This year, Ramadan coincides with the French presidential election, the culmination of a campaign marked by anti-Muslim fury on a scale unseen for decades.
Given the candidates who took part in the race, the answer for many is no.
Eric Zemor, a former television expert convicted three times of hate speech, racial or religious hatred, said he wanted to “save France” from Islam. Center-right candidate Valerie Pecres called the headscarf a “sign of women’s obedience”, saying in a nationalist heyday that “Marian is not a veiled woman”. Zemmour and Pecresse placed fourth and fifth respectively in the first round and were eliminated.
Even Macron took the time in his only pre-election rally to vote in the first round to highlight the threat of Islamists and Muslim “separatists” in France, intertwining France’s motto “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” (freedom, equality, fraternity) with another favorite. French Republican value: Laicité (secularism).
Only one candidate, the third far-left politician, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has historically taken a position more supportive of the Muslim community. The poll in the first round of Ifop showed that about two-thirds of French Muslim voters supported it. He was also eliminated after the first round of voting.
“What’s really scary about this upcoming election is that most of the (top) candidates are just relying on programs based on stigmatizing minorities, on the erosion of our most fundamental rights and freedoms,” said Latresh, a law student. , before the first round.
“With the normalization of Islamophobia, we are directly facing the consequences,” added Latresh, who is also an active activist for the civil liberties of young Muslim women.
The French political landscape this year is significantly different than just a few elections ago. As the country’s traditionally heavy center-left and center-right forces struggle, political extremes have won.
In the first round of the April 10 presidential election, Le Pen and Zemmour, the two far-right candidates with the most extreme policies affecting the lives of Muslims in France, together garnered just over 30% of the vote; Only Le Pen received enough votes to enter the runoff with 23% of the votes in the first round. Their wave was accompanied by a flurry of anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic stories that dominated much of the debate and coverage.
“We are constantly marginalized”
The Great Mosque in Strasbourg – the largest in France – sits discreetly tucked away on a river in the eastern border town.
Many worshipers there say they do not feel represented by any of the dozens of candidates vying for the presidency in the first round.
“We are constantly marginalized, excluded from society and then we are told that we do not participate in society,” Latresh said. After being denied the right to choose and choose over her own life and contribution to society, she felt it inevitably had a negative effect on her mental health and that of her friends, she added.
Entering the evening prayers, Wagner Dino expressed embarrassment at the choice of candidates.
“There is no one to present himself who really has the necessary parameters to put everything in place, to have France united with the Muslims,” he said.
Safia Abduni Mosque volunteer said he believed none of the candidates “knew what we were going through, our daily lives and what we really needed”.
“I feel that I am not presented as a young student. As a young woman, a Muslim student, even less, “she added.
However, Said Aala, the president of the Grand Mosque, said that if young Muslims “want to change the situation, it can only happen with a vote”.
Aala did not express a preference for any of the contenders. As a clergyman, he is prohibited by French law from publicly supporting a political candidate.
The debate on secularism
In the next election season, the hijabs and headscarves of Muslim women have been easy targets for politicians trying to gain support for traditional French republican values.
Laicité – or secularism – argues that it guarantees equality for all by removing markers of difference, making all citizens French first and defending freedom of religion in the private sphere. Religious symbols are banned in primary and secondary schools, public services and public workplaces, as well as in some sports federations.
“Laicité per se is not a problem,” said Rome-Sara Alluan, a doctoral student in comparative law at the University of Toulouse-Capitol and a specialist in religious freedom and human rights in Europe.
“Laicité has been transformed (and) armed as an instrument of political identity to focus on the visibility of Muslims in France, French Muslims, and especially Muslim women, and the wearing of headscarves. So this is more of a modern illiberal interpretation of laicité, which is problematic than laicité itself, ”she said.
Today’s debate on laicité has put the hijab at the forefront of France’s cultural wars, opposing what conservatives describe as “secularism” against religious civil liberties.
Le Pen and Zemmour have proposed banning what they call the hijab, but none of the campaigns have provided details on what exactly such a ban would involve or how it would be implemented. In his campaign manifesto, Le Pen proposed publicly banning all “Islamic clothing”, a definition that critics say is open to arbitrary and inaccurate interpretation. The French government has already banned women from wearing the niqab, a full-face veil with an eye opening.
The Macron government has reacted fiercely to a campaign for diversity funded in part by the European Union last year, which featured photos of women wearing headscarves superimposed on the same images without a head covering. The slogan of the campaign was “Beauty is in diversity, as freedom is in hijab”. The French government has called for an investigation into the campaign and its withdrawal to France. In the words of one minister: “We cannot confuse religious freedom and the campaign to promote the hijab, this is unacceptable.” Last month, France’s Supreme Court ruled that local bar associations could ban headscarves and other “religious symbols” from judicial halls in the name of secularism – forcing hijab-wearing women like Latresh to choose between their careers and the public practice of their faith.
In fact, it is extremely demotivating and discouraging to see that, you know, we could not help to contribute to society and make it more vital despite our abilities, “Latresh said,” just because we choose to exercise our rights. .
“We (must) have control over our own rights, bodies and beliefs,” she said.
Ludwig Knoefler, a member of Le Pen’s campaign team, denied that Le Pen’s anti-hijab platform was made “in the name of laicité”. Rather, he said the goal was to fight totalitarianism.
“The idea is to fight the hijab as a political tool used and promoted by Islamist fighters,” he said. “If you believe that the Islamist political project is truly totalitarian, then you must fight its hallmarks. In the same way that you would ban the swastika in the public sphere, as is already the case. “
Le Pen addressed the issue during a presidential debate Wednesday night, calling the headscarf a “uniform imposed by Islamists”.
Macron accused her of creating a “system of equivalence” between Islamism, terrorism and foreigners that would “create a civil war.”
“Liberty, equality, fraternity”
Aala, the mosque’s president, said Muslims in France have the same aspirations as other citizens.
“The Muslims of France have been here for several generations, but we still consider them unknown,” he said.
Aala condemned the idea of a “Muslim vote”. There are Muslims who support all French parties, he said – people who hope to be taken into account by politicians, especially with regard to religious freedom.
For legal scholar Aluan, the headscarf debate is a distracting fear: “I mean, we have inflation, the price of energy has risen significantly, there is poverty, our public services are falling apart, unemployment and so on … and all that we’re talking, it’s a piece of cloth that women wear … like, seriously. “
Aala said that French Muslims expect France and French society to focus on economic, social, housing or discrimination issues, issues “that all citizens, including Muslims, expect from their new president.”
But for French citizens and voters who gather to pray and end their posts in a gloomy political atmosphere, the hopes of many in their community can be summed up in one phrase: ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité’.
Journalist Camille Knight contributed to the report.
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