France Decides That Liberté Means Keeping Your Religion Elsewhere

The Conseil d'Etat of France (the Gallic version of the Supreme Court) has ruled against the citizenship application of Faiza M., a Moroccan woman married to a French national who has been living in France for 8 years. What reason would the French government have to deny the wife of a Frenchman and the mother of 3 French children citizenship? Apparently,her adherence to the conservative traditions of her preferred branch of Islam is against everything for which France stands, like cheese-eating surrender-monkeydom and snootily mocking Americans.

According to the court, which has the final word on Faiza's application, her choice of religions and its particular practices— though, apparently, it's cool for her husband or her kids to adopt the practices — are "incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes." This is the same country that passed a rule about religious adornment in schools to protect French children against those scary Muslim headscarf thingies.

Although Faiza speaks fluent French, has never been in trouble with the law and even let a male gynecologist examine her lady bits (something many of us areligious American types are often loathe to do), her choice to wear a burqa, stay mostly at home and let her husband be utterly in charge of her has disqualified her for citizenship. A secular feminist group, Ni Putes Ni Soumises, said in a statement, "The Republic can in no manner validate this kind of tool of oppression and submission of women," because, of course, Faiza is oppressed because of the religion she choose to practice despite the obvious problems of practicing it in a country that neither understands nor accepts it and the ease of not doing so in that country. Although, actually, by not granting her citizenship the state has probably made it virtually impossible for her to ever renounce her religion or her husband, if that were her preference, because she would likely lose both her right to stay in the country and raise her children — but, no matter, the patriarchy must me stopped! Condescending, patriarchal attitudes about what is right for other people, though...that is a French birthright.

Also, by the way, if it were a secular white woman in a submissive-dominant relationship with a French man, do you think they'd be denying her citizenship? Yeah, me neither.

Too Muslim To Be French? [Time]

Send an email to Megan Carpentier, the author of this post, at askalobbyist@gmail.com.

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