« NEWS that Police Scotland is preparing to introduce a hijab to its uniform in a bid to encourage more Muslim women to join the force has raised eyebrows in France. Policewomen wearing headscarves in Paris? Forget it.
Police Scotland’s plan to authorise the hijab as part of the uniform for Muslim women would be impossible in France. First, because all religious signs are banned in the public sector in the name of secularism. And also, because the debate on the presence of a strong Muslim community has taken an ugly turn lately. The decision by Dolce & Gabbana to launch a line of Islamic fashion may have gone relatively unnoticed in Scotland. In France, it led to weeks of heated arguments.
The fashion house released its collection of pricey headscarves and abayas early this year. That came shortly after the Japanese retailer Uniqlo launched a range of ‘modest fashion’ for Muslim women, Marks & Spencer introduced a burqini (a body-covering swimsuit), and H&M featured the veiled model Mariah Idrissi in an advertising campaign.
Things kicked off in France when the French secretary of women’s rights, Laurence Rossignol, deemed the brands « irresponsible ». She got carried away when she compared women who voluntarily hid their hair to black people « who supported slavery in America » and promptly apologised afterwards. But her interview unleashed a stream of comments from feminists and right-wing supporters alike who claimed that headscarves were a symbol of submission and shouldn’t be accepted in France. Prime minister Manuel Valls hinted that they should be banned from universities, but admitted that it was impossible to implement.
The uproar reached its peak when the well-known feminist and philosopher Elisabeth Badinter called for a boycott of the same brands in an interview with the daily paper Le Monde. The famous writer has been an opponent of Islamism for a long time and her voice is highly respected in France. From then on, the story dominated traditional media and social networks. Every intellectual in the country had something to say on the subject. Valérie Toranian, former editor of Elle magazine, questioned the term « modest fashion » in a column: « In the name of this so-called modesty, turned into puritanism, all non-veiled women, Muslim or not, are deemed immodest. » On the opposite side, Esther Benbassa, a Green MP, argued that « mini skirts were as alienating as hijabs ». […] »
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