EUROPEAN RACE AUDIT BRIEFING PAPER NO.3 - APRIL 2010 The background to the French parliamentary commission on the burqa and niqab On 21 April 2010, President Sarkozy ordered his French values Gerin asked, ‘Should we give allegiance to government to present a draft law in May that a doctrine of radical fundamentalism, Salafism which is would make the wearing of the burqa or niqab leading an anti-France and anti-White struggle?’3 illegal in France. This was the culmination of a It is worth noting that according to confidential year-long debate which also saw the formation of records of the Ministry of Interior, a total of 2,000 a parliamentary commission on the voile intégral. women in France wear the burqa4 in France, while an From 8 July 2009 to 26 January 2010, a parliamen- earlier intelligence service assessment reported a mere tary commission of thirty-two deputies, under the chair- 367 women as wearing the veil in the entire country.5 manship of André Gerin, the Communist Party mayor of Where the Communist Gerin differed from his right- Vénissieux, deliberated about banning the wearing of wing predecessors was not in the rhetoric but in his call the full veil in France. For supporters of a total prohibi- for a parliamentary commission to investigate a burqa tion on the wearing of the voile intégral in public spaces, ban rather than introducing a parliamentary bill – an outright ban was necessary to protect French secular avoiding the time and effort of the latter whilst benefit- values and gender equality from the dangerous spread ing from greater potential publicity. of radical fundamentalism, as well as anti-French and On 9 June, Gerin, along with fifty-seven other legis- anti-white attitudes. But for representatives of the lators, initiated a motion calling for the National Muslim communities and human rights groups, the Assembly to set up a parliamentary commission of wearing of the burqa and the niqab is a marginal issue. inquiry on the burqa.6 Whilst a good 70 per cent of the They described the parliamentary commission as a resolution’s signatories were UMP MPs a significant pro- weapon of mass diversion from France’s real economic portion belonged to leftwing parties. and social problems, and a tool to further stigmatise the The resolution Gerin submitted purports to defend Muslim population in France. the French secular tradition, which is closely bound to Although the bulk of the controversy around the national unity and the issue of women’s rights. It refers, burqa and niqab in France occurred in 2009, it was in for example, to the article of 1789 and France’s secular July 2008 that the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) model that guarantees both personal religious freedom MP Françoise Hostalier first introduced a bill in parlia- as well and French national unity. It asserts laïcité is the ment calling for their banning. This was greeted with lit- vehicle for integrating everyone within the society and tle enthusiasm within the media and amongst other reminds people that when laïcité is threatened new laws MPs across the political spectrum and soon disappeared needs to be enacted, as in the case of the law banning from view. Later in September 2008, another UMP MP, conspicuous religious symbols in state schools in 2004. It Jacques Myard, author of La Laïcité au cœur de la goes on to claim that the niqab/burqa enforces ‘seclusion, République, also attempted to initiate legislation allow- exclusion and humiliation’on women. The niqab/burqa is ing for the possible prosecution of any woman wearing a‘negation of her citizenship’. It symbolises the husband a full veil in public. Once again the bill could not muster and male relatives’dominance over a woman. the widespread support of the parliamentary deputies.1 But for Gerin the burqa is ‘the tip of the iceberg’, But in April 2009, André Gerin, the Communist Party describing the spread of Islamism as his greatest con- mayor of Vénissieux,2 a town in the South of Lyon, noted cern. As with Gerin’s first letter to the prime minister, the particularly for its high proportion of North African resolution cites Imam Abdelkader Bouziane.7 who was migrants, reignited the issue of Muslim women’s cloth- deported from France on the grounds that he delivered ing in a highly-charged open letter to the French Prime sermons ‘in favour of corporal punishment for adulterous Minister, François Fillon. The mayor wanted to tackle the women, against a background of anti-Western rhetoric, ‘hot topic’of the ‘burqa’which according to Gerin ‘preoc- with anti-white, anti-French racism’. The case of Mrs cupies thousands of citizens’in France. In a call to defend Faiza Silmi8 (not mentioned by name) is also cited - the ERA BRIEFING PAPER NO.3 - APRIL 2010 P1 niqab-wearing wife refused French citizenship in 2008 and marginalise women who wear it.’13 after a ruling upheld that her values (the wearing of the Among high-profile opponents of the niqab and niqab and her supposedly submissive behaviour towards burqa who were putting their case in the media was her male relatives) were incompatible with those of the Elisabeth Badinter (France 2 – Mots-Croisés, 29 June ‘French community’, specifically gender equality. 2009). Badinter was one of the first opponents of the Another case invoked involved the anti-discrimination hijab, as far back as 1989. She is a prominent figure in agency, HALDE, which, when asked if female partici- the media, a businesswoman and self-styled philoso- pants on IT training course could be allowed to keep pher and feminist. In Le Nouvel Observateur (9 July 2009) their burqa or niqab on, stated that their removal was she penned a rebuke entitled, To those who voluntarily legal because ‘the burqa implies a submission of the wear a burqa in which she declared, ‘Why don’t you woman’, and that the obligation to take off the niqab or move to Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan where nobody burqa could be justified on grounds of public security would ask to see your face, where your daughters would and the need to identify people. be veiled too and where your husband would be polyg- According to the resolution, the existing law was not amous and repudiate you whenever he wants?’14 robust enough to tackle ‘these practices that we cannot ‘The rights of women isn't an issue of a few centime- tolerate in France’. Thus, it was the duty of the National ters of cloth, but the burqa is the symbol of the oppres- Assembly to create a ‘commission of enquiry’ along the sion women suffer, so this debate should be encouraged’, lines of the ‘Stasi commission’ (created in 2003 which says Siham Habchi, president of the Neither Whores Nor argued for a law banning the wearing of ‘conspicuous Submissives movement (Ni Putes Ni Soumises) referring religious signs’in state schools). to the parliamentary initiative.15 She was also quoted as Reaction to Gerin’s resolution within the saying, ‘this is the symbol of fascism, the oppression of 16 establishment women. It is the Talibanisation of religion’. Fadela Amara, Secretary of State for urban policy Support for the resolution inside the government was and former president of the Neither Whores Nor not unanimous. Dissenting voices included the contro- 9 Submissives movement, who is in favour of the ban versial immigration minister Éric Besson, who believed claimed ‘we must do everything to stop burkas from a full ban on the niqab would ‘create tensions’while the spreading, in the name of democracy, of the republic, of junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, said she respect for women … The worrying thing is that we are would accept a ban only if it were aimed at protecting seeing more and more of them.’She described the burqa women forced to wear the burqa. as ‘a kind of tomb for women’. Echoing the resolution, Jean-François Copé, the Riposte Laïque, a secularist feminist organization, leader of the UMP parliamentary group in the National began an online petition called Stop the burqa and the Assembly, believed that, ‘the burqa is a political issue not 10 veil, symbols of women’s submission and the Islamist a religious one.’ Copé felt ‘a banning law preceded by offensive in August 2009 calling on the deputies and the six months to a year of dialogue and explanation’, was President to stop the ‘Islamist offensive’ and legislate needed.11 against the burqa.17 On the far Left Lutte Ouvrière (Workers’ Struggle) publicly opposed the wearing of the burqa stating, ‘to Establishing the National Assembly Commission recognise the “freedom” to wear the burqa, would help on the Burqa and Niqab deny freedom to thousands of others to reject the pres- On 22 June, addressing the assembled members of par- sure which pushed them to wear it.’12 liament at the Palace of Versailles, President Sarkozy The Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA, New Anti- endorsed the call for a parliamentary commission on the capitalist Party) website, meanwhile, contained no edi- burqa: ‘The burqa is not welcome on the territory of torial comment on the issue of the burqa – possibly fear- France’, he explained: ing that it could threaten the possibility of a broad- ‘The problem of the burqa is not a religious problem. It based left alliance it was trying to foster. is an issue of freedom and dignity of women. This is not a ‘Banning the burqa will not give freedom to women’, religious symbol, it is a sign of subservience, it is a sign of Jean-Marie Fardeau, director of the Paris office of Human lowering.