Standing in front of a cheering crowd, Valérie Pécresse, a candidate for the upcoming French presidential elections, held her fist firmly with a triumphant smirk painted on her face: "Marianne n’est pas une femme voilée!" (Marianne is not a veiled woman), she insisted.

Praising her efforts to reject Islam from the French public sphere, Pécresse referred to herself and her collaborators as ‘whistleblowers’, pioneers in the fight for secularism, the few who "fought for a ban of the burqa in the public sphere, 12 years ago." She called the veil a sign of oppression which, under her leadership, no woman in France would ever be subjected to. Pécresse’s entire speech emphasized her "combat" against the "enemies of the Republic" and against those who do not adhere to her interpretation of secularist French ideals.

Secularism in France was first established by the 1905 Law on the Separation of the Church and the State which calls for the state’s neutrality toward religion, religious freedom and non-discrimination between religions. However, the current understanding of secularism reflected by the rules prohibiting individuals from wearing " ostentatious religious symbols in the public spaces" prevents Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab (or the "veil", as French politicians enjoy referring to it), as an expression of their religious belief, modesty or for any other reason, from doing so.

What Pécresse fails to recognize is that by banning the burqa and the veil, France is oppressing a community of 5.7 million individuals. In 2016, 8.8% of the French population were Muslim, an unofficial figure since any ethnic and religious counting is expressly forbidden by the [8th article of the "Loi Informatique et Liberté" of 1978] (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/article_lc/LEGIARTI000037090124/2018-05-25#:~:text=%2D%20Il%20est%20interdit%20de%20traiter,g%C3%A9n%C3%A9tiques%2C%20des%20donn%C3%A9es%20biom%C3%A9triques%20aux) which was initially implemented to protect the freedom of French citizens from detrimental data filing. This makes Islam the second most practiced religion in France, also making the French Muslim community the largest in Europe. By banning the veil, France discriminates against its Muslim women, leading to a rise in hate crimes and hate speech and a life secluded from the rest of the population — a situation that is antithetical to what Pécresse says she wants to achieve.

The politicization of the hijab for Muslim women in France is not a political strategy exclusive to candidate Pécresse. In fact, her recent emphasis on veil politics could be in response to the rising popularity of candidate Eric Zemmour’s xenophobic and Islamophobic agenda. Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron has also previously suggested that the hijab and the French ideals are not compatible. In 2021, the French Senate voted for the "Law against Separatism", prohibiting Muslim women under the age of 18 years and accompanying mothers on school trips from wearing a hijab or "veil". As such, all Muslim mothers who choose to wear the hijab are now excluded from actively participating in their children’s school lives. Furthermore, the age of consent for sexual relationships is now lower than the age of consent for wearing the hijab. Women as young as 15 years old have sexual autonomy in France, but are not free to choose a symbol of their religious faith. To put it differently, the French government believes that young women of 15 years of age are mature enough to make informed decisions about their bodies when it comes to engaging in sexual relationships but not mature enough to make informed decisions about their bodies when it comes to religion.

The "Law against Separatism" was followed by a series of laws that limited the rights and freedom of religious expression for Muslim women. In 2011, France decided to ban women from wearing the niqab in all public places. In 2016, several of the coastal municipal towns imposed the burkini ban and a woman was forcefully asked to remove parts of her modest clothing while she was peacefully enjoying the sun with her family on one of Nice’s beaches.

The politicization of the veil symbolizes fears and biases toward Muslim citizens. This is because instead of highlighting differences in a way that unites the nation (i.e., celebrating cultural and religious diversity), the politicization highlights differences in a way that serves to establish French Muslims as foreigners. The current international political debates around "Islamist terrorism" and the emergence of a "radical Islam" interfere with the autonomy of French Muslim citizens to enjoy their religious freedom in a country that praises itself for being free, equal and fraternal. In October 2020, shortly after the gruesome murder of a teacher in a small French town, two French women were attacked, stabbed and called racial slurs near the Eiffel tower because they were visibly Muslim.

By stigmatizing the hijab, France is reinforcing a narrative of barbarism and oppression, the same narrative it consistently used when colonizing Muslim-majority countries in North Africa, particularly Algeria. In some contexts, the politicization of the hijab may come from women who wear it, but it must be noted that in France it was mainly the work of intellectuals, politicians and journalists who saw the veil as a mark of the subjugation of women. The Islamic veil is deeply polysemous: the characterization of the "veil" depends very much on the meaning, context and significance that someone gives it. The paternalistic injunctions from political, scientific or journalistic forums order Muslim women to abide by secularist conceptions that do not fit them — making them choose between their religion and their citizenship, at the risk of facing political and social marginalization. By refusing Muslim women equal treatment and independence in religious affairs, French public authorities politicize Islam.

So, to Mme. Pécresse and all French politicians who politicize the veil to gain popularity in an environment corrupted by Islamophobia: Muslim women do not need you to save them from oppression. Some French women do not wish to represent Delacroix’s Marianne, leading the people towards freedom with their breasts out. If Marianne is to represent all French women today, her allegory should take into account all women’s preferences when it comes to clothing — especially when these preferences are coupled with religious beliefs. Some women want to enjoy shorts and skirts, while others want to wear their veils as they see fit. At the end of the day, each woman should be able to enjoy the freedom of clothing her own body without the government questioning her intentions. Women need you to get out of their private and religious lives and stop pernicious practices that instill hate and reinforce biases towards them. The Hexagon will never be a space of religious tolerance as long as its representatives incite fear of otherness against Muslims.