Sailing: a collective forum denounces a new stage of institutional Islamophobia
A collective article published in Politis denounces the proposed law aimed at prohibiting minors from wearing the veil in public spaces, debated this Wednesday, January 22 in the National Assembly. Titled “Down with the veil? No, down with institutional Islamophobia! »the text is supported by Muslim women – activists, workers, mothers and students – who say they are directly targeted by policies that they describe as discriminatory.
The forum directly attacks the text defended by Laurent Wauquiezpresident of the Republican Right group at theNational Assembly. The signatories believe that this initiative is part of a historical continuity that began with the Creil scarf affair in 1989, the starting point, according to them, of a lasting Islamophobic political and media narrative in France.
The authors recall that, for more than thirty years, Muslim women have lived under an exceptional regime marked by successive prohibitions: access to school, employment, school trips, sport or certain forms of civic participation. This accumulation of restrictions, they emphasize, weighs heavily on their mental health and fuels a feeling of social relegation. Concerning the planned ban on minors, the collective warns of its concrete consequences. “How will we distinguish a minor from a major? », they ask, denouncing the risk of police checks based on facial features, intrusive and humiliating, which would recall the practices already suffered by young racialized men.
The column also deconstructs the recurring discourse presenting Muslim women as invisible or submissive. If the debates about them are so violent, they write, it is precisely because they now occupy public space, in contradiction with the role assigned by the State and part of the dominant political discourse. The signatories also claim their place in French society, recalling that many of them have studied and work, often in the most precarious sectors: cleaning, home help, health, catering or logistics. “Invisibilized when it comes to recognition, essential when it comes to holding society together,” summarizes the text.
Finally, the forum establishes a link between institutional debates and the trivialization of hostile slogans such as “Down with the veil”, perceived as a legitimization of symbolic and sometimes physical violence against women wearing the hijab. On the eve of the parliamentary debate, the collective affirms to refuse any further restriction of its freedoms and demands full and complete equality of rights, the end of Islamophobic policies and the recognition of its capacity to choose and act without supervision.
