Next time I go to France I'm wearing a headscarf

[LaurieFairyCake]

And I want every woman of faith (any faith) or no faith to do the same if that fucker wins

(Marine le Bastard is saying women are not allowed to wear head scarves in France and that they will be fined)

Anyone supporting Le Pen is a racist. It’s disgusting.

@Cherrysoup that article is basically saying that Marine Le Pen has been more successful at adopting an anti-anti-semitism strategy than her father was, but that it is just a strategy because they both know that anti-semitism is a barrier to power.

Just curious: have people in the UK heard of Éric Zemmour? There’s no way he’ll get elected but one of the worst things about him is he makes Marine Le Pen seem reasonable in comparison!

@LaurieFairyCake

Yeah it'd be great if all men decided to wear a headscarf too in solidarity

But we don't need them, we have our common woman experience - and we can do it for ourselves

Women have driven all social change for equality

I don't agree that women are responsible for mens lust (obviously) or that wearing a headscarf protects them - but I'm wearing one when I go to France just like the Dutch wore Jewish stars during world war 2

Even if you think headscarf wearing is oppressive change should be inclusive - you have to genuinely bring people on board nor institute oppressive and divisive Islamophobia designed to whip up hatred

Its all a bit "white saviour" isn't it. Aren't there better things to protest? You're standing for men oppressing women and girls, like it or not.

Two polls from Politico now put Le Pen ahead.

You might not like it, but it is France's right to choose whoever they like, and she has a right to an opinion. I personally think she will soften her stance and become more mainstream if she does win.

I don’t give a shit if she softens her stance, if Europe starts electing far right leaders and calling them conservatives, we are in trouble.

Very interesting thread.

Just as with any other demographic, Muslim women are not one homogeneous group. Some are forced to wear hijab. My solidarity is with them.
Others do so through choice. The fact that I don't understand why they would choose to do so is irrelevant.

@Swayingpalmtrees

Two polls from Politico now put Le Pen ahead.

You might not like it, but it is France's right to choose whoever they like, and she has a right to an opinion. I personally think she will soften her stance and become more mainstream if she does win.

They said similar about Trump and Putin....

France's decision, whether you like it or not, will have far reaching impacts on Europe and that includes the UK

Historically, far right european govt's rarely work out well for Europe.

Doubtless why Putin and Le Pen got on so well.

@Ionlydomassiveones

It’s hypocrisy to get frothed up about ‘women’s rights to wear what they like’ without blinking an eye at the sheer cultural misogyny behind religious practises of hair covering. If it were a good and holy thing to do, men would do it. But they don’t. Funny that.

I get that, but find it's more complicated.

I had a work colleague many years ago who, for most of the tie I knew her, didn't wear a headscarf.

Turned out she wanted to but didn't feel able because she was worried about other people's reactions. Essentially she was scared of islamophobic/racist abuse if she wore it. That is no more acceptable than a woman being forced to wear a headscarf.

This is fascinating, in a sense, that you @LaurieFairyCake have latched on to this one issue, which is barely even being discussed in the French press. If Macron loses this election, it will be because he is seen as being a president for the rich. If Marine Le Pen wins or loses, the headscarf "issue" will not be one of the reasons.

@EilonwyWithRedGoldHair that too was my experience for a long time, and the experience of many Muslim women, especially I find those working in the corporate world and medical fields. It’s not acceptable and shouldn’t still be happening in 2022 when there is a wealth of information and viewpoints online. Wearing a headscarf is not just opening yourself up to abuse (which is sadly somewhat just accepted as part and parcel), society/colleagues start treating you differently overnight - as if you no longer have any agency or intelligence.

@Swayingpalmtrees

Two polls from Politico now put Le Pen ahead.

You might not like it, but it is France's right to choose whoever they like, and she has a right to an opinion. I personally think she will soften her stance and become more mainstream if she does win.

I think she has already done that. "Dédiabolisation" (dedemonizing???) has been going on for a while in her party.

@Andariego it’s the same with other religious symbols. I used to wear a bindi, same reactions.

The headscarf gets more publicity because of the sheer number of Muslims. But the Anglophone West is very anti-religion.

Too many people wear the cross as a fashion statement for it to be a religious symbols, so can’t compare.

A law telling a woman she is not allowed to wear a bit of cloth covering her hair and a law telling her she must wear a bit of cloth covering her hair are two sides of the same misogynist attitude.

Yes, being forced to wear a headscarf is obviously wrong...so they'll force everyone not to, even women who are choosing it freely? Horrible, illiberal idea.

@Lesperance it is being discussed, it will get discussed further.

www.francetvinfo.fr/elections/presidentielle/video-presidentielle-le-voile-est-un-uniforme-islamiste-pour-marine-le-pen-qui-veut-l-interdire-dans-l-espace-public_5069812.html

If you click on the first page of that site, it's not on there. If you listen to the news on the radio, it's not on there either. I'm not saying it is inexistant, I'm saying, it's not at all a massive issue. It's not what people are talking about. I'm sure there are many articles if you look for them, but it's not headline news. LCI and BFM are leading on opinion polls, so is le Parisien, le Monde is leading on Ukraine, as is c news, and after that there's a lot on food safety, kinder, Butoni and so on. British people seem to think this is a big issue, but it's just not going to be pivotal in this election at all.

If you listen to the news on the radio, it's not on there either - well I listened to the news this morning and she was being interviewed and this was being discussed, hence the link to franceinfo as was surpised to see you say it's not being discussed given it was literally the discussion I woke up to this morning.

Is it the major issue? No. Given that she's said she'll be mates with Putin after the war and people are still prepared to vote for her bullshit, they're hardly likely to be worrying about women's rights, are they?

I'm sure it's already been mentioned but it's been a criminal offence since like 2011 or something for a woman to wear a niqab or burka in France in public. So MLP is not banging on about anything new.

It's Zemmour's extremist rhetoric which is a far greater concern right now.

Her previously pro Putin line is what will sink MLP this time though.

Zemmour is by far the most interesting candidate. He is incredibly well read, incredibly intelligent and his meetings are massive attendance wise. But... too extreme. Which has played to the favour of Le Pen as compared to him she's moderate. Also she lost a lot of her support, including her niece to Zemmour and she carried on regardless.
She has some good young people around her, like Jordan Bardella. She is far more votable in 2022 than she was in 2017. Purchasing power is top of the agenda now, not the headscarf.

I will be voting Melanchon, not my first choice but with the hope of avoiding a Macron Le Pen run off.

And I was at the demo in Paris when JMLP made it through to round two. It was fucking massive.

Zemmour us not well read or intelligent. He is an utter charlatan and 98 percent of what he says is complete ahistorical bollocks.

@samthebordercollie

Zemmour is by far the most interesting candidate. He is incredibly well read, incredibly intelligent and his meetings are massive attendance wise. But... too extreme. Which has played to the favour of Le Pen as compared to him she's moderate. Also she lost a lot of her support, including her niece to Zemmour and she carried on regardless. She has some good young people around her, like Jordan Bardella. She is far more votable in 2022 than she was in 2017. Purchasing power is top of the agenda now, not the headscarf.

Zemmour has been convicted of inciting racial hatred a number of times.

He is neither intelligent nor well read.

He's a fascist, pure and simple.

Stop trying to minimise or excuse his behaviour.

Zemmour is also a Holocaust denier.

YY AuxArmesCitoyens I'm voting Melanchon too, he seems the least worst ATM although I don't know what he'd do if he was actually elected.

I agree that the headscarf isn't an issue for most people in this election.

I was thinking about this today, @LaurieFairyCake's suggestion that everyone should wear a headscarf in solidarity. I can't imagine that ever becoming a thing here because the perception of the headscarf as oppressive is so strong. I don't think it's seen in the same way in the UK.

The polls are saying that Macron and Le Pen are neck and neck in both rounds. I feel like I did just before Brexit and Donald's Trump's election. Kind of, no way, that could never happen...