A French court has denied a veiled Muslim woman the French nationality for being “too submissive” to her husband and that her religious rituals were “incompatible” with French values, reported the Guardian on Saturday, July 12.
“She lives in total submission to her male relatives,” the Council of State said in a ruling cited by Le Monde on Friday.
“She seems to find this normal and the idea of challenging it has never crossed her mind.”
Moroccan-born Faiza Mabchour, 32, has been living in France since 2000, is married to a French national and speaks fluent French.
The mother-of-three has applied for French nationality but her application was rejected in 2005 on grounds of “insufficient assimilation”.
She appealed to the Council of State, which last month approved the rejection.
“(Her religious practices are) not compatible with the essential values of the French community, notably the principle of gender equality,” said the ruling.
“She has no idea about the secular state or the right to vote.”
France is home to nearly seven million Muslims, the biggest Muslim minority in Europe.
Most French Muslims have Moroccan and Algerian roots.
Shock
The ruling has shocked French society.
“If you follow that to its logical conclusion, it means that women whose partners beat them are also not worthy of being French,” law professor Daniele Lochak said.
Jean-Pierre Dubois, the head of France’s Human Rights League, said he was “vigilant” with the verdict.
The ruling was the first of its kind to deny French citizenship based on the person’s religious.
“Is the burqa (face-veil) incompatible with French citizenship?” asked Le Monde.
The criteria of assimilation taken into account when granting citizenship normally concentrates on how well the candidate speaks French.
But France has introduced stricter measures for granting citizenship since French President Nicolas Sarkozy came to office last year.
Since the beginning of the year, immigrants must sign a “contract of integration” that attests to their support for French ideals such as secularism, or risk expulsion.
Immigrants must also attend a day-long course on French history.
The ruling comes weeks after a controversy prompted by a court annulment of the marriage of two Muslims because the husband said the wife was not a virgin as she had claimed to be.
France banned hijab in state schools in 2004, sparking a heated debate over freedom and equality within the European country.
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