Understanding the French Ban on the Veil - Marieme Helie

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COMMENTARY

Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 30, 2011 vol xlvi no 18 25

would not cost any more than the recentsurveys. Bringing in technical and humanresources from the non-governmentalsector would improve cost effectiveness. Inmany other sectors of governance, aban-doning government monopolies in favourof public-private partnerships has paid

rich dividends. I believe this lesson to beeven more relevant for monitoring India’snatural heritage.

Whether the MOEF will now act boldly,before bureaucratic gears mesh in theirown relentless cycles to commit millionsmore to count tigers unreliably, remainsto be seen.

References

Gopal, R (2004): “Saving the Tiger”, The Hindu, 11 April.Hines, J E, J D Nichols, J A Royle, D I MacKenzie,

A M Gopalaswamy, N S Kumar and K U Karanth

(2010): “Tigers on Trails: Occupancy Modellingfor Cluster Sampling”, Ecological Applications, 20,1456-66.

Jhala, Y V, R Gopal and Q Qureshi (2008): “Status of the Tigers, Co-predators, and Prey in India”,National Tiger Conservation Authority, Govern-ment of India, New Delhi and Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun (unpublished).

– (2011): “Can the Abundance of Tigers Be Assessedfrom Their Signs?”, Journal of Applied Ecology, 48, 14-24.

Karanth, K U (1987): “Tigers in India: A Critical Reviewof Field Censuses” in R L Tilson and U S Seal (ed.), Tigers of the World: The Biology, Biopolitics, Man-agement and Conservation of an Endangered Spe-cies (New Jersey: Noyes Publications), pp 118-32.

– (1988): “Analysis of Predator-Prey Balance in Ban-dipur Tiger Reserve with Reference to Census Re-ports”, Journal of the Bombay Natural History Soci-ety, 85: 1-8.

Karanth, K U, A M Gopalaswamy, N S Kumar, S Vaidy-anathan, J D Nichols and D I MacKenzie (forth-coming): “Monitoring Carnivore Populations atthe Landscape Scale: Occupancy Modelling of Tigers from Sign Surveys”, Journal of Applied

Ecology.

Karanth, K U, J D Nichols, J Seidensticker, E Dinerstein,J L D Smith, C McDougal, A J T Johnsingh, R S Chun-dawat and V Thapar (2003): “Science Deciency in

Conservation Practice: The Monitoring of Tiger Popu-lations in India”, Animal Conservation, 6: 141-46.

Karanth, K.U., J D Nichols, N S Kumar and J E Hines(2006): “Assessing Tiger Population DynamicsUsing Photographic Capture-Recapture Sampling”,

Ecology, 87, 2925-37.MacKenzie, D I, J D Nichols, J A Royle, K H Pollock,

J E Hines and L L Bailey (2006): Occupancy Estima-tion and Modelling: Inferring Patterns and Dynamicsof Species Occurrence (San Diego: Elsevier).

Ministry of Environment and Forests (2011): “IndiaTiger Estimate 2010”, Government of India, NTCA and WII.

NTCA (2010): Minutes of the Meeting of Scientists fromthe Core Group/Committee held on 4.5.2010 foroverseeing the ongoing All India Tiger Estimation,No 15-4/09-NTCA dated 11 May 2010, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India.

Pollock, K H, J D Nichols, T R Simons, G L Fransworth,L L Bailey and J R Sauer (2002): “Large-ScaleWildlife Monitoring Studies: Statistical Methodsfor Design and Analysis”, Environmetrics, 13, 105-19.

Tiger Task Force (2005): Joining the Dots (New Delhi:Government of India).

Walston J, J G Robinson, E L Bennett, U Breitenmoser,da Fonseca G A, et al (2010): “Bringing the TigerBack from the Brink – The Six Percent Solution”,

PLoS Biology 8(9), e1000485. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000485.

Understanding the French Banon the Veil

Marieme Helie Lucas

French citizens of migrant Muslim

descent, especially women, know what it means to live under theextreme right who use repressiveinterpretations of religion to rule.They are increasingly labelled as“Muslim” even if they are non-believers. This reactionary trendof ethnicising and religionisingsocial and political problems in

Europe and elsewhere needsto be countered.

On 11 April, the law that prohibits

the full face-covering veil inFrance came into force. The fol-

lowing day the rst two face-covered women were ned ¤150 – not a smallamount of money. One of the womendeclared that she had travelled about athousand kilometres from Marseilles toParis in order to be ned. Another man,

who had organised a small group of 20people at the event where she was ned,stated that they wanted to court arrest andbe ned in order to bring the matter to the

European Court of Human Rights. For dec-ades, Muslim fundamentalists have mas-tered the art of using human rights con-cepts and mechanisms to their benet.

While the international media focusedon protesting “Muslims”, other voices

were totally ignored, which may well rep-resent the vast majority of the presumed“Muslims” in France.

The Political Actors Involved

What are the reasons behind the passing of yet another new law by Sarkozy, in responseto the growing Muslim fundamentalist

demands in France? More than a year ago,progressive members of parliament madepublic a list of existing laws (in particularthose regarding public security) that may have allowed the government to restrictthe full face-covering veil, without havingto pass a new law. This option was dis-carded by Sarkozy, who obviously wantedand needed the visibility that a new con-

troversial law would grant him. With the2012 presidential elections approaching,enacting a law was a straightforward way to court the votes of the extreme right Na-tional Front (NF) Party. The recently heldregional elections of 20 March amply demonstrated the growing electoral inu-ence of the NF party, making it an indis-pensible future partner of the right.

In Europe today, the traditional xeno-phobic far-right parties are fast rising and

will play a major arbitration role in any fu-

ture elections. France, Denmark, Norway,the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary arecredited with having at least 15% far-right

voters, while in Switzerland and Serbiathey already represent more than 30%.

Additionally, there are now new move-ments rapidly growing in France, on theright of the traditional far-right parties –such as Bloc Identitaire, Resistance Re-publicaine and Riposte Laïque – which arenot satised with the ban on the full face-

covering veil. They demand more drasticmeasures to combat “Islam” per se. They demand that “Islam” be outlawed in

Marieme Helie Lucas ([email protected]),an Algerian sociologist, is associated with theinternational solidarity networks “WomenLiving under Muslim Laws” and “Secularism Isa Women’s Issue”.



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april 30, 2011 vol xlvi no 18 EPW Economic & Political Weekly26

France, that immigration from Muslimcountries be stopped, and that discussionsbe held with Muslim countries to organisefor “French Muslims to migrate to coun-tries where they will be able to freely prac-tice their religion”. One wonders about theextent to which both Sarkozy and the NF

will go, in order to grab their votes in 2012.The new far-right groups organise pro-

vocative actions, in response to provoca-tive actions by Muslim fundamentalistgroups. For instance, unauthorised streetgatherings “with wine and pork” takeplace in the heart of Paris, at the very loca-tion where equally unauthorised publicFriday prayers actually block the streets(while there is sufcient empty space in,for instance, the Great Mosque of Paris).Police authorities pretend not to see eitherof these illegal occupations of publicspace, despite the fact that street prayershave been going on for several years, andthat announcements with pomp are madein advance for the “wine and pork” streetparties. It is clear that both Muslim funda-mentalist groups and these emerging newfar-right groups are looking for physicalconfrontation, which would make theirpolitical presence more visible, as well asrally and radicalise their troops.

On the other hand, a very vocal unholy alliance has formed between the left,far-left, human rights and Muslim funda-mentalist groups, all protesting againstthe law banning face-covering, in thename of the human rights of “Muslims”.These protests received full coverage fromthe international media, whose vision isimpaired by identity politics.

This ban and the kind of one-sided cov-erage it receives, is a gift from Sarkozy tothe Muslim fundamentalists. It gives them

one more occasion to make the front pageheadlines and to appear as the voice of the“oppressed Muslims” in “the West”. But

what do they actually represent? A considerable number of migrants into

France came from north Africa, and with-in it, from Algeria (till recently, they con-stituted the majority of migrants). Algeri-ans had already begun to migrate toFrance between the two world wars, andthis trend increased after second world

war, with massive post-war industrialisa-tion plans. These early migrants were gen-erally unskilled workers.

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, “fam-ily reunion” was encouraged, i e, wives of migrant workers came to join their hus-bands. Their children became French citi-zens at birth, thanks to the “law of theland” which, till the late 1990s, grantedFrench citizenship automatically to any

child born on French territory. The acqui-sition of French citizenship was made eas-ier for parents of French children. (Thisexplains why there are an estimated 30%of French citizens of foreign origin today.)

These economic migrants had growndeep roots into the political tradition of the French working class struggle, espe-cially through trade unions. Documen-tary lms, directed by their grand-daughters and great grand-daughters asa moving homage to their foremothers,show French working class women of

Algerian origin in the 1940s, 1950s and1960s wearing the same clothes as other

women of that class and time. These doc-umentary lms speak about the strong

will of these women to see their daugh-ters fully educated and capable of earn-ing their living independently. The lmsalso show the struggle of these womenagainst patriarchy (both that of their

Algerian husbands and that of the work-

ing class French parties and unions); andnally the lms testi fy to the fact that thereligious beliefs – if they had any – or re-ligious traditions of the migrants, did notconict with French secularism.

In the 1990s, there was a different wave of emigration, consisting of artists, writers, intellectuals, feminists, etc, whoed fundamentalist violence in Algeriain order to save their lives, as armed fun-damentalists specically targeted thesesections of the population. This latest

wave of political emigrants had a rst-hand experience of what it meant to liveunder fundamentalist boot. Exiled intel-lectuals were rattled to have to face inFrance the very same political force – theMuslim religious right – that forced theminto exile.

Women especially could identify eachand every step taken by the rising funda-mentalist forces in Algeria being repli-cated in France. They witnessed in awe

and anguish, the progressive forces inFrance, as well as in the rest of Europeand in Canada, refusing to recognise the

extreme right political nature of the Mus-lim right and supporting their demandsin the name of religious, cultural orminority rights.

Among the warning signs of the risinginuence of the Muslim right was, of course, the creeping enforcement of new

dress codes for women. Although thegarment that passes off today as “theIslamic veil” is indeed not a traditionalcostume in north Africa, but a totally im-ported or invented one, we are still wait-ing to hear, in the concert of “progressive”clamours in defence of the so-calledIslamic veil, a virtuous voice that woulddefend north African cultures and tradi-tions of dress from being eradicated by this alien outt.

Where Are the Secular Voices?

Given the politicised background of Alge-rian immigration into France, it is no sur-prise that many French citizens of Algeri-an descent, especially women, came for-

ward to oppose the full face-covering veil. However, they did not necessarily want a new law. Many would have pre-ferred the use of other means. Supportingthe passing of the law banning the fullface-covering veil can be seen as a global

endorsement of Sarkozy’s rightist socialagenda and bending to the far-right xeno-phobia. Citizens of migrant Muslim de-scent nd themselves in a catch-22 situa-tion, where their clear and repeated de-mands to stop the rise of the Muslim rightin France are either hijacked by racist po-litical forces or scorned by anti-racistones. But on the other hand, if they do notspeak up now, they will be, once again,the victims of the Muslim right.

Similarly, many such voices of migrant

Muslim descent had spoken up in 2004in support of the 1905-06 laws on the

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COMMENTARY

Economic & Political Weekly EPW april 30, 2011 vol xlvi no 18 27

separation of “churches” and state that arethe founding principles of French secular-ism. These laws, enacted at a time whenthe question of Islam was irrelevant inFrance, are the basis on which childrenbelow a certain age are forbidden to wearany sign of religious afliation inside the

premises of state secular schools (be it ahead scarf, a cross, a kippah or any othersymbol).

Just as with the present law on the fullface-covering veil, the then French govern-ment, serving its own vested electoralinterests, chose to pass a new law ratherthan to enforce the century old ones. Many

women and women’s organisations thatmobilise citizens of Muslim descent inFrance were of the view that enforcing the1906 law would have made a strongerstatement in favour of secularism. Passinga new law paved the way for Muslim fun-damentalists to claim being victims of aracist law – it is one of their biggestachievements and successes that a law thatonly mildly reiterated in 2004 the secularprinciples elaborated in 1906 is nowknown the world over as “the law againstthe veil”!

There is no denying, however, that rac-ism and discrimination, especially in jobs

and housing, do affect French citizens of migrant Muslim descent. While 10% of theyouth in the entire population is unem-ployed, this is about 16% for French citi-zens of migrant descent and nearly 50% inpoor suburbs around the capital city.

Progressive groups, including women’sorganisations, in which citizens of Muslimdescent are prominent actors, have takenand are taking numerous actions to com-bat discrimination and racism. But theseare rarely reported in the international

media, which prefers the exoticism of veiled “Muslimness” to the banality of secular citizens’ struggles.

In the wake of this difcult economicsituation and growing racism in France, if this news was indeed reported, it wouldhave amply demonstrated to internationalaudiences that, the vast majority of theFrench population of migrant Muslim de-scent still refuses so-called religious solu-tions to problems that they rst and fore-

most identify as social and political, andthat this population still rmly standsfor secularism.

Studies by the Institut National d’ÉtudesDémographiques (INED) show that 20% of the French population of Muslim descentclaim to have no religion (vs 28% in thetotal population), and among those whodeclare themselves believers, 21% say they very rarely attend religious ceremo-

nies (vs 15% in the total population). Anoverwhelming number of citizens of Mus-lim descent (a much higher percentagethan that in the rest of the population)stands for secularism, stating that itguarantees them freedom of belief andpractice, while rmly keeping religionout of the political sphere.

The above statistics show that this sec-tion of the French population is not dif-ferent from the rest of the population withregard to religion and secularism. Thefact that they are increasingly labelled“Muslims”, even if they are non-believers,points at the worldwide trend, massively relayed by the international media, to eth-nicise and religionise social and politicalproblems in Europe and elsewhere.

Setting the Record Straight

Today, international media reports claimthat fully covered women do not repre-sent more than a few hundred cases in

the whole of France. Their implicitconclusion is: Why bother? However, thissmall gure is not to be taken lightly, ascitizens of migrant Muslim descent re-peatedly warn the authorities that theMuslim right is advancing its pawns inFrance, using exactly the same strategiesthey used in Algeria or in other Muslim-majority countries. The veil is only the agthat makes their political presence very

visible – they are working hard at, on theone hand, convincing families to adopt it

through their charities and social work, as well as, on the other hand, at coercinggirls through the jobless and hopelessyoung men they keep under their inu-ence by assigning them a rewarding“morality watch” role over the females intheir families. It is not to be taken lightly,as Muslim countries have repeatedly

witnessed that targeting women is only the very rst step in enforcing the fullpolitical totalitarian agenda of the

Muslim right.Is it not time for the international mediato give the oor to the section of the

French population of migrant descent thatknows from within the strategies of theMuslim right and dares to oppose them,even in the very difcult double-bind situ-ation they nd themselves in, in Europe?Where in this debate are the voices of secularists (believers and non-believers

alike) and where are the voices of thenumerous progressive Muslim scholars

who argue that veiling is not an Islamicprescription?

The “black and white” simplisticmanner of thinking of the internationalmedia is efciently silencing and eradi-cating the progressive political views of alarge and well-informed section of theFrench population.

Is it not time for human rights groups toamend their one-sided policy of defendingthe Muslim religious right on the groundthat their religious or cultural rights arethreatened? What about the freedom of thought and the freedom of expression of secularists of Muslim descent that is daily trampled upon by threatening fundamen-talist groups in France even today?

The time has come for left organisa-tions to seize the issue of the growingMuslim fundamentalism out of the handsof the right and the far-right political par-

ties and groups, which exploit it for racistpurposes, and to cut the grass from underthe feet of the Muslim right by address-ing seriously and urgently the social andpolitical discrimination that citizens of migrant descent face.

We also need to confront directly thecommunalisation of Europe, to start reha-bilitating the concept of citizenship (asopposed to “communities”) and to guar-antee one law for all citizens.

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Understanding the French Ban on the Veil - Marieme Helie