Recent opinion polls in France suggest that Marine Le Pen's right-wing political party, the
National Rally, stands a significant chance of winning the upcoming French elections. This party
strongly advocates for a complete ban on the Muslim headscarf, known as the hijab, in public spaces
across France. In 2004, France enacted a law prohibiting the display of "ostentatious religious symbols"
in schools, effectively barring students from wearing Muslim headscarves in elementary, middle, and
high schools. Subsequently, in 2010, France prohibited the wearing of the Muslim veil (burka and
niqab) in public spaces. Discussions have since focused on potentially expanding the ban on
headscarves to universities and workplaces.
Initially, arguments supporting the headscarf ban focused on upholding secularism in public
schools. However, proponents of the ban also contended that the headscarf symbolized male
oppression, impeding women's liberation, and that secularism would uphold gender equality. Similar
rationales emphasizing women’s emancipation were put forward to justify the ban of the Muslim veil in
public spaces. I firmly believe that a critical feminist, intersectional, and decolonial approach to this
matter will reveal the fallacy of those who believe that banning religious symbols leads to women's
emancipation.
Firstly, it is important to note that secularism in France has not always aligned with feminist
liberation. When the Radical Party advocated for the separation of Church and State in France, it also
opposed women's suffrage, questioning their ability to vote wisely (Dumont, 2012). Secondly, the ban
on religious symbols in school resulted in Muslim girls who wore headscarves being denied education, while boys continued to receive it. Can we truly characterize this law as advancing gender equality
when it disproportionately harms girls, punishing them and effectively denying them education, which
is widely regarded as a pathway to women’s emancipation? Thirdly, the choice to prohibit the
headscarf and veil was founded on arguments that tackled gender equality through the lens of Western
feminism, presuming a shared experience of oppression and liberation among women. Essentially, it
failed to consider the complex intersectionality of gender, race, class, religion and sexuality in the
experiences of Muslim women, while reinforcing longstanding Western stereotypes about them dating
back to colonial times.
I will now elaborate on this third point. French liberal feminists perceive the Muslim headscarf
and veil as tools of women's oppression, attributing them more to male coercion than to a woman's
autonomy or choice (Ladhani, 2019). However, research indicates that only a minority of women wear
the hijab due to pressure and coercion. According to a recent French study by the Montaigne Institute,
merely 6% of women who wear the hijab state that they do it "under duress" (El Karoui, 2016, p. 36).
Indeed French researchers have observed a prevalence of familial pressures against wearing the hijab
compared to those encouraging it, due to the social stigma and professional challenges associated with
it (Beaugé, 2013).
Agnès De Féo's research, based on numerous interviews with hijab and niqab-wearing women
in France, shows that these women perceive their veils as a form of independence from men,
representing a rejection of the male gaze (De Féo, 2020). While Western feminists criticize the idea of
the hijab or niqab as protection from male attention, viewing it as part of a patriarchal discourse that
objectifies women's bodies (Glapka, 2018), non-Western feminists see them as tools to resist
objectification, the commodification of the female body (Ladhani, 2019) and liberation from Western
beauty standards (Rootham, 2015). They argue that concealing their hair and other physical features
empowers Muslim women and allows them to control their bodies (Glapka, 2018).
Furthermore, French researchers have observed that the hijab primarily signifies cultural
identity rather than religious indoctrination for those who wear it: women wear it as a marker of ethnic
identity in response to the French government's racist policies (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2014). It serves
as a symbol of resistance against the increasing stigmatization and discrimination against Muslims and
the rise of Islamophobia since September 11 (Haddad, 2007). Thus, the veil is viewed as a tool of
rebellion and an expression of "Islamic pride". Consequently, contrary to the narrative presented by
white liberal Feminists, the headscarf is seldom imposed and often claimed by those who wear it in
France. For the vast majority of Muslim women wearing the headscarf in France, it symbolizes
political agency and independence rather than oppression and the denial of their free will.
I acknowledge that the headscarf and veil highlight a distinctively gendered way for Muslim
women to present their bodies (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2021). While I recognize that the hijab and
niqab often signify women’s subjugation and oppression in countries like Iran, where women face life threatening consequences for not wearing the hijab, the situation differs significantly in France. The
meaning of the hijab varies based on the country’s political climate, the parties involved, and the
discursive context surrounding the term (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2014; see also Glapka, 2018).
Consequently, I must ask this question: Why is the hijab automatically equated with gender inequality
and women’s subordination in the public eye in France, when many Muslim women who wear it hold
different sentiments? I contend that this is because ideas of gender inequality and women’s
emancipation have primarily been shaped by French liberal feminists, whose arguments were grounded
in the experiences of normative white, European middle-class women (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2021).
Specifically, I argue that in the debate surrounding the hijab, liberal feminists in France approached
gender equality and emancipation issues in ways that echoed colonial interpretations of these concepts,
thereby reinforcing prejudiced postcolonial perceptions of disparities and inequalities between Western
non-Muslim and Muslim women.
French liberal white feminists claim that veiled or headscarf-wearing Muslim women are
influenced by radical Islam and male family members to wear them (Ladhani, 2019; Winter, 2009).
Those feminists refuse to acknowledge Muslim women's ability to freely make this decision. This
discourse on influence is problematic because all individuals in society are subject to various influences
from the social groups they belong to. However, this does not imply a lack of free will on their part.
Moreover, this discourse perpetuates patriarchal norms by reinforcing gender stereotypes that diminish
women's agency.
Furthermore, liberal white feminists’ arguments posit that prohibiting the headscarf and veil will
liberate Muslim women from their male oppressors. These arguments echo colonial narratives of
"saving" brown or Muslim women from their men (Ladhani, 2019; Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2014, 2021).
An incident from the Algerian War of Independence epitomizes a typical binary used in colonial
discourse: the portrayal of sovereign Western women versus Muslim women perceived as victims of
their religious communities (Haddad, 2007; Alayan & Shehadeh, 2021). In 1958, Algerian
"indigenous" women, pressured by supporters of colonial Algeria, were publicly unveiled by French
women in Algiers. According to Frantz Fanon, from the colonizer's perspective, a veiled woman
represented a challenge to the Western concept of civilization, as veiling was deemed primitive and
adhered to traditional dress codes. Thus, the successful colonization of territories was associated with
liberating women by abolishing the veil from their customary attire (Alayan & Shehadeh, 2021). The
public unveiling in Algiers undoubtedly epitomized a racist and paternalistic colonial attitude towards
veiled women. It aligned with colonial France's perception of itself as a "civilizer" conducting an
"emancipatory unveiling" (Haddad, 2007).
Thus, when liberal feminists view women who wear headscarves as oppressed individuals in
need of saving, they adopt a narrow interpretation of women's oppression. This interpretation is shaped
by colonial narratives of differences between the educated, modern colonizers (often white) and the perceived backwardness of the colonized. It is evident that Muslim women have been racialized and
seen as inferior to Western women due to France's colonial past. Because of this, I believe that an
honest discussion about the headscarf and veil necessitates a decolonial perspective.
As I have demonstrated, many second- and third-generation Muslim women in France, who
choose to wear the hijab, have reshaped its meaning within the French postcolonial context, effectively
decolonizing it. Conversely, French liberal feminists have clung to the colonial narrative associated
with the hijab. This persistence is rooted in their narrow view of Muslim women's emancipation, which
posits exposure to Western values as the sole path to gender liberation. French liberal feminists
overlook the potential empowerment that wearing the headscarf or veil may provide, insisting that only
those who reject these garments can be considered liberated. This underscores their failure to
acknowledge diverse forms of gender emancipation, although gender liberation manifests diversely
across contexts (Korteweg & Yurdakul, 2021). The imposition by white feminists of their narrow
understanding of women's agency and liberation onto racialized minorities is exclusionary, racist, and
should be decolonized. Their attitude reveals their failure to acknowledge that the experiences of
minoritized women encompass multiple intersecting forms of domination, beyond just gender (Cho et
al., 2013; Crenshaw, 1995). Only by examining the intersection of race, religion, gender, sexuality and
class can we perceive the Muslim headscarf or veil as a potential symbol of gender liberation.
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