On Friday, it was revealed that the nation's highest administrative authority has denied a woman's naturalization application on the grounds that she's effectively too Muslim.
The July 27 decision was revealed in Le Monde, which began its story asking whether "the burqa is incompatible with French nationality" The story suggested the answer is apparently yes, and unfurled that tale of a 32 year-old native Moroccan woman identified as Faiza M. as evidence. Though married to a French citizen and the mother of their three, French-born children, Faiza M. was denied citizenship on the grounds that she has "adopted a religious practice incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes".
France has gone even farther than not allowing religious symbols in the classroom (effectively discriminating against Muslim women who wear the veil) by actually denying a woman citizenship, because she is Muslim. Wow. Besides the fact that this is clearly the imposition of the religion of secularism by the French state onto this woman, I am appalled at the exploitation of the rhetoric of feminism. I am certainly not the guardian of feminism, but my definition of feminism certainly does not justify xenophobic and discriminatory treatment of women and completely deny their agency as individuals.
