Here are the thoughts and testimony of a young veiled woman of Algerian origin, born in France.
Because the past helps us to understand the present better and sheds light on our current situation, she would like to begin by recalling some important events that took place between France and Algeria.
April 1827. France owes Algeria a debt that it refuses to pay. The French consul visiting Algeria was insolent to the regent of Algiers. The regent decides to blow the consul away with his fan. Three years later, France used this event as an excuse to colonize Algeria. This colonization lasted 132 long years, during which the Algerian people were subjected to numerous injustices and atrocities, some of which are still denied by the French state.
Among these was the psychological warfare waged by the 5th Bureau of the French army to control the civilian population. A key element of this was to unveil Algerian Muslim women. In fact, the 5th Bureau knew that women were a gateway to the destruction of Algerian society and the dissolution of its will to resist.
To carry out its plan, the 5th Bureau used a number of stratagems, including:
– Infiltration missions with the “EMSI” (teams of itinerant nurses and social workers) and
the “Fondation du Mouvement de Solidarité Féminine” (Women’s Solidarity Movement Foundation), who went out to meet women considered “victims” of local traditions in order to change their morals;
– Public unveiling performances, some of which were scripted; – Propaganda posters encouraging women to unveil themselves.
In other words, under the guise of charity and “liberation”, France spent considerable sums to influence Algerian Muslim women who were a backbone of Algerian society. If the woman sided with the occupier by adopting its values and mores, the civilian population would follow, allowing the colonizer to remain in power. The veil was a barrier between the Algerian and European people. As long as Algerian women wore the veil, they were inaccessible to the colonizers, and thus Algerian society could not be fully domesticated.
Today, France still wants to unveil Muslim women, but it is doing it differently. We will get back to that later.
For now, let us move on to other historical facts. France has experienced several waves of migration, including some from Africa, with which it shares a colonial history. Many of the first Algerian migrants already faced discrimination and segregation. They came to work but they had to respect a special curfew, they could not find jobs that matched their skills, and they suffered racism. Along with immigrants of other nationalities, they were parked in shantytowns where they lived in squalor.
Over time, these shantytowns were replaced by suburbs, and the tin slums by apartment blocks and high-rises… The form of the shantytowns has evolved, but the substance remains the same. Some suburbs are largely populated by immigrants who suffer from precarious conditions and discrimination. These conditions drive many young people to turn to delinquency because they find a semblance of belonging in an environment that has rejected them for generations.
In the popular imagination, France is the product of elegance, luxury, refinement, romance… but in the facts, which we do not want to reveal, a division between two France’s is obvious. The first France is the one that takes full advantage of living in this country. The second France, on the other hand, suffers almost constantly from apparent or indirect discrimination.
The young woman in this essay is part of the second France, the one that is ignored and that we want to “clean up with a Karcher”. These words reflect Nicolas Sarkozy’s (Prime Minister during that time) contempt for young people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Far from defending the criminality that is eating away at the suburbs and which must be fought, showing contempt for a population that already feels despised will not help the feverish state of the suburbs, which let us not forget has its origins in the shantytowns of the time. On the contrary, it will lead to more crime and more violence.
This young veiled woman has also suffered discrimination, and here are a few examples.
As she was walking to a supermarket to do some shopping, a woman on a bicycle called out to her and shouted, “go back where you come from!” Ah.
Someone she did not know from Belgium contacted her on a social media and asked her to go back to Africa, that it was a diplomatic request and it was better than going to war. Ah.
When she was looking for an internship to gain work experience, she was told that her application could not be accepted because of her veil. Ah.
Although she was born and raised in France, she remains a foreigner in the eyes of many. She is not a “Frenchwoman” like the others, because her features do not resemble those of a European, because of her name, because of her origin, because of her veil.
She is aware that not all French people share this discriminatory view. However, she is convinced that the government is Islamophobic to some extent and that it is waging a battle against the veil by influencing people in particular. And she is not the only one who thinks so. In fact, in 2021 no less than 36 NGOs from 13 countries appealed to the UN against France for entrenching Islamophobia in the country. France has also been condemned several times by the UN. And yet, France insists over and over again.
During the presidential elections, in a desperate attempt to win votes, it has become commonplace to raise the issue of the veil. We have already heard talk of banning the veil in universities, when it is already banned in primary and secondary schools, or banning the veil in public spaces. In short, banning the veil here and there…
But are there no other priorities in France? In a country where pedocriminality is rampant and nicknamed “Pedoland”, where at least one child in ten is a victim of incest, where inflation is driving more and more households into precariousness? Shouldn’t the enthusiasm of the French government be applied just as vigorously to get rid of these scourges?
Faced with its failure to solve real societal problems, France creates problems that are easier to solve in order to give people the impression that the government is taking action. The veil ends up in the line of sight, and here are a few examples:
– In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, the government floated the idea of banning veiled women from accompanying children on school trips;
– At a time when the French education system is in crisis due to a shortage of teachers and a large number of students are victims of bullying, the government decides to ban the abaya from schools. Naturally, young girls of North African or Black origin will be more targeted if educational staff feel they are wearing clothing too loose for their tastes.
This anti-scarf propaganda is not without consequences for the French people. In fact, according to a survey conducted by the CSA institute for CNEWS in 2022, 61% of French respondents were in favor of banning the veil in public spaces.
Political fight against the veil, propaganda… Is this not reminiscent of certain actions of the 5th Bureau during the French colonization of Algeria? History continues in the same vein. The French state did not accept veiled women in a country it had colonized, let alone on its own territory. This explains at some point France’s obsession with the veil.
Its motto “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (liberty, equality, fraternity) and its concept of “laïcité” (secularism) should not be misunderstood. There is an entire French philosophy behind these terms. According to its motto, France does not defend just any freedom, but only that which corresponds to the country’s values, and it turns out that the veil is the antithesis of this. In fact, France sees the veil as a form of oppression of women, which is contrary to French freedom. From an Islamic point of view, the veil is a form of modesty and distinction.
When it comes to “laïcité”, the French version implies that you should not show your religion in some places. As a result, distinctive religious symbols can be troubling in France, especially the veil which indicates that the woman is Muslim.
The French government’s aim is to encourage Muslim women to abandon the veil in exchange for better integration into society. To achieve this, and under the guise of secularism, the state is banning veiled women from many places, which will have a number of effects on Muslim women, such as taking :
– The decision not to veil even if they want to because they know that life in France as veiled women is not easy;
– The decision to veil, but reluctantly to remove it in places where it is forbidden, such as primary and secondary schools and many workplaces;
– The decision to wear the veil and not remove it. In this case, and depending on the city in which they live, it may prove difficult for them to access educational and professional life due to restrictions that only increase over the years. As their choices become more limited, they try to make do as best they can. If they do not have the privilege of being one of the few to find a job that match their skills while veiled, they see their applications rejected all too often. They are forced to work in under-qualified sectors that do not match their ambitions, they try to work for themselves (which is not always fruitful), they remain unemployed…
In short, in a country that claims to be the standard-bearer of freedom, the government is restricting the freedom of veiled women. Is this not paradoxical? There is a persistent desire to make life difficult for them, to force them to unveil and abandon their convictions.
These women are in a constant struggle against the psychological violence that France inflicts on them. A suffering that only veiled women living in such a country can understand.
Like all those who had to cut short their higher education because they could not find an internship with the veil.
All those who left job interviews in tears because they were rejected because of the veil.
All those who are bursting with projects, but are denied access.
All those who decide to work in low-skilled jobs because they are not accepted elsewhere.
All those who are single mothers and reluctantly remove their veils to work to provide for their children.
All those who are stared at when they go shopping.
All those who unveil because they cannot stand the pressure.
All those who left France because they are tired of being discriminated against.
All those who want to leave France but have not found a permanent solution yet…
Being veiled and belonging to the second France becomes a double sentence. The young woman writing these lines sees the patterns repeating themselves, sees the difficulties piling up, feels the hope slowly fading away. Proud of her North African face, she is resigned to the fact that France will never accept her as she is. She is one of many from the second France suffering from an identity crisis, wondering where she belongs. Between a France that denigrates her and a homeland that accepts her but still considers her as a different Algerian, an “immigrant”. She finds herself caught between two cultures, neither of which she fully fits into. The fact that she is constantly rejected and attacked for removing her veil only serves to drive a wedge between her and France. She feels more and more like a stranger in the country where she was born and where she has lived most of her life.
Unlike many others, she has understood that the fight against the veil is now an integral part of the identity of the French state. The latter has proclaimed itself one of the leaders of a so-called “mission of salvation” aimed at “liberating” veiled women, who have been reduced to naive, abused victims. What nonsense! Has she become a mindless being just because she wears the veil? Is she no longer capable of being lucid about her choices?
How can we make the French state understand that she is happy to wear the veil? When the government thinks that only its philosophy is acceptable and that we cannot be fulfilled in any other way?
How can we make the French state understand that forcing her to abandon her beliefs by restricting her freedoms is psychological torture? But she suspects that it already knows that.
She is exhausted. With a temperament that avoids conflict, she wonders why she should struggle for a country she knows will never accept her. Is it worth the torment? The more the years go by, the more she sees the restrictions against her multiply. She will always be discriminated against and stigmatized by many because she belongs to the second France, so what is the point? She refuses to take on jobs that do not correspond to her ambitions on the pretext that she wears the veil. Jobs where she often has to stay out of the public eye so as not to disturb people. Is she a victim of the plague to endure this? Unable to enjoy the same privileges as others because of her veil, she is somehow considered a second-class individual in a developed country like France. At least that is how she feels, and she aspires to more than… that.
The French state is hostile to her, but she reacts with patience. She withdraws, hoping to find a more welcoming place elsewhere. A place that accepts her as she is and does not discriminate against her choice of clothing. A place that appreciates her ambitions and where she can focus her efforts to benefit others without people dwelling on her veil.
She still remembers the scene where she was shouted “go back where you come from!” Not to worry, when she finds the means, she will leave France.
And she insists that the source of her unhappiness is not her veil, as France assumes, but the discriminatory laws against her that prevail in that country.
