[ad_1]
The headscarf for Muslim women or the hijab has slowly taken center stage in the French presidential campaign, amid efforts by far-right candidate Marine Le Pen to stop them, in the country with the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.
Both she and her rival Emmanuel Macron, who are running in the second round of elections on April 24, recently faced women with headscarves, who wondered why their clothing choices should be included in politics.
Macron would not have banned religious clothing, but oversaw the closure of some mosques and Islamic groups. Many Muslims consider the presidential campaign to have unjustly stigmatized their faith. At a market in the southern city of Pertuis, a woman in a blue-and-white veil approached Le Pen as the presidential candidate walked past fishmongers and vendors to greet supporters.
“What does the headscarf do in politics?” One woman asked, according to the AP. Le Pen defended her position, calling the headscarf a “uniform imposed over time by people with a radical vision of Islam.” Groups of people near her started shouting: “We are all sons of immigrants here, get away”!
Le Pen’s opposition to the headscarf has included what its critics say makes it dangerous to French unity, stigmatizing millions of French Muslims.
Le Pen, too, would reduce migration and wants to stop ritual slaughter of animals, which for French Muslims and Jews would restrict access to beef and halal meat. Macron also discussed the headscarf, on Friday, on France-Info television. He tried to distance himself from Le Pen by saying he would not change any law, but defended the existing ban on wearing headscarves in schools, as part of French secular principles.
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
