- Muslim students at Sciences Po wore a headscarf for a day at 'Hijab Day'
- It was meant to raise awareness for the treatment of hijab-wearing women
- Critics questioned why the plight of non-veiled women wasn't highlighted
Algerian feminists have responded furiously to the controversial French 'Hijab Day' held last Wednesday at an elite Paris university.
The backlash came as Sciences Po university invited classmates to wear the Muslim head scarf for a day to raise awareness of treatment of hijab-wearing women.
One woman said they wanted to 'scream my revolt' against the day while another questioned why veiled women's rights should be highlighted over the plight of non-veiled women around the world.
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The invitation from Hijab Day's Facebook page to the event which intented to highlight the discrimination women who wear the Muslim headscarf face on a daily basis - but which came under fire from Algerian feminists
The Hijab Day event was held in the wake of Prime Minister Manuel Valls' controversial statement that he wished to ban all forms of religious headscarves at French universities.
Marieme Helie Lucas, the Algerian founder of 'Secularism Is A Women's Issue', argued that 'the right to veil' in France was already 'well defended'.
She claimed more focus needed to given to non-veiled women who were being abused around the world, citing Nigerian girls who were 'forcibly converted, veiled and sold as slaves' by the militant Islamic group Boko Haram' and Iraqi women 'at the hands' of ISIS or 'Daesh'.
She wrote on The Alliance for Workers' Liberty [2]website: 'Who, today in France, defends the right not to veil, when it is needed?
Ms Lucas added: 'Who defended it when Algerian women were slaughtered by armed fundamentalist groups in the 1990s? Who does what today for the Nigerian girls forcibly converted, veiled and sold as slaves by Boko Haram and who are still held by them. Or for the Iraqi women at the hands of Daesh?
She added: 'Why so many voices for veiled women's rights and so few for non-veiled ones, be they Muslim believers or not?'
Hijab Day organiser Laetitia Demaya said the event was designed to 'raise awareness, open the debate and give the floor to women who are often debated on in public but rarely heard'
Meanwhile, Lalia Ducos, President of the Women's Initiative for Citizenship and Universal Rights (WICUR), added that by considering veiled women the 'only "representatives" of Islam' people ran the risk of discriminitating against Muslim women who do not veil.
< p class="mol-para-with-font">She spoke of the Algerian women killed by fundamentalist groups during the Algerian civil war in the 1990s, with the death toll - including men - estimated to be 200,000 people.She wrote: 'In the name of all the Algerian women who were assassinated for refusing the dress code diktat, I want to scream my revolt against this "day" organized by the very students who are supposed to become the elite in our country.
'It is not acceptable that veiled women be discriminated against, however, by confusing religion and culture, by considering veiled women as the only "representatives" of Islam, one runs the risk of discriminating against the vast majority of Muslim women who do not veil and who struggle for the separation between religion and politics, i.e. for secularism, and for the universality of rights.'
Ms Ducos ad ded: 'The veil is conceived of, first and foremost, as a flag that makes fundamentalists more visible: it is mostly political, just as the clothes worn by those men mimicking the Taliban are.
'Islamist fundamentalism is a totalitarian ideology that manipulates Islam towards political ends.'
One Algerian sociologist argued that 'the right to veil' in France was already 'well defended' and that more focus needed to given to non-veiled women who were being abused around the world
The women's comments come nearly a week after Hijab Day - which the day's Facebook page stated would help students taking part to 'experience the stigmatisation experienced by veiled women in France'.
'It is to raise awareness, open the debate and give the floor to women who are often debated on in public but rarely heard,' said Laetitia Demaya, one of the organisers.
Philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Levy tweeted: 'Hijab Day at Sc Po. When will there be a sharia day? Stoning? Slavery?'
'This is a provocation and we denounce the religious character of the event,' Carla Sasiela, the head of the UNI student union, told The Local.[3]
Her group said the event is a 'total contradiction of the values of the Republic and the respect for women's rights'.
Writing on its Facebook page, the student wing of the far-right National Front (FN) criticised an initiative coming from a 'Parisian middle class disconnected from social reality'.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls made the recent controversial statement that he wished to ban all forms of religious headscarves at French universities
One woman wrote: 'In the name of all the Algerian women who were assassinated for refusing the dress code diktat, I want to scream my revolt against this "day" organized by the very students who are supposed to beco me the elite in our country'
'This initiative is particularly nauseating when women all over the world are fighting to throw off their shackles. In Iran, for example, women have acid thrown in their faces if they don't wear the veil,' it said.
The university distanced itself from the initiative in a statement on Twitter, saying the fact it was taking place on the campus 'should not be interpreted as support.'
Sciences Po university distanced itself from the initiative on Twitter, saying the fact it was taking place on the campus 'should not be interpreted as support' (File photo of Muslim woman in a hijab)
Sciences Po's Hijab Day was held just days after France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he wants all forms of Muslim headscarves to be banned in universities.
In an interview with the daily newspaper, Liberation, Prime Minister Valls said France should 'protect' French Muslims from extremist ideology.
He said the headscarf, when worn for political reasons, oppresses women and is not 'an object of fashion or consumption like any other.'
Asked whether to outlaw headscarves in universities, Mr Valls is quoted as saying 'it should be done, but there are constitutional rules that make this ban d ifficult.'
The wearing of full-face veils in public spaces has been banned under French law since April 2011.
The 2010 'Act prohibiting concealment of the face in public space', applies not only full-face veils or burqas worn by some Muslim women, but all face-covering headgear, including masks, helmets and balaclavas.
The only exceptions are when ordered otherwise under French law - such as motorbike helmets while riding or for work requiring the face to be covered for health and safety reasons.
References
- ^ Ekin Karasin For Mailonline (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (www.workersliberty.org)
- ^ The Local. (www.thelocal.fr)
Source → 'In the name of women assassinated for refusing the dress code, I want to scream': Algerian feminists respond to French 'Hijab Day'.. and explain why it betrays oppressed women
