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Violation Of Women Rights In France

(1) THE NEWS - Read what is happening in FRANCE and if you already know, then read (2 below)

➨Stuck in Muslim limbo: http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=227bb35e5180f9d7 (12/19/03) <<<NEW STORY>>>

➨French Press Debates Headscarf Ban:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3330831.stm (12/18/03) (SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL ARTICLE ON THIS PAGE.)

➨French Officials Back Head Scarf Ban - IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031218/ap_on_re_eu/france_head_scarves_16 (12/18/03)

"France's political and religious leaders welcomed, some cautiously, President Jacques Chirac's decision to pass a law banning Islamic head scarves and other conspicuous religious symbols in public schools."

"Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said he would move quickly to vote the law in before the start of the new school year in September [2004]. With both Chirac's majority right and the opposition Socialists in favor, passage seemed certain."

➨French Press Debates Headscarf Ban: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3330831.stm (12/18/03)

➨The deep roots of French secularism: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3325285.stm (12/18/03)

➨Islam's All-Enveloping Hijab is Hip in Indonesia! HEADS UP FRANCE ~ HERE IS A HISTORY LESSON FOR YOU!!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031218/lf_nm/indonesia_fashion_dc_1 (12/18/03)

➨Q & A: Muslim Headscarves: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3328277.stm (12/17/03)

➨Headscarf Row Hides Deeper Issues: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3311485.stm (12/11/03)

➨Jewish Dad Backs Headscarf Daughters: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3149588.stm (10/01/03)

✧French Press Debates Headscarf Ban✧

The proposed law is seen as targeting Muslim headscarf.

The French president's call for legislation to ban the wearing of religious symbols in state schools has been greeted with a mixture of cautious approval and skepticism in the press.

Some papers welcome the move - universally seen as targeting the Islamic headscarf.

Others feel the bill fails to address the underlying problems of France's increasingly diverse society.

Some commentators dismiss the legislation as irrelevant, arguing that the country has much more pressing problems to deal with.

✧Mark in history✧

The centrist daily Le Monde says the president made a point of answering those who feared that the ban would "stigmatize" the Muslim faith.

It quotes him as saying that Islam "has its full place among all the great religions" practiced in France, and that the training of imams of French nationality would be "a new step" towards "the affirmation of a culturally French Islam".

But it also publishes a cartoon showing a bearded mullah angrily wrapping a helpless-looking schoolgirl in a headscarf while President Chirac wraps his proposed bill around the mullah.

The right-of-centre Le Figaro believes the president's address to the nation is not just about the headscarf ban.

"We had been told what to expect: the president did not intend to speak only about secularism and even less to limit the reach of his speech to the headscarf issue. He wanted to speak about France, its foundations, its principles."

He was seeking "to leave his mark in History - a big one - while not forgetting the small one and the approach of the regional elections".

"He also had to conciliate in the same speech the rad-soc [radical socialist] Chirac, grandson of a teacher and guardian of the values of the Republic, and the minstrel of the dialogue of cultures, the head of state adulated by the Arab world. And he did quite well," says Le Figaro.

✧'Failure Of Integration'✧

Paris's Liberation similarly believes the decision to legislate is linked to the regional elections, also noting that Mr Chirac rejected new national holidays to mark Jewish and Muslim festivals.

"In both cases, he wants to prevent the far-right from exploiting the increasing number of identity problems, which worsen as the failure of the policy of integration fuels the trend for minorities to turn inward."

He failed to mention "the government's inability" to pursue integration, or "what new means it intends to deploy to deal with the causes - and not just the effects - of social disintegration", adds Liberation.

✧Symptom Not A Cause✧

The regional paper Paris-Normandie argues that the entire debate on religious freedoms in France is irrelevant.

"Saddam Hussein has been captured, the (European) Union has broken down, the world economy is slow to recover, unemployment is taking root, but France chooses to debate secularism!"

It goes on to lament "the national genius that makes us capable of tearing one another apart over a social issue of interest to no-one but ourselves".

The debate over headscarf is merely a symptom of deeper problems facing France, the paper believes.

"It is a question of tackling the problems of integration, discrimination, gender equality and social and economic inequality. And it is not with a new law that such problems can be solved."

(2) What are we going to do about this?

Please send the e-mail below to these French embassies.

Everything is written below for you, of course, you can always write your own original letter!

The e-mail addresses are as follows: (If you select the text of the entire paragraph of email addresses and paste them into the address line of an open "compose" window in your email account, you can quickly address your email; it is not necessary to re-type all of the addresses, and this way you don't risk making typographical mistakes.)

COPY AND PASTE ADDRESSES:

presse.londres-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr, webmaster@france-in-india.org, consulat@ambafrance-cn.org, consulfr@public.wh.hb.cn, info@consulfrance-shanghai.org, consul.france@actrix.gen.nz, consulat@consulfrance-sydney.org, consul@france.org.sg, webmaster@amba-france.dk, embassy@ambafrance-au.org, presse@ambafrance-pl.org, rub@c3.hu, webmaster@wlink.com.np, ambachyp@spidernet.com.cy, ifa@ifa.gr, web.master@ambafrance-ly.org, info@botschaft-frankreich.de, chancellerie.yaounde-amba@diplomatie.gouv.fr, ambafran@hol.gr, amba.france@telecom.net.et, info@facsea.org, ambafr@emirates.net.ae , ambafrsc@emirates.net.ae, ambafr@iconnect.co.ke, ambafrance@bigpond.com.kh, stephane.harzelec@diplomatie.gouv.fr, sirp@cybercable.fr,

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Jazakallahu Khayran!

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In Support of Hijab

FRANCE!

Take a History

Lesson from Indonesia!

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Dear President Jacques Chirac,

I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the proposed banning of Islamic headscarves in French State schools. An action such as this will have a huge detrimental effect on Muslim schoolgirls, and the French society at a whole.

I fully understand France is a secular state where religion and politics are divided. However wearing the headscarf does not conflict with the secularism. A Muslim schoolgirl wearing the headscarf, or a Jewish boy wearing the Jewish skullcaps are not propagating or preaching their religious faiths but they are simply following them.

With over five million Muslims and a large Jewish community, this type of law, which is being suggested, would unfairly alienate large groups of French society. In many cases it will prevent schoolchildren from gaining an education, as parents may prohibit their children from attending school without wearing the religion attire.

Furthermore I regret to say an action such as this by the French government would only increase Islamic fundamentalism. Radical terrorist groups would use this law to convince imperishable Muslim youths that the western world does view Islam as an enemy.

I strongly urge you to not pass such a discriminatory law that has no benefits to France or to Europe. We also wonder, would France and other countries that don't give freedom to Muslim women to cover, consider passing a law banning all photographs and paintings in Christian institutions depicting the Mother Mary with a headscarf?

Sincerely,

[DELETE THIS TEXT AND TYPE YOUR NAME IN HERE – YOU CAN HIT "ENTER" TO TYPE MORE.]

Quran on hijab as followed and interpreted by Muhammad (saw) in numerous hadiths:

"And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, or their brothers' sons or their sisters' sons, or their women or the servants whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex, and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O you Believers, turn you all together towards Allah, that you may attain Bliss." (Qur'an 24:31)

"O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognized and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful." (Qur'an 33:59)

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(3) After sending an e-mail to President Jacques Chirac, you may forward this e-mail or web link to inform other about this violation and each person counts, even if you forward it to 1 person, it would be great. May God Bless You.