For more than 30 years, the obsession about the veil has fueled debate in French circles, and the current presidential campaign is no exception, with far-right candidate Marine Le Pen even intending to ban it in public if elected.
With this premise, the French news site Mediapart launched a report that it said that it had deliberately given the floor to the first concerned with this matter, referring to the women who were astonished by these repeated disputes.
Under the title "Veiled or not veiled... Muslim women in France are all afraid", writers Rachida El Azouzi and Faiza Zerouala said that the past five years have been overflowing with controversy on this very hot topic in public debate.
In this context, they mentioned that the French Senate tried only two months ago to prevent women who wear the veil from competing in sports competitions.
As the current French Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, said at the end of 2019, “the veil is not desirable in our society,” following a demand by an elected member of the extremist National Rally party to prevent a veiled mother from attending a municipal council meeting as part of a school activity.
In 2020, deputies from the National Rally Party and a representative from President Emmanuel Macron's party withdrew from a hearing in the National Assembly because they did not want to attend a veiled student's intervention on the Corona pandemic, and Macron's party canceled the candidacy of a woman in May 2021 for the provincial elections simply because she was veiled. .
These events - according to the two writers - are only the tip of the iceberg, and they and similar events contribute to deepening the gap between Muslim citizens and political leaders in France, a gap that has already been exacerbated by the anti-separatist law and the resulting spread of Islamophobia and mistrust of these politicians.
The two writers emphasized that the issue of the veil in France has become an excessively controversial issue, and gave examples of the harassment that some Muslim women have been subjected to because of the veil.
Isabelle, for example, still cannot fathom that the headscarf that covers her head is the subject of a national debate, and she has been wearing the hijab for 23 years, still amazed that wearing the hijab is at the center of debates in France year after year.
During the current election period, Isabelle explains that she chose to vote for the left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round, saying, "I do not like him, but he was the lesser of two evils, as he is the only one who denounced the violence and abuses targeting Muslims."
In the second round, Isabelle reveals that she will reluctantly vote for Emmanuel Macron, although many around her say they will not vote in the second round.
This woman asserts that she understands their position, because "the current president has planted a knife in our backs and abandoned us to please racist France."
Sabah Qazi, 39, is still adamant that she will vote for neutrality in the second round of the presidential election, as it is impossible to give this mother of 5 children between the ages of 9 and 16 and lives in Clichy-sous-Bois in Seine-Saint-Denis;
She voted for Emmanuel Macron, arguing that "you cannot vote for those who close mosques. He has instituted justice based on passion, not legitimacy."
As for Zakia Meziani, France has never witnessed such a nauseating racist campaign, but this lady decided, after thinking carefully, to vote for Macron and convince those around her of that because when matters related to citizenship, it is the best or least bad, as in the case of the current elections, ahead of the jealousy.
Meziani believes that "all Muslim women in France, whether they are veiled or not, are afraid, they are afraid of being attacked and of repeated spitting on their faces. In front of their studies, in front of their work, and even in front of their walking in public places.”