Muslims protest in streets against French ban on headscarves

Producer: Valarie Tan
First broadcast: 19 January 04, Radio Singapore International

"My scarf, my choice," that was what protestors outside the French Embassy in Washington were chanting.

The protestors, many of whom were women wearing scarves, were amongst the thousands gathered in their respective countries to protest against the French government's ban on religious symbols in French schools.

In a well-coordinated show of solidarity with Muslims in France, protestors from London, Canada, Sweden and Norway marched and demonstrated outside the French embassies in their respective countries.

But the ban is not just on the Muslim headscarf.

France President Jacques Chirac wants all religious symbols including the Jewish skullcaps and Christian crosses to be banned from French schools as well.

So why is the Muslim headscarf gaining the most attention worldwide?

Valarie Tan put this question to Dr Suzaina Kadir (SK), Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, in the National University of Singapore.

SK: We've got to separate it. One is the set of protests you're seeing, in which you are seeing - the headscarf becoming a core issue. But if you're looking at protests against the French decision, then the Christian community and the Jewish community both in the United States and in Europe have also made their protests. Except I suppose they haven't galvanised to such an extent that we're seeing with regards to the headscarf in the past few days. On the one sense you're getting the headscarf becoming a big issue because of the media portrayal specifically on the protest itself. Now, in many ways, the headscarf becoming a symbol of Islam has evolved over the years, so it's become an easy symbol of which to galvanise people and essentially something that can be pushed forward. Because if you think about it in terms of the symbols of Islam, the headscarf, has actually gained the most momentum in my opinion.

Won't the latest protests against the banning of Muslim headscarves create more tension, misunderstanding especially in light of how some Westerners are already viewing Muslims with suspicion and distrust after 9/11?

SK: I think that there's obviously a potential for that But I think one must also think very carefully of the ban itself and what these protests are actually calling our attention to. So its a momentum that's taking off in other words. There's a lot of debate on the ban itself, about whether this will push towards the solution which the French government wants and that is integration of the Muslims or whether it will in fact create further tension. And then of course, as a reaction to that, you have the protest, so you may have a spiralling effect, which is of course not very good.

I notice that there's a divide between the French Muslims. Even though there are huge masses who oppose Mr Chirac's recommendation, there are French feminists, including prominent Muslim ones who support the ban. They say wearing the headscarf is often imposed on girls by their fathers, brothers and husbands. Does this mean that the latest mass protest is another ploy of the conservative Muslims to stir up racial tensions?

SK: It's hard to say, I mean it's hard to conclude that it is just simply a ploy. We need to come to some sort of a understanding about what these women feel in terms of coming out to protest. I think a lot of these women, the French women, when you interview them on the streets, those that are out there would probably make that argument as an issue of rights which is part and parcel of what it means to be French, if we look at the ideals of the French revolution. It wouldn't be fair to say that they are just sort of used as a ploy by some conservative elements that they are in fact uneducated. On the other hand, its a matter of educating them also as to whether the headscarf is that important an issue. My point here is that the issue of the headscarf is actually very divisive. Even within the Muslim community there's no, as far as I know, no solid position on it as yet. Yet the political dynamics around it are in fact allowing for it to become sort of an Islamic institution.

Most of the protests are amongst young Muslim women in the Western countries. Why aren't we seeing a similar reaction from Muslim women in Southeast Asia?

SK: You don't have a ban in this part of the world I think there were some very small protests that went on in Indonesia but people generally I think have left it to the French to decide. I don't think, for example if you go to Indonesia, Malaysia and you go and ask somebody whether they approve, generally you'll find disapproval, or at least some debate about it but whether that will get them out onto the streets, I'm not so sure. Another thing you'll see much more clearly is that again the headscarf is not, as far as I know, not an Islamic institution. So it may not be directly seen as an attack on Islam.