Islamophobia in France and the failure of the French left

One would have thought that muslim women being arrested by  French police as they attempt to resist a racist law would bring the left out in force against the racist French state. Sadly no. The French left has a shameful record when it comes to defending women who chose to wear the niqab or full face veil (or indeed the headscarf) .

Since this week covering your face in public became illegal in france. Muslim women who wear the niqab will be fined 150 euros and risk arrest. A demonstration this week against the law by veiled women was deemed illegal and resulted in a number of arrests.

The government has presented the ban as a progressive defence of the values of the Republic which protects women against Islamic opression. The truth is that Sarkozy is desperately seeking to limit the growth of support for the Front National.

A mere 2000 women in France wear the full veil –  though many more may want to adopt it in reaction to the blatant racism  of the new law. Yet the left in France has consistently fallen for the lie that a ban on the niqab corresponds to its commitment to equality and secularism – the law was a brainchild of Communist Mayor which was eagerly taken up by the right. The teachers’ unions are particularly blinkered on the issue. Before the law came into force, some schools banned mothers who had their faced covered from accompanying their children to school. The  teachers in the schools were supportive of this shameful attack on the small numbers of Muslim women who wear the niqab and on their children who will have been stigmatised as a result.

The French left is at worst colluding in racism when it comes to muslims who practice their religion and at best confused as it tries to reconcile the fight against women’s oppression with the fight against racism. The NPA (Noveau Parti Anticapitaliste) has been divided on the issue. A significant part of the membership sees the wearing of both the headscarf and the niqab as purely oppressive, thus ignoring the complexity of the motivations of women who choose to wear these garments. So far there appears to be nothing on their website about the ban on the full veil and the organisation seems to have done little to mobilise against the law. The left needs to be insistent that a law that punises women for what they choose to wear is not a progressive law, and has nothing to do with women’s liberation.