Veiled woman fails in citizenship bid
Court decrees her radical Islamic beliefs are incompatible with French values in the first ruling of its type.
A woman who wears a burqa and did not agree with the equality of sexes has been refused French nationality.
The woman, known as Ms M, married a Frenchman in 2000 and has three children all born in France.
She appealed after her original request for citizenship was turned down in 2005.
Marriage does not confer automatic rights to citizenship – the French administration can raise objections on the grounds of assimilation of language and culture.
During the procedures government officials visited the woman, who refused to lift her veil so she could be identified.
The couple claim that they are followers of ‘Salafism’ – a particularly strict interpretation of early Islam. However Ms M told officials that during her time in Morocco she did not wear a veil and did so in France on the insistence of her husband.
After interviewing the woman, who was born in Morocco in 1976, officials concluded that she had “no concept of secular life or the right to vote”.
The government commissioner for the Conseil d’Etat Emmanuelle Prada-Bordenave said the woman had “not taken the values of the Republic as her own – particularly the equality of the sexes.”
“She lives in total submission to men and her family – she finds this normal,” she added.
Photo:Yanboechat
