Le Pen Manipulating Secularism to Attack Women's Rights

Article source: "L’instrumentalisation de la laïcité contre les droits des femmes", blog: Droits des femmes contre les extrêmes droites. 19/09/2016.

Ever since her father's presidential campaign in 2007, but especially since her 2010 campaign to become leader of the National Front (FN), Marine Le Pen has posed as the champion of secularism. Yet, this secularism is mainly directed against Muslims – seen as foreigners "invading" or "occupying" the French territory– and constitutes a perversion of secularism: a sham designed to uphold the notion of an "eternal" (i.e. Catholic) France.

The FN manifesto reads:

"The faithful illegally invade public space for their prayers. It must be reiteratedthat for one thousand, five hundred years, most of France's citizens– almost the entire nation–were Christians, and it is therefore only natural that Christianity should be deeply rooted in France's landscapes and national culture. French traditions cannot be flouted in this way."

This so-called "secularism" is a case of double standards. In the election manifesto, it is used as a way to ban religious practices within the public arena, but in fact it only applies to Islam. Christianity– which apparently belongs to the cultural rather than the religious sphere– would therefore not be subject to the restrictions resulting from this bogus secularism. The National Front thus backs the installation of Christian nativity scenes during the festive season in town halls, which goes against the separation of church and state:

"The elected representatives of the National Front are staunch supporters of secularism, but are also aware of France's heritage. There is no doubt that Christianity is at the heart of French culture."

On the one hand, Marine Le Pen wants “to reaffirm our republican model and its values against multiculturalism” and [French citizens] to abide by "the law, the whole law and nothing but the law"¹ – she is referring to the 1905 law on the separation of church and state and therefore the principle of religious neutrality in the public services, specifically of public servants, not of its users, and which does not restrict all religious practices to the private sphere.² On the other hand, the National Front does not distinguish between the religious neutrality of the state and that of the public arena. It also lumps Muslims together with immigrants and goes even further in likening Islam as a whole to Islamic fundamentalism.³ In doing so, it establishes a moral order in the name of secularism that exclusively targets publicly visible Muslim practices, in particular Muslim women wearing the hijab.

They propose to apply this as thoroughly as possible in the public services: “As is already the case for public servants, any display and expression of religious belief will be banned for all service users, including wearing the hijab, or any other ostentatious religious symbols. An extension of this ban to public transport will also be considered.”

Marine Le Pen would therefore effectively block Muslim women in particular from having access to public services, which clearly goes against all the principles of the French Republic when it comes to freedom of religious worship; she also wants to create a “ministry of the interior, immigration and secularism”. Once again in the name of secularism, Le Pen’s manifesto states that “all government funding for community group associations will be banned”. This would apply to feminist or LGBT associations, to organisations that defend the rights of foreign nationals, or even to charity organisations such as the Secours Catholique [French equivalent of Christian Aid, ed.].

While criticism of all religions – especially their sexism – and the debate surrounding their political dimensions are both necessary and must always remain possible, French laws and the founding principles of tolerance and social harmony must serve the cause of freedom, in particular that of all women, regardless of their faith, as well as equality, particularly between men and women. There is not doubt that by reinventing what secularism is supposed to be, the National Front, with the help of the UMP⁴ – now Les Républicains – and even of the PS, is promoting the idea that secularism is primarily about restricting freedoms: those of minorities, of foreigners, and ultimately, given the way religions and patriarchal traditions are structured, of women. But in claiming to do so in the name of secularism, Marine Le Pen wants to reap the electoral benefits of being seen as a pro-republican, pro-secular candidate, while retaining the identity-based ideology of stigmatisation and exclusion that is so typical of the far right.

Authors' Notes

¹ Cécile Alduy and Stéphane Wahnich, « Marine Le Pen prise aux mots. Décryptage du nouveau discours frontiste » Paris: Seuil, 2015, p. 94.

² Source: legifrance.gouv.fr.

³ See Alduy & Wahnich, 2015, p.97.

⁴ See François Baroin's report "la nouvelle laïcité", 2011, which shamelessly pits secularism against human rights, and is clearly intended to attract far right voters.

Translated by Stéphanie Miroux and Marielle Artus

Editing by Sam Trainor