yankee doodle dandy

It may come as no surprise that polls suggest that a large majority of
the French favour the banning of the hijab, the moslem woman's head
scarf. And a January 2004 survey for Agence France-Presse showed 78%
of teachers in favour. A February 2004 survey by CSA for Le Parisien
showed 69% of the population for the ban and 29% against. For Muslims
in France, the February survey showed 42% for and 53% against, but
with the proportion amongst Muslim women being 49% for and 43%
against.

The curious thing about this is that Muslim men in France seem
overwhelmingly against the ban even, though they aren't the ones
wearing the hijabs, whereas the Moslem women take a quite different
view. This seems to support the contention of author Samira Bellil*,
who says with a degree of moral authority that many women who wear the
hijab are forced or pressured into doing so by the men in their lifes.

A dual standard is common among French Moslems. It seems the young
males in the Islamic community may adopt the lifestyles of other
French youths * pop music, fast cars and pornography * but they
frequently embrace the traditional prejudices of their immigrant
parents when it comes to women. The mixing of the two very different
cultures can bring out the worst of both. In fact, the treatment of
women by the men of the Islamic communities in France has reached such
frightening extremes in some cases that women of that culture have
taken remarkable measures to combat the situation. ( Do a search on Ni
Putes Ni Soumises )

We don't tend to hear about this in the U.S., in part because it is
not exactly light reading and perhaps because our press doesn't like
address certain complex issues that concern racial, ethnic or
religious minorities. The members of NPNS often argue that while
other means should also be used to integrate the immigrant community
into French society, they do tend support the hijab ban. Perhaps for
the same reason we try to curb hate speech expressions like the
burning of crosses, even though it technically violates our First
Amendment to do so, or support affirmative action even if it seems to
some to be reverse discrimination.

* http://www.time.com/time/europe/maga...ime/bellil.htm
As mentioned above, this is painful reading. But it is probably
essential to understanding why many French view the hijab as a symbol
of oppression rather than religion.