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Writer's pictureLaurence Robin-Hunter

Veiled Agendas: Decolonizing the Hijab Debate in France

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.


References

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