A Muslim woman too orthodox for France

[West Maghreb Dialogue]

International Herald Tribune
A Muslim woman too orthodox for France
By Katrin Bennhold
Friday, July 18, 2008

LA VERRIÈRE, France: When Faiza Silmi applied for French citizenship
she was worried that her fluent French was not quite perfect enough or
that her Moroccan upbringing would pose a problem.

"I would never have imagined that they would turn me down because of
what I choose to wear," Silmi said, her hazel eyes looking out of the
narrow slit in her niqab, an Islamic facial veil that is among three
flowing layers of turquoise, blue and black that cover her body from
head to toe.

But last month, France's highest administrative court upheld a
decision to deny Silmi, 32, citizenship on the ground that her
"radical" practice of Islam was incompatible with French values like
equality of the sexes.

It was the first time that a French court had judged somebody's
capacity to be assimilated into France based on private religious
practice, taking laïcité - the country's strict concept of secularism
- from the public sphere into the home.

The case has sharpened the focus on the delicate balance between the
tradition of Republican secularism and the freedom of religion
guaranteed under the French Constitution - and how that balance might
be shifting. It comes four years after a law banning religious garb in
public schools was reinforced. And it comes only weeks after a court
in Lille annulled a marriage on request of a Muslim husband whose wife
had lied about being a virgin. (The government subsequently demanded a
review of the court decision.)

So far, citizenship has only been denied on religious grounds in
France when applicants were believed to be close to fundamentalist
groups.

The ruling has received almost unequivocal support across the
political spectrum, including among many Muslims. Fadela Amara, the
French minister for urban affairs, called Silmi's niqab "a prison" and
a "straitjacket."

"It is not a religious insignia but the insignia of a totalitarian
political project that promotes inequality between the sexes and is
totally lacking in democracy," said Amara, herself a practicing Muslim
of Algerian descent.

François Hollande, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party,
called the ruling "a good application of the law," while Jacques
Myard, the conservative lawmaker elected in the constituency where
Silmi lives, demanded that face-covering veils be outlawed.

In an interview, Silmi told of her shock and embarrassment when she
found herself unexpectedly in the public eye. Since July 12, when Le
Monde first reported the court decision, her story has been endlessly
dissected on newspaper front pages and in late-night television talk
shows.

"They say I am under my husband's command and that I am a recluse,"
Silmi said during an hourlong conversation in her apartment in La
Verrière, a small town 30 minutes southwest of Paris. At home, when
there are no men present, she lifts her facial veil and exposes a
smiling, heart-shaped face.

"They say I wear the niqab because my husband told me so," she said.
"I want to tell them: It is my choice. I take care of my children and
I leave the house when I please. I have my own car. I do the shopping
on my own. Yes, I am a practicing Muslim, I am orthodox. But is that
not my right?"

Silmi declined to have her photograph taken, saying that both she and
her husband were uncomfortable with the idea.

Silmi married Karim, a French national of Moroccan descent, eight
years ago and moved to France with him. Their four children, three
boys and a girl, aged from 2 to 7, were all born in France. In 2004,
Silmi applied for French citizenship, "because I wanted to have the
same nationality as my husband and my children." But her request was
denied a year later because of "insufficient assimilation" into
France.

She appealed, invoking the right to religious freedom. But on June 25
the Council of State, the judicial institution with final say on
disputes between individuals and the public administration, upheld the
ruling.

"She has adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with
essential values of the French community, particularly the principle
of equality of the sexes," said the ruling.

Emmanuelle Prada-Bordenave, the government commissioner who reported
to the Council of State, said Simli's interviews with social services
revealed that "she lives in total submission to her male relatives.
She seems to find this normal and the idea of challenging it has never
crossed her mind."

But everything is not as Western cliché might have it in the Silmi
household. As she recounts her story, it is her husband who serves a
steaming pot of mint tea and chocolate cookies. Silmi herself
collected this interviewer from the rail station in her car. She does
not wear her facial veil while driving and says that she also lifts it
when she picks up her children at the local public school.

"What hurts me most is that people who don't know me judge me like
this," she said. Journalists got many facts wrong, she said, starting
with the number of her children and ending with the assertion that she
refused to take off her veil when she was interviewed for her
citizenship. "It is simply not true," she said.

M'hammed Henniche of the Union of Muslim Associations in the Seine-
Saint-Denis district north of Paris, fears that the ruling may open
the door to what he considers ever more arbitrary interpretations of
what constitutes "radical" Islam.

"What is it going to be tomorrow? The annual pilgrimage to Mecca? The
daily prayer?" said Henniche. "This sets a dangerous precedent.
Religion, so far as it is personal, should be kept out of these
decisions."

In one sign of the nature of some of the criteria used to evaluate
Silmi's fitness to become French, the government commissioner
approvingly noted in her report that she was treated by a male
gynecologist during her pregnancies.

The Silmis say they live by a literalist interpretation of the Koran.
They do not like the term Salafism, although they say literally it
means following the way of the prophet Muhammad and his companions.

"But today 'Salafist' has come to mean political Islam; people who
don't like the government and who approve of violence call themselves
Salafists. We have nothing to do with them," said Karim Silm, a soft-
spoken man with a visible prayer mark on his forehead and a religious
beard.

His wife explains that in 2000 she decided to wear the niqab, a dress
code typically found on the Arabian Peninsula, because in her eyes her
traditional Moroccan attire - a flowing djelaba with head scarf - was
not modest enough. "I don't like to draw men's looks," she said. "I
want to belong to my husband and my husband only."

She has given herself until September to decide whether to challenge
the ruling.

France is home to nearly five million Muslims, roughly half of whom
are French citizens. Criteria for granting French citizenship include
"assimilation," which normally focuses on how well the candidate
speaks French.

Lately, though, President, Nicolas Sarkozy has stressed the importance
of "integration" into French life. Part of his tougher immigration
policy is a new law to make foreigners who want to join their families
take an exam on French values as well as French language before
leaving their countries.

Karim, a former bus driver who says he is finding it hard to get work
because of his beard, dreams of moving his family to Morocco or Saudi
Arabia. "We don't feel welcome here," he said. "I am French but I
can't really say that I am proud of it right now."