acceptance of head coverings such as the Burqa and Niqab. These debates have often been framed through concern for national security, with the belief that Islamic head covering poses a threat. In 2011, France instituted a law that banned the wearing of any head covering which obscured the face. This encompassed the Burka and the Niqab. Other European countries including Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland have implemented similar restrictive laws.
Laïcité and French Muslims
Attempts to regulate Muslim women and their expression of religion is nothing new for France. Since 1989, there have been multiple attempts through various legislation to identify that the wearing of hijab and by extension other forms of religious expression (such as the hand of Fatima or the kippah) was not acceptable within a public educational environment. This was due to the belief that religious clothing in this setting actively violated the concept of “laïcité”. Laïcité roughly translates to the English word of secularism. However, within the French context it carries a significant amount of history which the word secularism cannot convey appropriately. The French defiantly defend the separation of church and state which has been ingrained in French popular conscience since the Revolution. This extends further to ensuring separation of state and minority religions as well.
Since decolonisation began in the 1960s, there has been a long-standing tension with French society and Muslims. The mass-migration from North Africa in the 1960s and the subsequent emergence of French-born Muslims led to an increase in France’s Muslim population. As this group grew, so did the questions surrounding what framework does laïcité apply within French society.Criticism of Islam has intensified in France across the political spectrum. Basic aspects of Islam and the gender roles of it have been framed as incompatible with mainstream European society. The numerous jihadist terrorist incidents that have occurred across France including the Paris Attacks in 2015 and the shooting of journalists at Charlie Hebdo have further intensified this sentiment within mainstream France.
In 2020 this debate reignited due to a spate of violent attacks from Muslims across France including the killing of Samuel Paty (a history teacher). Macron warned that the attacks were indicative of the threat that “Islamist separatism” poses to the Republic’s core values. In October 2020, several measures which targeted Muslim organisations were announced including improving the oversight of mosque financing and increased scrutiny of religious schools and associations. Clearly the fear of Islamic jihadism is continuing to plague both the French national security sphere and the public conscience.
The bigger issue
The reason why the issue of banning the hijab resonates to such a great extent is not just because it represents a growing unease and desire to silence the expression of Islam in France. More dangerously it reveals the cognitive dissonance that the French political elite and many European politicians struggle with. For these politicians, the narrative and position of Muslims in their respective countries is hyper-masculinised. This narrative has been shaped by three important events within the last 40 years. Firstly, the Muslim narrative in France really began with the decolonisation in North Africa. This led to a wave of predominantly male migration into France, especially in the South. In the 1980’s, issues began arising with the new generation of French-Algerians who attempted to integrate French society. Urban violence increased as these French Algerians felt disproportionately marginalised within French society. In the last twenty years, this hyper-masculinised reputation of Muslims and Arabs has been further reinforced by Jihadist terrorism and fear surrounding migration from the Middle East and North Africa. Jihadist terrorist’s practise an extreme form of Islam called Wahhabism or Salafism. This designates that the establishment of a Caliphate is the primary concern of all Muslims. In practise it also results in women being deemed as lesser than or property of men within Islam. This is seen as simply incompatible with Western European democracies which designate that the secular state comes first, and women are deemed equal under the law. The 2015-2016 migration crisis further reinforced these fears. Many ultra-right-wing, nationalist groups fixated on the perceived danger that male migrants from countries with a predominantly Muslim background would pose a danger to their societies.
This masculinised narrative which concentrates heavily on Islam and Muslims through a patriarchal lens paints Muslim women as oppressed individuals. By extrapolation, these women are oppressed and not being afforded their basic rights as French citizens by outwardly embracing their religion through their religious garb. In the removal of these religious motifs from the public sphere, these women can more easily integrate into society. Although this move to ban hijab for under-18-year-olds is framed a method of cohesion, it just indicates the very large problem France has with Muslim women.
The Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen (1789) protects the freedom of religion in France. However, laïcité continues to prevail as the accepted perspective is that the state does not recognise any official religion, rather it recognises religious organisations. These organisations cannot be involved in policymaking of the state. The state prioritises the individual over groups and will protect them from groups it deems as dangerous. Therefore, given the belief that radical Islam/political Islam is dangerous to the state, including women within the religion, the state can approve and enforce the banning of headscarfs. It buys directly into long-standing ideological traditions and a growing concern of the threat Islam has on French national security.
But addressing this issue through the removal of women’s agency is problematic. Muslim women are a relatively easy target group. Muslim women are rarely considered as autonomous individuals in this narrative. Instead, they are the subject to an oppressive religion, which is counter-intuitive to the values of French democracy. While laïcité endeavours to ensure secularism is maintained across society, the enforcement of it in such a manner particularly against Muslim women is simply a superficial act. It withdraws the agency of Muslim women to practise their religion. One of the key fundamental aspects for many Muslims is that veiling is an important part of Islam. Across the political spectrum it is argued in France but also in other countries that this will provide emancipation of these women. But at the cost of their own agency. France by its very own revolution and strong affiliation with human rights argues it prioritises the universal rights of the individual. Except when it comes to laïcité. Due to not being part of the hyper-masculine Muslim narrative, Muslim women and their expression of religion are seen as an easy way of superficially dealing with Islamic separatism in France.
This cognitive dissonance and superficial approach to dealing with issues such as separatism within French society develops a self-fulfilling cycle. These groups have further isolated themselves from engaging substantially with French society. Instead in the last few decades they have largely turned inward and developing their own parallel structures. These structures are the very ones that allow Jihadist terrorism sentiment and extremism to thrive. In turn further reinforcing the idea within secular society that Islam cannot coexist peacefully with Western democracy.
What can be done?
The superficial engagement of how to deal with these communities holding different values derived from a religious standpoint is of significant detriment to all Western European states. Unfortunately, the pride sourced from being pillars of human rights and democracies results in an unbudging, non-lenient and neo-colonialist attitude towards groups with different perspectives. Attacking women and claiming to emancipate them while denying them the expression of their religion is frankly a quagmire that Europe faces. It must take a long, hard look at itself and understand that these issues of integration cannot be simply resolved by a blanket denial of people’s experiences and cultures. Instead, it will take effective engagement with these communities and ensuring they do not form isolated parallel structures which allow issues such as Jihadism to arise. Laïcité notionally is a fantastic concept. But also, in itself, the zealous nature of its perusal can often further damage the society it governs, leading to separatist notions arising far more often than it ought to. I cannot claim to have a solution beyond active engagement by leadership with these communities and working ostensibly in partnership to further integration into Wester European societies. The blatant short-term political pandering to the nationalist sentiment in these democracies is dangerous and continues to undermine the efforts made to preserve national security and the efforts for greater integration of Muslims and migrants to a wider extent into European societies.
