Following the “Separatism” bill, which would notably prohibit veiled women from accompanying their children on school trips, many Muslim women have mobilized on social networks to denounce this government which “oppresses” them.
On March 31, the Senate began its first reading to examine the bill on “separatism”. Wearing the veil was at the heart of the discussion. Republican senators have adopted several amendments to prohibit the ban on minors in public spaces as well as the burkini and religious symbols during school trips.
Shocked, Muslim women decided to make their voices heard on social media, especially Twitter, with the hashtag #NotTouchAMonHijab, often accompanied by a personal text and a photo with their motto inscribed inside their hand.
Before the French, Americans also launched the English version of the hashtag #HandsOffMyHijab in order to support their co-religionists in France. US MP Ilhan Omar, fencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad, model Rawdah Mohamed, journalists Amani and Noor Tagouri all displayed this motto in the palm of their hand on social networks. Muslim women around the world have also been keen to show their support as nearly 3 million videos posted on TikTok in the space of a few days.
In France, three young women Mona, Imane and Amel decided to speak on social networks, hoping to be “finally considered”. “Our objective is clear: to prevent freedom-killing, discriminatory and Islamophobic laws from being put in place. We want to be considered as full-fledged people. Let us stop deciding for us”, said to our colleagues from Parisian Mona, an intern in eighth year of medicine. “On the one hand, as a doctor who works in the emergency room, I get praise. And on the other hand, as a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf, I am deprived of my freedoms? “, she continues.
For Hiba, vice-president of the European Muslim association Femyso, the new amendments to the bill against “separatism” are a “suffocation” for all muslim women. “It is our education, our life that is affected “, she confessed, adding that if she appreciated the support of foreigners, she would have preferred to see “women in France, regardless of their religion and origin“because the struggle for rights “must be common”. “However, we feel less crazy when others around the world tell us it’s serious, whereas here … it’s becoming the norm”, she admitted.
“Even if these amendments do not pass, the very existence of these debates is problematic. Normalizing these speeches is creating confusion in the minds of citizens. We are already seeing excesses, even in the public service. the victims of this damage are us, all the people identified as Muslims“, considers the young woman.
“For years in France, we have preferred to speak for us, to lead sterile debates about ourselves, to infantilize ourselves. ‘That you can, that you cannot.’ Burkini, accompanying mothers, sailing in the universities, in the public space… It is always the same keywords: ‘secularism, submission, emancipation, freedom’. However, no one has to choose what emancipates us and what makes us free. “, Mona concluded.
A petition against the “separatism” bill has also emerged on the Internet, launched by associations, sociologists, journalists, anti-racist activists and university professors, and has gathered more than 20,000 signatures on Change. org.
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Sarah chekroun
After a master’s degree in writing in my pocket, I am now a freelance writer. If my favorite fields are fashion and beauty, I also write articles …