Faiza Mabchour denied French citizenship due to niqab
Faiza Mabchour from Morocco has been denied French citizenship due to her French husband want her to wear niqab. The reason given was wearing niqab is “incompatible with the essential values of the French community and, notably, the principle of equality of the sexes.”
Faiza Mabchour married to a Frenchman in 2000 and first applied for French citizenship on 2004. Her application was denied 2005 and she appeal to the Council of State with the reason of religious freedom.
News Update:
French applaud decision to deny woman citizenship over veil - GlobeandMail.Com (2008-07-16)
PARIS — Politicians, feminists and some Muslim leaders here are applauding a court decision to deny citizenship to a Muslim woman from Morocco whose French husband requires her to completely cover her face and body.
Mother dressed in 'burka' denied French citizenship - TimesOnline (2008-07-17)
A Muslim member of the French Government has attacked the head-to-toe Islamic dress as a prison, applauding a court decision to deny citizenship to a Moroccan woman who wore it.
France denies citizenship to veiled Muslim woman - The Huffington Post (2008-07-16)
On June 27, France's highest administrative body, the Council of State, ruled that the woman, identified only as Faiza X, had "adopted a radical practice of her religion incompatible with the essential values of the French community, notably with the principle of equality of the sexes, and therefore she does not fulfill the conditions of assimilation" listed in the country's Civil Code as a requirement for gaining French citizenship.
A Muslim woman too orthodox for France - International Herald Tribune (2008-07-18)
"I would never have imagined that they would turn me down because of what I choose to wear," Silmi said, her hazel eyes looking out of the narrow slit in her niqab, an Islamic facial veil that is among three flowing layers of turquoise, blue and black that cover her body from head to toe.
Why France can't see past the burqa - csmonitor.com (2008-07-21)
Moroccan-born Faiza Mabchour speaks French fluently, has three children born in France, and a French husband. Yet France's top administrative court last month denied her bid for citizenship. Yet no French law regulates what clothes people can wear in their homes or general public. (France bans head scarves and other conspicuous religious symbols in public schools.) So Mabchour's burqa is lawful. That France should deny her citizenship on the sole basis of her behavior within the sphere of her own family is inconsistent with normal French tolerance of the private lives of its citizens.
