Mahrukh Arif Tayyab is a French-born writer and freelancer who has been through the French school system and struggled with the Hijab Ban during her studies. We spoke to her about her experiences and views as a hijab-wearing Muslim student in France.
Hijab ban in France
“Hijab over there is banned in schools and in high schools. So, I started wearing a hijab at around 17 or 18 after I had completed high school. After A-levels, I was selected for Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles – a prep school that prepares you within two years for a national exam for one of the biggest schools in France,” she said.
“I’d have to comply with the rules and take off my hijab at the entrance of that school and I’d wear it again at the end when I’d go out. This is quite an intensive course. But my experience over there was that I didn’t feel like my grades were going down just because of the academic pressure. I think it was a whole thing going on where I felt that I wasn’t completely integrated for what I was wearing on my head. For what I choose to wear on my head outside the premises of that high school.”
“You are there as a law-abiding citizen and you are being criticised for it.”
She recalled how, during her time at the preparatory course, she was called out to be a hypocrite “because I was completely comfortable taking it off at the entrance of the high school and somehow, I needed to wear it back when I’d go out of the school.” She expressed how it was ironic because as someone complying with the laws “you are there as a law-abiding citizen and you are being criticised for it”.
But the change in the understanding of those around her changed “slowly and steadily” as she explained to them what the hijab meant to her.
The main reason, according to her for the hesitation of people in accepting the hijab is the negative stereotypes around Muslim women and their identity. The majority of people in France hold the stereotypical representation of “what a Muslim woman is supposed to be and what the hijab means for a Muslim woman,” she says.
“Most of them think that it’s something that has been forced upon us and it’s something that a male figure would force upon a Muslim woman. It was very difficult to maintain a religious identity and to be at peace with your religious identity.”
Reflecting on how these stereotypical assumptions were an added pressure on her she said “there were two sorts of pressure. It was academic pressure and obviously, the social pressure that was quite intense.”
But that did not stop her from academically performing well. After she completed the prep school she went for her master’s in Social Sciences at a university where she was free to dress as she chose to.
“I started to see a radical change in my grades and in my self-confidence… I completed my master’s with the most excellent marks,” she says.
“I felt at ease with myself, and I felt that there was no pressure whatsoever. No social pressure to act in a certain way and not being comfortable with your own self.”
Ms Tayyab recalls her time at university as the “best two years” because “I was able to carry myself the way I actually feel, freely. I was able to be myself.”
Ms Tayyab explained how it is difficult to be “visibly Muslim” in France.
“A hijab-wearing Muslim woman in France has to think twice before going for a job interview,” she tells us. This makes the interviews more stressful because they have to constantly think of the reaction towards hijab by the person who’s going to interview her or the company where she’s going to be working in. “She’ll be told straight away that you won’t be able to do this this this job if you want to keep that on your head,” Ms Tayyab says.
“A woman who has the hijab on today will not have many doors open to her.”
“Unfortunately when we look at the reality, the ground reality… a woman who has the hijab on today will not have many doors open to her… there was a French Muslim woman who was the representative of the national student union of France… who was criticised for her veil. She was merely defending student rights. And all the media people around could see was what she was wearing on her head.”
She says the debates in France around Muslim women who are wearing the hijab have become sort of an obsession. “Muslim women in France when they wear the hijab and are socially active, are told to take off their hijab. They are trying to make them socially invisible.”
She pointed out that the lack of platforms to amplify Muslim women’s voices in France is a contributing factor to the hypocrisy on the academic, professional, and social levels. “We tell them that we never get to hear a Muslim woman wearing a hijab that she chose to wear the hijab out of her own free will. But there’s no platform given to hijab-wearing women who are well-spoken, eloquent, and who are successful in their life and studies to present their cases – they are always put on the outskirts of the society”
“Muslim girls in the UK are more ambitious and confident.”
After completing her Masters in France, Ms Tayyab moved to the UK and says her life has “completely changed regarding the fact that I can wear my hijab here without any discrimination”. She observed that Muslim girls in the UK are more ambitious and confident.
Comparing her experience of the two countries as a Hijab-wearing woman she said “ I always wanted to have a career in journalism in France and I thought that it was completely impossible to wear a hijab and to be a journalist in France. Over here there are a lot of young Muslim girls who are very ambitious and very passionate about what they want to do. And they get to do it.”
“The Hijab ban has such a bad effect on your mind that it normalises the discrimination in your mind you think.”
“It’s funny how growing up in France puts certain mechanisms in your head. I remember when I moved here earlier on about two years ago, I was preparing for a job interview for a journalist position and I remember asking my husband twice if is it going to be okay if I wear my hijab there? Or should I remove it before going to the interview? These are all the sorts of mechanisms that you start to develop when you are a hijab-wearing Muslim woman living in France. It has such a bad effect on your mind that it normalises the discrimination in your mind you think.”
She is hopeful if she decides to start her studies again or start working in the UK she will be more free and at ease.
“I’ll feel more comfortable and at ease working there with my hijab.”
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