Why didn’t France rescind its ban on face coverings in public spaces when it
made medical masks mandatory?
Laws recommending or requiring medical masks in public spaces have altered how many people think about protecting their health.However, the pandemic has affected more than how people think about health, it has cast light on social inequities that may have been previously underrepresented or gone largely unnoticed. One such subject that has come up is the apparent contradiction between mandatory mask policies and laws banning religious symbols and face coverings such as those worn by Muslim women including the burqa and the niqab. Within the Canadian context, this topic brings to mind Quebec and Bill 21; however, this law has only been in place for a little over a year (Authier, 2019).
Quebec’s Bill-21 appears to build on similar legislation that already exists in Europe. For instance, France has had a ban on full face coverings since 2010 as well as a ban on headscarves in public schools since 2004 (Stoppard, 2020). These bans appear to stem from the idea that “In France, you hide your gender, and you show your face” (Diallo, 2020). This quote exemplifies the gender norms and cultural values which separate women who wish to wear garments such as the niqab and burqa from other French women. However, the law banning face coverings is defended as a means of ensuring peaceful coexistence between citizens (Diallo, 2020). The other reason commonly cited for this ban is that full face coverings are a menace to public wellbeing (Flaskerud, 2020).Ironically, an uncovered face is now considered a hazard to public safety. If it is truly “un-French” to cover one’s face in public, it seems unlikely that mandatory mask legislation would have been met with public approval. Yet, the French president legislated masks mandatory on public transportation and in high schools(Stoppard, 2020). If the French can accept and promote face coverings for medical reasons, there must be something else at the root of the ban on religious face coverings. This mysterious “something” might be France’s colonial past and present.
The shadow of colonialism lingers in modern France. Instead of embracing immigrants’ histories and cultures, media and state messages promote a homogenous identity of secularism, an uncovered face, and what the government perceives as feminism (Diallo, 2020). In Kery James’ “Lettre à la République”, he states that it is “hard to feel French without Stockholm Syndrome” (James, 2012).James is one of a number of artists within French pop culture who portray the struggles of immigrants from formerly colonized countries that are attempting to find a fresh start in France. Immigration to France can be especially challenging for women who wish to cover themselves to express their religious piety since they do not match the symbols of French femininity.
Marianne is one such symbol of femininity. She represents France’s motto of“Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality” (Government of France, 2014). She is often shown wearing a traditional Phrygian Bonnet which symbolizes emancipation(Government of France, 2014). Interestingly, the music video for “Lettre à la République” depicts Marianne. In the video, Marianne’s hair is completely covered by the bonnet which makes her appearance like that of a woman wearing a hijab.Since one of the reasons given for the law banning face and head coverings is that they are demeaning to women, the meaning of the bonnet and its similarity to the hijab sit in striking contrast of each other (Abdelgadir & Fouka, 2020; Diallo, 2020).
Furthermore, Marianne’s features are modelled after white, French actresses and illustrations of her are quite common in government spaces across France(Government of France, 2014). Since images of Marianne are so prevalent in places of authority, it may explain why the niqab is viewed as a means of separating oneself from modern society (Stoppard, 2020). However, the image being presented to the public through the government and media of the niqab and other religious coverings has excluded the perspectives of the women who wear religious coverings: another example of society making decisions about women’s bodies without their input (Diallo, 2020).
The symbol of Marianne makes it difficult for variation in displays of femininity to exist in France. This conflict between Muslim women who desire to cover their faces and Marianne can be tied to the ban on religious face coverings since one of the explanations given for this legislation is that it encourages common values (Diallo, 2020). These supposedly common values discourage the coexistence of French and Muslim identities. For example, the French president, at the time of the ban’s enactment, is known for having a debate in parliament about the lawfulness of being visibly Muslim in France (Diallo, 2020). This ban coerces women towards the dominant culture’s image of femininity and morality: Marianne. People“don’t integrate in rejection” and the result of this legislation looks suspiciously like assimilation, a form of colonial violence (James, 2012). Under these circumstances,it is unsurprising that one study noted secondary educational achievement decreased for Muslim girls after the head scarf ban became law (Abdelgadir &Fouka, 2020). This result went beyond girls who were wearing head coverings in school before the ban indicating an overall increase in discrimination against Muslim girls (Abdelgadir & Fouka, 2020).
By the same token, “Lettre à la République » describes being black, Muslim, and from the ghettos in France as being the “face of what the other France hates”(James, 2012). The social construction of religious face coverings transforms the women who wear them into symbols of what France despises; rather than simple articles of clothing, the niqab and burqa embody fundamental Islam. This symbolism acts as a reinforcing factor for the ban as well as justification for discrimination against Muslim women thus preventing them from engaging in their social environment (Acim, 2019). However, the meanings attributed to religious face coverings, like the niqab, in Western society are not consistent across the world. Interviews with women living on Qeshm Island, Iran indicated the niqab was used to convey diverse social meanings such as marital status, social standing,wealth, and age (Mohammadi & Rastegar, 2018). This is not altogether that different from what a Western woman seeks to convey with her clothing.
In conclusion, the medical mask and religious face coverings like the niqab and burqa have such different meanings, it is no wonder that France has maintained its stance on its ban of face coverings while also legislating medical masks (Stoppard, 2020). The medical mask aligns with secularism, a pillar of French values, thus allowing it to be easily accepted for the common good. Whereas religious face coverings are viewed as a rejection of French values and incompatible with idealized French femininity as represented in Marianne. It is hard to deny that the ban on non-health related face coverings in public spaces is not a colonial construct aimed at assimilating Muslim women.
References
Abdelgadir, A. & Fouka, V. (2020). Political Secularism and MuslimIntegration in the West: Assessing the Effects of the French Headscarf Ban.American PoliticalScience Review, 114(3), 707-723.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000106
Acim, R. (2019). Islamophobia, Racism and the Vilification of the MuslimDiaspora. Islamophobia Studies Journal, 5(1), 27–44.https://doi.org/10.13169/islastudj.5.1.0026
Authier, P. (2019, June 18). Bill 21: Quebec passes secularism law after marathon session. Montreal Gazette.https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-passes-secularism-law-after-marathon-session/
Diallo, R. (2020, May 20). Visages masqués, la contradiction à visage découvert. Slate. https://www.slate.fr/story/190779/covid-19-loi-voile-integral-niqab-obligation-port-masque-contradiction-assimilationnisme
Flaskerud, J. H. (2020). Masks, Politics, Culture and Health. Issues in MentalHealth Nursing, 41(9), 846–849.https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2020.1779883
Government of France. (2014, July 11). Marianne and the Motto of theRepublic. https://www.gouvernement.fr/en/marianne-and-the-motto-of-the-republic
James, K. [Kery James]. (2012, February 27). Lettre à la République [Video].Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3XZDK7Lw4&feature=youtu.be
Mohammadi, N., & Rastegar, Y. (2018). The Social and Cultural Construction of Burqa: The Case of Gheshm Island in Iran. Sexuality and Culture, 22(3),962-979.https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-018-9505-7
Stoppard, L. (2020, May 19). Will mandatory face masks end the burqa ban.The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/19/style/face-mask-burqa-ban.html