No black bandanas please; we're French

TV Review: The Headteacher and the Headscarves, BBC2

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word petty is an English word of French origins. It's also a good word to describe the way in which France's much discussed and debated new laws on "secularism" operate. That is according to a fly-on-the-wall documentary shown on BBC2 last night, The Headteacher and the Headscarves.

The programme followed four French school girls who attend a Paris school and how they coped -- or didn't -- with the new law. We were also presented with the views of teachers, some being supportive of the new law, others opposing it. Ultimately, we were shown (with the help of clever editing, no doubt) that the law was petty, intrusive and humiliating. For example, leaving the interpretation of what is and isn't a "conspicuous" symbol to individual schools and/or teachers might allow more flexibility, but it also allows outright prejudice to be protected by the law.

The school in question was one of the few that allowed bandanas to be worn. But the headteacher -- who probably thought he was being pragmatic -- was shown standing at the gates of the  school every morning checking if Muslim girls were abiding by the law. Yes, Muslim girls specifically, because a Sikh boy was allowed to continue wearing a turban. Not only was it enough for Muslim girls to remove the headscarf (the four girls who were part of the documentary had decided to wear a bandana), we had the absurd sight of the headteacher inspecting the exact nature of the bandana.  'I want to see the ears and the forehead!' was one his cries. The whole spectacle appeared highly intrusive and completely humiliating. So much for dignity of women. Admittedly, it didn't help that the individual used to translate the headteacher's words spoke in a slightly sardonic accent (or maybe that was just me). I can certainly understand the headteacher's concern that he must uphold the law (he didn't make it in the first place), but this appears to be make a mockery of the whole thing. Then there was a complaint against the colour of her clothing. Black bandanas were not allowed apparently because they represent certain political and ideological movements (i.e. 'Islamism'). Nor was any black clothing allowed it would seem. The black colour of one of the girls' dress perturbted the headteacher for a minute or two, before he was kind enough to allow her to pass through. I suppose the headteacher was worried in case these girls start some sort of fashion trend, which pupils from poorer background just woudn't be able to afford and so face ridicule for their peers...

You can't write satire like this, I tell you.

What was perhaps worse was the defamation of Muslim women who do opt for a hedscarf by one of the teachers who happened to instruct pupils in history. One of the Muslim girls interviewed in the documentary, who was unafraid to speak her mind, was accused of being 'linked to The Extremists or The Fundamentalists' because her arguments were too articulate! What on earth did that mean? Muslim women with headscarves cannot be articulate? And this was no doubt an individual who would view himself as an heir to the French Enlightenment! So much for logic and reason.

Then again, given strong anti-religious sentiment in France since the Revolution, it doesn't surprise me that guardians of liberté, égalité et laïcité constantly feel the need to degrade and debase their religious 'enemy' and find means of excluding them (which is what this law does, no matter how small the percentage of Muslim girls who wear the headscarf).

Comments

[Yakoub]

Salaams

In The Radical Feminist's Palimpsest, I asserted that:

"The origins of the European hijab controversy are complex, and take place on a bleak intersection where colonial history and post-9/11 Islamophobia collide. Most French Muslims have their origins in the Maghrib, with the first migrants coming mainly from Algeria, a French colony until 1962. French colonialism was unique in its drive to completely assimilate host cultures, and a comparable demand on migrants to conform to secular French cultural standards was the driving force behind the hijab law. In fact, even before the law was passed, wearing hijab had seen French Muslim women denied employment and even hospital treatment."

Uniquely, France saw its colonies and its colonial subjects as being as much a part of France as Paris, and it saw the eradication of the culture of the colonies as its 'civilizing mission'. And in the postcolonial era, nothing has changed.

Wasalaam

Yakoub

[cncz]

there is actually a rule in the Stasi law defining the dimensions of the head covering to be worn (you have to see ears, forehead, the line where the scalp meets the forehead, and the neck) so the principal wasn't making up the insanity.