The proposal made by about sixty deputies, from both the left and the right, to create a parliamentary inquiry commission on the “wearing of the burqa” has the merit of addressing the issue. However, it is far from being able to solve it. Considering legislating on the matter would indeed be only a stopgap: it would be appropriate to think about the reasons and mechanisms that motivate—or even oblige—a woman to wear this full veil on French territory. The “magnitude of the phenomenon” that so concerns the elected officials, determined to remedy it in the name of “secularism,” should not obscure its powerful psychological significance: a desire for mental structuring contained in the clothing constraint, a motive often cited by French women who have recently converted to Islam, and a narcissistic deficit of the modern being always attracted by the compensatory offer of an absolute identity. It is hoped that in this sense, Dalil Boubakeur was able to speak of a “cultural mark” of women who did not feel “generally forced” to wear the burqa. However, it is still necessary to question the indirect “forcing” of radical Salafist proselytism that claims to fill the incapacity of republican ideals and symbols to provide the fundamental benchmarks of a society.
As a sign of the times, the debate casts “discord” even within the government: Luc Chatel considers the possibility of “legislating” on this religious practice while Eric Besson sees this possibility as “ineffective”. Rama Yade would not be “against” a law while Fadela Amara is “in favor of a total ban”. Like all cases that address Islam, this “Fitna” also crosses Muslim circles. The French Council of the Muslim Faith is “firmly opposed” to setting up this Inquiry Commission. When questioned on this topic, Marouane Boulouednine, a municipal councilor from Nice and President of “Mosaic”, a “Secular Federation of Citizens of Muslim Sensitivity”, states that he “refuses the alternative between loss of identity and all-religious”. However, he did not wish to speak specifically on this topic, probably considered too sensitive. On his part, Azzédine Bouamama, a Cannes industrialist involved in the creation of a national federative body grouping several local associations, does not want to remain silent about “the dictate of a minority of aggressive, hateful, obtuse Salafists and despots organized like a sect”. “In favor of legislation,” he believes that a “majority of women suffer the yoke, terror, matriarchal or patriarchal violence”, specifying that the “role of [our] secular Republic is to protect its citizens”.
If the Mosque of Paris and the French Council of the Muslim Faith primarily address “cultic” problems, the question of creating a secular Muslim body, a more political and cultural interlocutor toward the French authorities, becomes even more pressing. Provided we know who does what. While Marouane Boulouednine just launched his “Mosaic” Federation on June 12, claiming “total support” from Claude Guéant, the Secretary-General of the Elysée, Azzédine Bouamama continues advanced negotiations with the Deputy Prefect Malika Benlarbi – a personality of immigrant origin and largely ministeriable in an upcoming reshuffle -, assigned by the Elysée to follow this thorny file. Negotiations aimed at setting up a “Foundation”, federating on a national scale the various local initiatives in this matter.
This pluralism of initiatives and intertwined influences does not always facilitate the legibility and understanding of the orientation that public authorities intend to give to their action. The notable absence of representatives from the Ministry of the Interior – and religious affairs – at the recent conference of the “Imams of France” – yet trained at the Catholic Institute of Paris at the request of the Republic – which was attended by the President of the Crif and the Chief Rabbi of Paris, is thus incomprehensible to the layperson, Muslim or not.
Beyond his address to the Congress on this theme, the head of state might seize this opportunity to launch a “project” on ways to promote and institutionalize this “Muslim secularism”. An opportunity to enlighten the French on his own conception of the Law of 1905.
