The Jakarta Post | Wed, 01/23/2008 1:57 PM | Center Piece
"Laïcité," a French parliamentarian told an eager visiting Indonesia journalist, "is freedom for all religions!" France's secular ideology is alive and well. Perhaps even more so than before. But many wonder if the resurgence of laïcité in democracy's cradle may have taken a convoluted course to become "freedom from all religions", with the headscarf being the first casualty of state secularism. Meidyatama Suryodiningrat reports.
Five years ago Sabria Choucha was a capable medical secretary at a public hospice. Today the 35-year-old is unemployed, on welfare and working as a volunteer at a religious council in her "hometown" of Marseille on France's south coast.
"I had to resign," she said of her past career. "I wanted to wear the headscarf."
Returning from the haj pilgrimage in 2000, Sabria began wearing the headscarf, knowing full well the likely consequences.
"I admit the decision may have been a little provocative," she conceded. "It's a pity though, I would have liked to continue (as a medical secretary)."
But her recollection was neither grim nor resentful. She seemingly accepted, even welcomed her fate and the consequences of her action. Her demeanor depicts the dichotomy common among many French Muslims - a stout religious conviction tempered by assent to the secularism of laïcité.
"As a staunch believer in my faith, I believe one should make (such) sacrifices," she said.
Laïcité has certainly demanded sacrifices from the religious community, especially French Muslim women, in recent years. They are officially forbidden to wear the headscarf if enrolled or working in any public institution.
Conspicuous religious symbols (Islamic or otherwise) are ruled off-limits from the public domain in France the way any whiff of communism used to be, and in some places still is, proscribed in Indonesia.
Sabria is just one of thousands who had to choose: withdraw or acquiesce to the rules.
Laïcité emerged over a hundred years ago with the passing of a 1905 law separating church and state. It was affirmed by various regulations through the years, including the exclusion of religion from the public sphere. Even the official census does not record religious affiliation.
Its proponents argue that laïcité is not anti-religious. On the contrary, its separation from the state is meant to ensure religion is inherently free from intervention.
The "collision" with Islam began to emerge in the 1980s as the population of second and third generation migrants - mostly from North Africa - burgeoned to make Islam France's second largest religion. There are now some six million Muslims in France, or about 9 percent of the French population, the largest Muslim community in western Europe.
Three girls were expelled from their school in a Parisian suburb after refusing to remove their headscarves. The case became the first of several brought before the French High Court. There was never a consistent verdict. Eventually there were varying degrees of "tolerance" dependent on the zealousness of schoolmasters and conspicuousness of headscarves.
The issue again drew nationwide attention in 2003 when President Jacques Chirac established a commission that eventually drafted a law specifically forbidding the use of conspicuous signs of religion.
Most mainstream Muslims already well assimilated in French society now uphold the principle of laïcité with unwavering zeal.
"You do not have to wear (a headscarf) to be a Muslim," Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Islamic Institute of the Paris Grand Mosque, argued. "You will not be wearing one in heaven either."
"Secularism is the first strength of this country, (moderation and tolerance) is the basic condition for peace…The headscarf is not forbidden in society, but it should not be conspicuous in the school system."
Women's groups whose membership includes second generation migrants have also taken up the banner of laïcité, hence the banning of the headscarf in public institutions. Their support, however, seems tied to their fight against perceived female subjugation in traditional patriarchal migrant families, instead of the wholehearted endorsement of laïcité itself.
Many second generation offspring of migrants who were born French citizens have adopted a welcome attitude to laïcité despite the shortcomings it may pose.
People like Sabria have found a middle ground, providing ample freedom in the private domain as well as conciliation when it comes to those controlled by the state.
For her it is not a question of having to surrender her ideals, but a limited compromise to gain a greater benefit including at such a point if she ever has children.
"I would like to still raise them with Islamic values. But the first goal would be to allow them to go to public school, with or without the headscarf."
"My parents underwent hardships, now the second generation has to adapt," Sabria reasoned, referring to her parents who moved from Algeria to France in the 1950s. Her father was a construction worker for many years.
While the headscarf has often become a potent symbol at the center of the political storm, the underlying issue in France is not about religion but the question of economic and political integration of these second and third generation Muslim migrants into French society.
Most claim that the integration of Muslims has proceeded well. An overwhelming majority have embraced French cultural and political norms, including laïcité.
Stéphanie Giry, writing in Foreign Affairs, noted that up to half to three-fifths of French Muslims (migrants) have adopted French cultural norms.
Salah Bariki, a freelance journalist based in Marseille and adviser to the city's council, told The Jakarta Post that 15 percent of migrants in Marseille - North Africa's migrant gateway to France - have fully integrated, while another 20 to 25 percent are in transition.
About a third of them have not. About half of these, Salah argues, are reluctant because their presence in France resulted from self-imposed exile born from political developments in their homelands, especially Algeria.
French society is generally homogenizing, but it does not hide the fact that the pains of integration continue to plague efforts at integration.
While she claims to absolute freedom in engaging in her religion in her private life, Sabria concedes that she sometimes feels "rejected" in wearing the headscarf in a still predominantly secular and historically Christian society.
"We aren't viewed well. We're not well perceived. People are ignorant," she added.
French society also has slowly had to come to terms with the presence of the growing Muslim community, although not everyone has reacted well to the changing societal milieu.
"If you have a name that sounds slightly Arabic versus a French sounding name, then the employer would likely choose the latter," Sabria told of the common perception among the Muslim community in seeking employment.
Ghoul Abderrahmane, head of the regional Muslim council in Marseille, says the efforts to adjust must come from both sides.
"We encourage young (Muslim) boys and girls to focus on religion, but we always call on them to also respect Republican values. No one forced them (migrant Muslims) to come here."
Boubakeur also argued that, "our problem is not the behavior of the 'white' Europeans, but that of fundamentalists who create a bad image of Islam and cause Islamophobia."
Problems of discrimination and integration seem most visible in the sprawling urban centers. The high-unemployment projects that ring a city like Paris have become a breeding ground for delinquency and economic desperation that can easily explode into the kind of riots that shocked France in 2005. The unrest only reinforces the misperception of poor Muslim families and further stigmatize the community.
According to Boubakeur, about six million French citizens live below the poverty line, of which 10 percent are Muslims.
This point of economic integration was separately reinforced again by Salah Bariki,who suggested, "the main problems we have are not religious rights, it is on economics, unemployment and housing".
Despite deserving praise for its secular convictions, the French government - in this case Chirac - should also be suspect for its somewhat sudden vigor to reimpose a strict ban on the headscarf in public institutions.
Senior political editor Henri Vernet of Le Parisien, when asked, responded that the decision to ban the headscarf four years ago may have been due to the growing prevalence of Muslim girls wearing headscarves and veils in public schools during heightened anxiety following 9/11.
He quickly pointed out that it is often at the discretion of the school headmaster on how strictly the ban is enforced. He knew some schools in Paris which still allow a small number of their students to continue wearing the headscarf in an "inconspicuous" fashion.
One can also analyze that the Muslim community in France became "collateral damage" in the need to stem fears of Islamic fundamentalism and as a geopolitical platform to illustrate that Paris' criticism of the Jewish-state on Middle Eastern political issues was not founded on anti-Semitism.
For Sabria, the geopolitics of the day probably has little relevance. Holding dual citizenship, she has a choice. That choice is based on self preservation, of being allowed to conduct her faith with the least restrictions and where her rights as a women are respected.
Amid such a dilemma, her preference is clear, and it reminds us that predominantly Islamic states may not be the most liberating for Muslims.
"Should I go back (to my motherland) and become a prisoner? Or stay here and adjust so I can gain more freedom?"
