Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim
This is the speech I gave on Saturday,
January 17, 2004 in front of the Embassy of France.
I made my
presentation dressed as the Statue of Liberty
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I stand before you today as a representative of Solidarity
USA because, as an organization our focus is to support human rights and civil
liberties.
The French sent us the Statue of Liberty in 1885. It was suppose to be a lasting memorial
showing that both the U.S. and France were dedicated to human liberty.
However, as we have all become acutely aware, French
President Jacques
Chirac is pressing rapidly forward with the process of passing into
law his December 17, 2003 decision
to ban religious insignias, specifically, "headscarves", otherwise
known as "hijab", from state schools. American Muslim organizations, civil
and human rights organizations, and numerous interfaith groups, are calling on
people of conscience to join them in protesting against the infringement of
civil liberties and the message of religious intolerance President Chirac’s proposed
law delivers to the citizens of France, and to Muslims worldwide. The ban on
religious wear – which specifically targets Muslim females who wear
headscarves – signals one of the greatest setbacks for freedom and
democracy in the history of France. By
officially prohibiting outwardly manifested religious practices bearing no
parallelism with state functions, President Chirac is leading France down a
treacherous path.
Not only does Chirac's proposed new law constitute a
violation of personal freedoms, it defies the very concept of secularism, which focuses on the needs and concerns of humanity. We must stand in solidarity
with our Sisters in France against this law!
We gather here to day to implore President Chirac to rescind
the law that is only weeks away from having the power to jeopardize unduly, the
right of any Muslim woman or schoolchild committed to devoutly practicing their
religion, from wearing their headscarves in state schools, without fear of
legal prosecution.
By curtailing the religious rights of its citizens, France
is consequently surrendering one of the most cherished and fundamental
principles of its own Constitution and the Declaration
of the Rights of Man, liberty. The French Constitution defines the judicial authority as the
"guardian of individual liberty."
And the Republic’s own motto is: "Liberty, Equality,
Fraternity."
French Premier Jean-Pierre Raffarin, in a statement made at the
November 28, 2003 meeting that gave him the 90% approval to launch President
Chirac’s proposed law straight onto the track of passage through Parliament
stated that the law is necessary "To protect all women from fundamentalist
pressures." Raffarin further
stated, "This is not about religion, it’s about lifting constraints on
women." A BBC News article puts
President Chirac's campaign against freedom of _expression in religion, in a
nut shell: "Headscarves cannot be
tolerated in schools because they are instruments of propaganda for an
intolerant version of Islam and symbols of the oppression of women. For myself, personally, my decision to wear
hijab has nothing whatsoever to do with being oppressed by anyone; it is a
matter of consciousness between myself and my belief that in the eyes of Allah
(swt) I am respecting Him, and myself, by fulfilling Qur'anic guidelines set
forth regarding modesty.
Compounding the issue at hand, President Chirac delivered
the backlash statement we have all anticipated and feared, on
Wednesday, January 7, 2004, stating, "Civil servants should not display religious
symbols at work." This is the
first time Chirac has specifically addressed the issue of religious symbols in
the civil service. In additional
comments made on Wednesday, Chirac added, "Workers in public services had
to adhere to principles of neutrality."
"It is evident that no civil servant should display his religious
beliefs while carrying out his job."
And yet the French Constitution states: "Everyone shall
have the duty to work and the right to obtain employment. No one may suffer in his work or his
employment because of
his origin, his opinions or his
beliefs."
And the plot thickened on January 10th when the
Belgian Deputy Prime called for a law to ban religious symbols in courts,
schools and the public administration and backed plans for a similar ban in
public schools in France. He went on to
state, "The government should remain neutral in all circumstances and be
represented as such. That means no
distinctive religious symbols or veils for police officers, judges, clerks or
teachers at public schools. It is also
clear that pupils in public school cannot wear a veil or distinctive religious
symbol."
These governments cannot be allowed to quietly strip its
citizens of one of the most vital rights afforded to them under the United Nations Declaration of Human
Rights, Article 18, which states as follows: "Everyone has the right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his
religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and
in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice,
worship and observance."
Pursuant to Article 4 of the French Constitution,
liberty is the right to do anything, which does not harm others. Thus, each man's natural rights are limited
only by the necessity to assure equal liberty to others. How is it then that the French government
can be allowed to oppress women for their religious convictions by removing their
right to chose whether or not they wear hijab?
The French Constitution further states, "No one must
suffer for his opinions, even for religious opinions, provided that his
advocacy of them does not endanger public order." Muslim men and women should not hesitate to
stand up for this right. Muslim women who are oftentimes considered by those
who have no knowledge or understanding of their beliefs are seen as oppressed,
when in fact, as those electing to wear hijab generally believe, their beliefs
liberate them from the oppression of otherwise precarious situations wherein
they would otherwise be viewed as mere sexual objects rather than as equal
partners in the social structure of the communities in which they live, thus
affording them the right to be viewed and treated with the same respect extended
to men. Herein is where we see the
beauty of truly practiced Islamic beliefs.
Rather than persecute women for fear of the unknown, by taking away
their right to incorporate their religious beliefs into their daily lives,
couldn't the government simply encourage/allow interfaith discussions designed
to help the citizens of its country understand one another rather than being
the authority ruling with an iron fist that inflicts suffering on any of its
citizens?
The debate over headscarves is merely a symptom of deeper
problems facing France. It is a
question of tackling the problems of integration, discrimination, gender
equality and social economic inequality.
And it is not with a new law that these problems can be solved; as has
been historically documented first with the 1905 law on separation of church
and state. Followed by the 1937 law
instructing schools to keep religious signs out, which is in turn reversed in
1989 and subsequently clouded by the 1994 ruling that schools can ban
"ostentatious" signs of religion.
The law of 1994 leaves the issue of headscarves open for interpretation,
and President Chirac is now calling for a law to bring clarity to all of this -
which is why we are here today.
As I was pondering how to bring my comments to a close
today, I recalled an email I had received from an advisor who said, "You
could have the group chant a rousing Patrick Henry call to action: "Give me Liberty or give me
death." To which my advisor then
cautioned that Ashcroft and Company would have the power to choose which of the
two I most deserved…
The French government would have the public believe that
banning the headscarf will lead to the emancipation of young people.
However, for as many Muslim women who make the personal
choice NOT to wear hijab, there are just as many who DO make the choice to wear
hijab, and do so with a strong religious conviction. Forcing them to shed their hijabs against their will is just as
much a form or oppression as the French government claims the headscarf is in
the first place!
I leave with you today is a direct message to President
Chirac:
[CHANT] "WHO'S OPPRESSING WHO?" - "WHO'S OPPRESSING WHO?" - "WHO'S OPPRESSING WHO?" - "WHO'S OPPRESSING WHO?" - "WHO'S OPPRESSING WHO?" - "WHO'S OPPRESSING WHO?"
Protest Photo Album: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/legalsec79/album?.dir=9565&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos
See Also:
http://sisteraishah.com/fightbanonhijabinfrance.htm
