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The
French media covers every aspect of the controversy over Lila, Lama’a,
and other females who prefer to wear the Hijab.
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Lila
and Lama’a Levi, two Muslim girls, are the latest stars in the French series
about the contrived problem of hijab (Islamic headscarf). It seems that the
episodes of this series will come to an end only when legislation is introduced
to fully ban or tolerate the traditional dress which has been viewed by
subsequent French governments as a complicated problem since 1989, the year that
saw the first hijab case in
France
. In an unprecedented manner, the French media covers every aspect of the
controversy over Lila, Lama’a, and other females who prefer to wear certain
costumes that are said to conflict with the French secularist principles.
In
the Name of Secularism
In
the name of protecting the secularist values of state schools, the Rightist
press does not stop its instigation against hijab. Last week’s ( September
2003) edition of L’ Expresse magazine has on its cover a cover-size
picture of a veiled girl looking perplexedly at the picture of Nicolas Sarkozy,
the French Minister of the Interior, addressing veiled women during the
conference of the Union of French Islamic Organizations on April 19th. Contrary
to the girl’s bafflement, the head line’s purports are blatant:
“SECULARISM AGAINST ISLAM… (The unacceptable religion).” Of course what is
unacceptable to the magazine is tolerating hijab in schools and public places.
L’
Expresse has recently launched a fierce attack on Nicolas Sarkozy for his
objecting to the introduction of legislation banning hijab in schools. Sarkozy,
the magazine holds, does not stop saying in public that hijab is a right of
option that should be respected. The magazine adds that he also worked hard this
year to promote the French Council for the Islamic Faith, the majority of whose
seats were seized by fundamentalists in its 2003 local elections.
L’
Expresse has, as well, waged a similar attack on the Leftist press for its
neutrality toward the hijab issue, interpreting such neutrality as fear by the
Socialist Party, the largest left-wing opposition party, of losing the votes of
the Moroccan community, which represents one of its important voting masses. Any
passive Socialist-Party attitudes toward Muslims would cause the party to lose
the sympathy of the Moroccan voting mass, which ordinarily votes for the Left.
Muslim
Anti-hijab Activists!
One
of the paradoxes of the Rightist press campaign against hijab is the interview
of more Muslim and Arab anti-hijab activists than their French counterparts.
Seven Arab personalities living in
France
have been interviewed by L’ Expresse and expressed their repudiation of the
Islamic dress, viewing it as a threat to French secularism.
The
Iranian Shahdrot Djafman seized the opportunity to publish a 50-page booklet
titled Down Hijab. The female writer, who fled
Iran
in the mid 1990s, states that she wore the chadoor (Iranian veil) for 10 years
in
Iran
and that she felt the offense such a dress gives to women!
The
Shahdrot Djafman had blatantly stated before the Bernard Stasi Commission in the
beginning of September that she supports the introduction of legislation banning
hijab in French state schools. Mary Bovee, the Commissioner-General of the
French Communist Party, who stood beside Djafman before the Stasi Commission,
preferred to select diplomatic words connoting that she supports legislation of
the kind.
In
fact, Djafman’s book is not the only book dealing with hijab in France. During
that same period, Donia BuZar and Saida Kada, both of Moroccan origin,
co-authored a book titled One Veiled, the Other Not, tackling the same issue.
The
book’s cover contains the picture of the veiled Donia BuZar beside the
unveiled Saida Kada. The book, whose first impression has run out, depicts the
quiet dialogue on hijab within the Muslim community itself.
The
300-page book depicts the tolerance and dialogue prevalent in the Moroccan
community and gives the impression that hijab, as a “personal preference” in
BuZar’s own terms, cannot conflict with the school’s secularist values and
expresses the liberality and diversity of French society.
Regardless
of their specialities, so many newspapers and magazines have approached the
issue of hijab in schools or the general issue of religious signs. October’s
edition of Science et Vie magazine deals with the scientific dimensions of the
issue, focusing on the educational programs that incite adherence to religious
traditions. Many educational programs, the magazine asserts, present material
conflicting with science and hence serving religious and irrational beliefs.
Hijab
in Women Magazine
Numerous
women’s magazines have handled the issue of hijab from different perspectives.
Des magazine dealt with it according to the philosophy of fashion shows. Many
fashion designers, the magazine declared, are inspired by the long Islamic
costume that strokes the streets of
London
,
Paris
, and other European capitals. The whole affair, the magazine added, concerns a
fashion wave that would not last for long, similar to the 1960s short vogues.
The magazine also pointed out that hijab is a more convenient dress for the cold
European countries than for other regions, namely the regions of its origin, the
Arab East, where the hot temperature is unbearable.
Each
magazine and newspaper, of course, approaches the issue from a different
perspective. The view of hijab, nonetheless, remains tainted with the background
that the Islamic dress represents humiliation to and pressure on women. To most
of the media, the headscarf is incompatible with the main principles of French
secularism. This view, of course, cannot be generalized. As the two sisters,
Lila and Lama’a were expelled from their school in mid-September, Acsafi
Tronsisian, in Le Monde newspaper, described those who refuse to receive girls
wearing the hijab in French schools as the ardent secularist ayatollahs, similar
to the Iranian ayatollahs who fervently guard their religious values.
