Paris, France – Last week, Members of French President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique en Marche (LREM) party walked out of the National Assembly hearing, A curtain saying student attendance is against the country’s secular values - a stunt that has renewed Discussion on hijab.
“A member of parliament and a feminist, committed to Republican values, committed to women and rights, I cannot accept anyone entering the National Assembly hearing wearing a hijab, which is a sign of representation for me,” wrote Ann-Christine Lang. Shortly after the hearing left the mid-session on Twitter.
21-year-old Miriam Pou Gatex was representing the student union during a discussion on how to mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 health crisis on students, young men and women.
There are no strangers in the attack to wear the Pou Gotx hijab. In 2018, she got just that Criticism To wear a headscarf during a television interview.
The hijab is banned in French schools and for public servants in their workplaces.
A woman holds a placard reading ‘Stop Islamophobia’ while attending a rally in Paris. [File: Michel Stoupak/NurPhoto via Getty Images]Of France For decades The hijab is a thorn in the side of the country’s lyceum tradition, a strict form of secularism that, among other things, prohibits people from wearing religious symbols in public schools.
“In France, we think all religions are the same and should not be in public.” Alexis Palin, a political analyst and news site Le Monde Modern, told Al Jazeera.
But according to Pauline, Lange’s interpretation of the law went too far.
“What she did was a complete political move,” Pollyn said. “Nowhere is it written that you are forbidden to enter the National Assembly with a veil.”
Some lawmakers criticized Lang’s move as discriminatory.
“It sends a terrible message,” Eric Coquirel, an MP from the far-left party La France Insomus, told French Radio France Info. “This is not light, it’s discrimination.”
Fiona Lazarus, an MP from Macron’s LREM party, told Al Jazeera that she saw Lang’s move as disrespectful.
“I can understand if you’re against the veil and what it represents, but at the same time we need to respect the women who wear it,” Lazarus said. “Some choose to wear it, others do it because it is imposed on them, but we must fight those who wear it, not the women who wear it.”
But others, such as Member of the Socialist Party Segolen Royal, supported Lang.
“[Pougetoux] Royal told BFMTV what she was provoking. “Fortunately, she has the right to provoke in our society, but at the same time there are limitations … there are rules.”
This chapter follows another recent discussion earlier this month, It erupted on social media when a French journalist tried to make a connection between a food video by a Muslim woman wearing a hijab during the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.
French network BFMTV has tweeted a video of 21-year-old food blogger Ima Boon giving university students cooking tips on a budget. Judith Ventreb of Le Figaro magazine, responding to the post, leaning to the right. Commented: “September 11”.
Weintrab’s remarks provoked outrage in France and were formally condemned by leading French Muslims and politicians on both sides of the spectrum.
But after she received some death threats, several well-known politicians, including French Interior Minister Gerald Dermanin, came to the journalist’s aid.
“Whatever the differences, some of which are profound, I condemn the threat of death [Waintraub] Received, ”Darmani posted on Twitter.
Fatima Bonomare, a leading feminist, responded to Dermanin’s tweet in defense of the dwarf: “The student who had to read thousands of racist comments against her, the word was explained to the killers by this ‘journalist’s’ unacceptable post, which strengthened the wave. The only fault about cooking activities? ”
In an Instagram post published several days later, Bonn thanked her supporters and said she had temporarily deleted her Twitter account and took a break from social media.
Wrote to BI, “I read very touching messages to each of you. “Your love and gratitude overshadow their hatred … I am a student who tries to help 100,000 students every day. I don’t have the time or energy to give to these cruel people.”
France’s Muslim community, about 5 million people, comprises about 10 percent of the population, Europe’s largest Muslim minority.
Following a similar controversy last year, in which a woman was asked by a far-right politician to remove her hijab, French President Emmanuel Macron called Muslims a “disgrace” to Islam by linking it to “terrorism”.
In France, people gather at the Place de la Nation to protest Islamophobia and media bias. [File: Michel Stoupak/NurPhoto via Getty Images]