Dear France, you are a hypocrite.

[flore_lemaire]

Dear France, you are a hypocrite.

After reading the article on the racialization of Muslim veils, I feel compelled to address the blatant hypocrisy surrounding the 2004 law that banned “conspicuous” religious symbols in public schools. Let me be clear: this law is as laughable as it is heartbreaking.
I attended a Catholic school where crosses adorned every wall, statues of Jesus stood prominently, and there was a church in the middle of campus. Teachers freely wore their crosses both inside and outside the school, and students wore items promoting Catholicism without a single comment from anyone. Yet, in public spaces, Muslim women wearing veils were routinely called out, stared at, or worse. The double standard is glaring. How unfair, how hypocritical, and how discriminatory such practices are.
The French government and much of its white majority apply laws based on their own worldview, enforcing what they consider “normal” while disregarding the lived realities of others. These laws do not represent neutrality. They represent exclusion.

Let me tell you about my experience in Singapore at a French school that followed this very same French law banning “conspicuous” religious symbols. It was 2019, a time when global awareness of cultural diversity should have been at its peak. One day, my good friend, who had recently decided to wear her hijab, came to school wearing it. As we walked in together, the principal ran toward her. First, she pretended not to recognize her. Then, she demanded that my friend remove her hijab immediately.
My friend, deeply ashamed and distressed, tried to explain that her hijab wasn’t a fashion accessory. But the principal wouldn’t listen. She didn’t care. The humiliation was too much for my friend to bear. She left school that day in tears. I left with her as she sobbed uncontrollably. This principle is still working there as of today.

This incident unfolded in a supposedly multicultural environment, a school in a country with five official languages and countless nationalities represented. And yet, even there, my friend’s faith and identity were dismissed so casually, as though her beliefs were invalid, as though she didn’t belong.

Dear France, your laws and attitudes are steeped in hypocrisy. You claim to stand for liberté, égalité, fraternité, but these values vanish the moment someone challenges your narrow definition of what it means to belong.

Signed,
Someone who has seen the harm you refuse to acknowledge.