French Muslims say constant talk about banning veils has made them targets of abuse. Credit Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times. For the Muslim Times’ collection of articles about Hijab, please click here
French Muslims say constant talk about banning veils has made them targets of abuse.
Credit Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times
WISSOUS, France — Malek Layouni was not thinking about her Muslim faith, or her head scarf, as she took her excited 9-year-old son to an amusement site near Paris. But, as it turned out, it was all that mattered.
Local officials blocked her path to the inflatable toys on a temporary beach, pointing at regulations that prohibit dogs, drunks and symbols of religion. And that meant barring women who wear head scarves.
Mrs. Layouni still blushes with humiliation at being turned away in front of friends and neighbors, and at having no answer for her son, who kept asking her, “What did we do wrong?”
More than 10 years after France passed its first anti-veil law restricting young girls from wearing veils in public schools, the head coverings of observant Muslim women, from colorful silk scarves to black chadors, have become one of the most potent flash points in the nation’s tense relations with its vibrant and growing Muslim population.
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Categories: Americas, Europe and Australia, France, Highlight, Hijab, Islamophobia
If France does not give religious freedom to 8% of its population the whole idea of justice and governance is at risk of going down the drain.