(Strasbourg) A campaign celebrating diversity and “freedom in the hijab”, launched last week by the Council of Europe, has sparked heated controversy in France. After a protest from the French government, the European body, which monitors human rights on the continent, withdrew it.
The French government is “not in agreement” with “this identity process”, which is “the opposite of the freedom of belief that France defends in all European and international forums,” said the spokesperson for the French government. Gabriel Attal government at the end of the Council of Ministers.
“We consider this Council of Europe campaign unacceptable,” added Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. For him, it is “very serious and the incident is not closed” because it reveals “that associations, structures that do not go in the direction of the values of the Republic succeed in insinuating themselves into institutions, even among the most important such as the Council of Europe ”.
Launched last Thursday by the Program for Inclusion and the Fight against Discrimination, managed by the Council and co-financed by the European Union, this campaign offered portraits of several young women, veiled in only one half of the image.
A message in English stated in particular: “Beauty is in diversity as freedom is in hijab” (“beauty is in diversity as freedom is in the hijab”).
“Advertising jihad”
At first relatively unnoticed, it ended up triggering a heated controversy, from the far right in the government.
“Islam is the enemy of freedom. This campaign is the enemy of the truth ”, tweeted the polemicist Éric Zemmour, probable presidential candidate, denouncing an“ advertising jihad ”.
“This European communication in favor of the Islamist veil is scandalous and indecent while millions of women fight courageously against this enslavement”, launched for her part Marine Le Pen, candidate of the National Rally.
“This is not a propaganda campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood but by the Council of Europe,” quipped the sovereignist deputy Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, still on Twitter.
“Not a symbol of freedom, but of submission”
On the right, the president of the Île-de-France Region Valérie Pécresse also expressed her “amazement”, believing that the veil was “not a symbol of freedom but of submission”.
Claiming the investiture of the Republicans for 2022, the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes Éric Ciotti denounced a “promotion of the Islamic veil” and a “negation of our Judeo-Christian roots, of our civilization, of the spirit of the Enlightenment”.
As for the leader of the senators of the Republican party Bruno Retailleau, he estimated that the Council of Europe “now openly promotes submission to Islamist mores”.
The campaign also caused a reaction on the left, the former Minister of Women’s Rights, Socialist Senator Laurence Rossignol, estimating that “to say that freedom is in the hijab” amounted to “to promote it”. The former Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls, judged it “shocking, bewildering and dangerous”.
The Macron government protested
Within the government, the Secretary of State in charge of Youth Sarah El Haïry indicated on LCI that France had “expressed its extremely strong disapproval, hence the withdrawal of this campaign from (Tuesday)”.
“These tweets have been withdrawn and we are going to think about a better presentation of this project,” confirmed in a statement sent to AFP the Council of Europe, the pan-European organization based in Strasbourg.
They “were part of a joint project” of the Council and the European Union launched in 2019 against discrimination, the objective of which is “to raise awareness of the need to respect diversity and inclusion and to combat all types of discrimination. hate speech ”, further justified the Council.
The tweets “reflected the statements made individually by participants in one of the workshops of the project and do not represent the position of the Council of Europe or its Secretary General” Marija Pejčinović Burić, further assured the organization.
While the European Commission has contributed to funding the entire project, which seeks to involve “young people and civil society organizations” in workshops and awareness-raising campaigns, to the tune of 340,000 euros, the Council of the Europe “plays a leading role” and Brussels “has not validated the controversial elements”, a spokesperson for the European executive said on Wednesday.
However, the Commission calls for taking into consideration “the other actions” of this program against hate speech, he added. “Our position is extremely clear: women must be able to wear whatever they want, according to the laws of the country where they live,” insisted a second spokesperson for the institution.