France's Lacroix said the debate about wearing the hijab was also among women in the Muslim community, noting that they, although not a single homogeneous bloc, were talking about many reasons why they should wear it or not.

For many believers, the headscarf is first and foremost a response to a divine obligation imposed on the Koran, an obedience based on spiritual consciousness and maturity, the 26-year-old freelance journalist Meem says, a reminder of "submitting to God, a certain vision of modesty". Her father forced her to wear it and not her brother.

Tool for liberation
Without denying the existence of restrictions or social pressure in some situations, all the women interviewed by Lacroix strongly claim that their wearing of the veil stems from free will, and that for some, the veil has become an essential element of their identity.

"The hijab allows me to control my image, to control what I show and what I don't, in a society that is often considered a woman's body," says medical student Amel, 22.

Is the veil a tool of emancipation? Many women confirms this, so 20-year-old domestic worker Fanta condemns the duality of the feminist movement that "defends women's freedom of nudity, but does not allow them to wear what they choose."

"How can wearing a headscarf provoke all this ado as long as people are free unless they violate the freedom of others?" Asks the girl, who is deeply disturbed by the misunderstanding and controversy surrounding the headscarf. She emphasizes that her veil is not synonymous with isolation.

Religious integrity
On the other hand, other women have chosen not to wear the hijab, such as Fatiha Baljalat preparatory teacher and author of the fight against the hijab, which says that those who wear the hijab "kidnapped an optional physical slogan to promote the veil as a sign of religious integrity."

Fatiha condemns what she considers to be a practice of sexism, which, if she rejects it, appears to be "less secure than others" despite her "profound faith."

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"When I took off my hijab, some of the Muslims I know asked me whether I still practice rituals," said Hui Trinh Nguyen, who wore the hijab at 27 and then removed it for personal and family reasons.

They impose their vision
However, the devout Muslim, even though she no longer covers her head, is alarmed by the renewed controversy over the headscarf, saying, "Preventing veiled women from escorting school trips is a shame" and then criticizing the Salafists who ban women from wearing swimwear. She asserted that some men "are the ones who impose their vision and deprive them of their right to do what they want."

The paper concludes that the difficulties come first and foremost from the multiple explanations provided within and outside the community for "this cloth - as Lacroix describes", where English teacher Samia, 39, says she grew up in an environment where women are veiled at a certain age, noting that her mother She started wearing the hijab at the age of sixty.

Samia does not rule out that she herself wears the hijab one day if she grows older, pointing out that the elderly begin to think of "other life."

She believes that new generations consider the hijab "a way of expressing themselves" especially as the rate of wearing it rose from 24% among Muslim women to 31% between 2003 and 2019.