European rights body pulls pro-hijab campaign after French outcry

The pan European rights body the Council of Europe has pulled a campaign promoting diversity among women and their freedom to wear the Muslim headscarf after it sparked an outcry in fiercely secular France.

Published: 3 November 2021 12:48 CET

A large group of people in a crowd, including some in hijabs, protesting against Islamophobia in France

The Muslim headscarf is a contentious subject in France. Photo: Geoffroy van der Hasselt / AFP

The online campaign, co-financed by the European Union, was launched last week in Strasbourg – but touched a nerve in France, particularly among right-wing politicians.

Tweeted images showed portraits of two smiling young women spliced in half and fused together to show one with hair uncovered and the other wearing the hijab. “Beauty is in diversity as freedom is in hijab,” said one of the slogans. “How boring it would be if everyone looked the same? Celebrate diversity and respect hijab,” it added.

The campaign was seized upon by anti-immigration extreme right contenders in France seeking to unseat President Emmanuel Macron in next year’s vote, and who fiercely oppose hijab-wearing in public.

“Islam is the enemy of freedom. This campaign is the enemy of truth,” tweeted far-right commentator and potential presidential candidate Eric Zemmour.

“This European campaign promoting the Islamist veil is scandalous and indecent at a time when millions of women courageously fight against this enslavement,” added far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

In a country where secularism is a cornerstone of national values, the outcry went beyond the extreme right.

Paris region chief Valerie Pecresse, a possible contender against Macron from the traditional right, said she was “astonished” by the campaign and added the hijab was “not a symbol of freedom but of submission”.

Former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who is also seeking the right-wing nomination to stand for president, added: “I would have wanted the people who had the bad idea of this campaign to have asked the women of (Taliban-ruled) Kabul who are fighting precisely not to have this veil.”

Wearing the hijab (the Muslim headscarf) is legal in France but is not allowed in certain public spaces including schools and government offices. The full-face Muslim veil is banned in all spaces.

OPINION: Headscarves are legal in France, so why the hysteria?

Macron’s government also weighed in, saying it had urged the Council of Europe to pull the campaign. France is one of the 47 member states of the Council which acts as the guardian of the European Convention on Human Rights.

“I was profoundly shocked,” French Minister for Young People Sarah El Hairy told LCI TV. “It is the opposite of the values that France defends, it is promoting the wearing of the hijab.

“This is to be condemned and because of this France made clear its extremely strong disapproval and hence the campaign has now been withdrawn as of today,” she said on Tuesday, confirming that Paris lodged an official protest through diplomatic channels.

“We have taken down these tweet messages while we reflect on a better presentation of this project,” a Council of Europe spokesman told AFP.

“The tweets reflected statements made by individual participants in one of the project workshops, and do not represent the views of the Council of Europe or its Secretary General” Marija Pejcinovic Buric added.

The Council did not confirm that the pulling of the campaign was a direct result of French pressure.

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France has in recent weeks been shaken by a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has accused Attal of not doing enough on security as the anti-immigration party soars ahead of the government coalition in polls for the June 9th election.

Speaking in Viry-Chatillon, the town where Shemseddine was killed, Attal condemned the “addiction of some of our adolescents to violence”, calling for “a real surge of authority… to curb violence”.

“There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population,” he said.

Measures will include expanding compulsory school attendance to all the days of the week from 8am to 6pm for children of collège age (11 to 15).

“In the day the place to be is at school, to work and to learn,” said Attal, who was also marking 100 days in office since being appointed in January by President Emmanuel Macron to turn round the government’s fortunes.

Parents needed to take more responsibility, said Attal, warning that particularly disruptive children would have sanctions marked on their final grades.

OPINION: No, France is not suffering an unprecedented wave of violence

Promoting an old-fashioned back-to-basics approach to school authority, he said “You break something – you repair it. You make a mess – you clear it up. And if you disobey – we teach you respect.”

Attal also floated the possibility of children in exceptional cases being denied the right to special treatment on account of their minority in legal cases.

Thus 16-year-olds could be forced to immediately appear in court after violations “like adults”, he said. In France, the age of majority is 18, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Macron and Attal face an uphill struggle to reverse the tide ahead of the European elections. Current polls point to the risk of a major debacle that would overshadow the rest of the president’s second mandate up to 2027.

A poll this week by Ifop-Fiducial showed the RN on 32.5 percent with the government coalition way behind on 18 percent.