French Muslim Women: Daring to Take it to Court? *

By Yassir Louati

Muslim women take their cases to court.
After years of heated debate on the French political scene, the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin administration pushed for a law banning "visible religious signs in public schools" in 2004. The law in itself was only a cover up for a clear prohibition of the Islamic veil or hijab worn by either French citizens or residents.

Whether the law is enforced or latent remains unclear. Despite the argument brought forward by all administrations since 2004, Muslim women have not been “protected” –as many MP’s have argued- by this law but rather, have been urged to choose between their education and their religious beliefs. In other words, they have to choose between an active social life and exclusion.

The French public opinion was only relieved by the vote and implementation of such law. Companies followed the government’s lead and began denying employment to veiled Muslim women and firing those few who still managed to find a job.

Years later, the law has raised the question of how can Muslim women fulfill their potential if even the corporate world has been eager to implement the "anti-veil" law as it is often referred to. For instance, many women have been asked to choose between their jobs and the veil pushing others to hide their beliefs in order to be hired or keep their jobs.


Seeking Assistance

The anti veil hysteria has virtually faced no opposition in the non Muslim sector in France. Not one single political party dared to go against the trend and failure of official Muslim organizations to raise their voices and be heard by the government has left the French Muslim community helpless, and the protagonists of the law feeling powerful.

Cases of ridiculous implementation of the so called "anti-hijab law" currently range from being unable to attend driving lessons as it happened in the Seine Saint Denis Department (North Side of Paris) where a young Muslim woman was asked to "find a another training school"; to banks denying access to their veiled clients as the famous BNP PARIBAS branch in Fontenay Aux Roses, Hauts de Seine Department blocked the doors on its client due to their "visible religious sign."


Having found no official assistance from either the French government or official Muslim organizations, the French Muslims are more and more rising up and taking their cases to court by themselves.

It is a general trend that has been reported by the French Observatory on Islamophobia (CCIF).

A case has become a reference for most Muslim women that have been discriminated against. In 2002, Dalila Tahri won her case against her employer who had laid her off because of her Muslim veil. Despite the pressure, she took it to court and won the right to be rehired and get all her lost salaries.

Other most notable cases include Samia Said, PhD, who had been denied access to English classes she had been attending since October 2008. The school manager stated the fact that her veil was prohibited by the law in his school. However, Mrs. Said’s lawyer argued that "this is an erroneous interpretation of the law and an attempt to extend the March 2004 law which was meant to public schools students."

Can 2,500 Signatures Help?

In Toulouse, Southwest of France, a young researcher has been laid off by the Paul Sabatier University, again because of her "hijab." The University stated that because she was on a government contract, her wearing the Islamic veil is not acceptable. Others would argue again that she is not a student in a public school and that the law does not apply to higher education institutions.

Sabrina has managed to gather 2,500 signatures of support and her case is being considered.


In its 2008 report, the CCIF concludes that there is a rise in Islamic veil related trials. French Muslims are more than fed up with the hidden official discrimination. Younger generations are no longer shy or scared to stand up for their rights and it is expected to see more cases being brought up to court.

France’s Muslim population accounts for around 5 million people and for the past 10 years, it has been noted that there is a massive return to Islam as a way of life. The increase in the number of mosques and the many Muslim oriented projects such as schools and community services spread throughout the country are perhaps a sign that despite the pressure, Muslims a firmly establishing themselves as citizens like any other.


Are you a French Muslim woman? Do you consider your veil an obstacle to having an active and productive live? Do you consider "the court option" as a last resort for overcoming your challenges?

* This contribution is one of the contributions sent by our readers. IslamOnline.net (IOL)'s European Muslims Page would like to invite you to share your ideas on European Muslims' daily challenges and opportunities with IOL's audience. If you are interested to have your feedbacks published on IOL, you can send them via euro_muslims@iolteam.comand we will contact you back for more details.

Yassir Louati is a French Muslim freelance writer, you may contact him via euro_muslims@iolteam.com

Islamic feminists distinguish Islam from Muslims Amal Mohammed Al-Malki

Doha, Qatar - How is it that one religion – Islam – seems capable of undermining women and promoting them at the same time?

Anyone attempting to take stock of the position of women in the Muslim world cannot help but be confused. One finds stories in the media all the time about injustices committed against Muslim women, such as “honour” killings, child marriages and discriminatory legal judgments in matters of divorce, custody and inheritance.

On the other hand, one also comes across stories about the remarkable strides made by Muslim women in education, career development and political activism in countries as diverse as Bangladesh, Morocco and Turkey.

How can we make sense of such a dichotomous picture?

The answer is simple: by distinguishing the religion of Islam from the Muslims who practice it.

Those who study the Qur’an know that Islam elevated the rights of women beyond anything known in the pre-Islamic world. In fact, in the seventh century Muslim women were granted rights not granted to European women until the 19th century, such as property ownership, inheritance and divorce.

That said, Muslims who codified the Qur’an and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) into Islamic law did not succeed in expunging the patriarchy of the pre-Islamic world from their practices.

This distinction between the faith and the various manifestations of its practice is a subtle but extremely important one.

When a Westerner is trained to pick up on the distinction, he/she comes to recognise that the Muslim woman who criticises Muslim practices is not usually rebuking her heritage in favour of Western ideals – the kind of rebuke that hits best-seller lists in the West and that feeds Western stereotypes about the religion – but is instead encouraging other Muslims claiming allegiance to Qur’anic teachings to live up to its highest principles.

This inward criticism and call to action is often called Islamic feminism, a promising paradigm which supports change from within, and not in imported formulas.

While adopting the Qur’an at its core, Islamic feminism challenges two main norms: the patriarchal cultural customs mistaken for Islamic teaching and patriarchal interpretations of certain Qur’anic verses.

The project of disentangling what is true Islamic teaching from cultural traditions historically practiced in a Muslim territory is an ongoing project for Muslim feminists.

Arifa Mazhar, the manager of gender issues for the Pakistan-based Sungi Development Foundation, whose goal is to effect policy and institutional changes relating to development by mobilising marginalised local communities, declared at the International Congress on Islamic Feminism in Barcelona in 2008: “Instead of debating Islam, we should be debating culture and its impact…. There are a lot of social taboos and tribal traditions that oppress women, and they have little to do with Islam.”

Islamic feminism’s second challenge is to attempt to reinterpret verses in the Qur’an – especially given the present context – that have been misinterpreted or over-generalised.

One example is the disproportionate weight given to the few Qur’anic verses giving men authority over women within family structures versus the many others that emphasise equality between men and women. Islamic feminism encourages women to study the words of the Qur’an for themselves, and to judge whether the misogyny and failure to take women seriously prevalent in some customs is a matter of Islamic doctrine or, indeed, of cultural impositions on such doctrine. Islamic feminism thus provides the grounds for changing civil and national law in ways that prove progressive for women.

Sisters in Islam, a leading Muslim women’s rights group in Malaysia, has been trying to reform the issue of polygamy. Rather than calling for the abolition of polygamy, for example, it calls only for its restriction to certain situations – such as obtaining permission from the first wife and from the court – and is working on public surveys that would provide empirical evidence of the negative effects of polygamy on society.

Rooted in Islam and the Qur’anic spirit of equity, Islamic feminism provides a credible political voice for women. It gives women’s organisations, women’s rights advocates, and gender scholars in the Muslim world legitimate grounds for action – and change – as fulfilment of society’s religious obligations.

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* Amal Mohammed Al-Malki is an assistant teaching professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and a member of the Qatar National Competitiveness Council, which promotes reform and transparency in the national economy. This article first appeared in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) as part of a series on Muslim women and their religious rights.

Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 31 March 2009, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission is granted for publication.