These French women who live with the burqa

This black figure is coming shopping in the Saint-Michel district, in the heart of Paris. Fatima is not a wealthy tourist from the Gulf, but a young Muslim from France who has chosen to wear the full veil. An outfit that we did not meet so far in France and which sometimes passes for a provocation, Even in the eyes of other Muslims, like this young woman who challenges him. Me, if I decide to be veiled, I stay at home, I stay with my family and I don't go out. I go out to buy my baguette and then I limit my comings and goings and I don't expose myself like a bat, In the heart of the city. There are so many women around the world who fought for their freedom... But I am free. My husband does not submit to me. My husband, I do what I want when I want and my husband, he has nothing to say to me. There, today, I went out, it's not my husband who will tell me: "Yeah, you're not going out!" I go out when I want, with whom I want, I go where I want. That's what they want us to believe, she is lucky, for her, she is lucky, Because her husband does not share the same conviction but for other girls, it is not at all the case it is an exception. Why won't you listen to me? You're going to tell me that you don't justify yourself with your husband about your comings and goings? Look, this really must be an exceptional case. No, I reassure you, the sisters around me who wear the full veil like me, their husbands, They are exactly like mine and unfortunately you are not capable of wanting, precisely, See things as we see them. This dialogue of the deaf between the two young women is indicative of a malaise that is shaking French society. Wearing the full veil in France, since few months, the subject is controversial. It all started last June in Vénissieux, a popular suburb of Lyon with a high concentration of Muslims. These fully veiled women, more and more frequent in the streets, ended up alarming the communist mayor at the time, André Gerin, who alerts the media. Women who wear the burqa, who are in prisons full of cloth in Vénissieux, More and more, but I know it, in the Lyon region, in the Paris region, in the Lille region, And I was even told in certain rural communes where we see this situation developing. Frankly, we are in a republican country, secular and we will find ghosts in our streets. The controversy swells and rises to the top of the state. In front of the Parliament, Nicolas Sarkozy declares that this Islamic dress would be the sign of a control of the woman. She won't be welcome on the territory of the French Republic. We cannot accept in our country women trapped behind a fence, Cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity, It is not the idea that the Republic French is made of the dignity of women. But how many are these veiled women who cause a scandal? A first public report counts exactly 367. A figure whose precision will make you smile and which will soon be contradicted by a second report. There, there would be 2000, that's very few, Brought back to the 5 million Muslims in France. In fact, most veiled women are affiliated with a fringe movement here, The Salafi movement. An ultra-Orthodox branch of Islam imported into the 90s by imams who stayed in Saudi Arabia. Like Abdelkader Bouziane, former imam of Vénissieux, one of the linchpins of this movement. In 2004 he was expelled from France for his positions drastic changes in gender relations. The woman has her rights, the woman has a value, but in cases that are too tight, you can hit the woman. Example, the wife cheats on her husband. There, if it was true, he can hit her, not aim at the face, do not aim for eyes, ears, nose, no. Hit down, ie the buttocks. So we wanted to know who is hiding under these veils. Who are these young women seduced by a rigorous discourse. In any case, they do not have their language in their pocket when it comes to defending their outfits. Forbid someone to dress as they want, forbid someone to remain chaste and preserve himself, It's as barbaric as people say that we, We are obliged and that our veil is making hurt when it hurts no one. Even more astonishing, these veiled women are not all of Muslim origin. Nearly a third of them would be young French women of Catholic culture converted to Islam, Like Fatima, our stroller in the Saint-Michel district. Her name is actually Aurélie and her interlocutor finds it hard to believe her. Can we know your origins? I am French. - Yes, but what country are you from? - France. But you weren't born in France? If I was born in France, we are in France. My great parents were born in France, my name is French, everything is French. Where is my identity card? So, I am French of French origin, And I am converted, in the family no one is Muslim. So what are these French converts looking for? in this practice of radical Islam? Argenteuil, a Friday afternoon. These men and women go to a mosque some of whose followers claim Salafism. This 42-year-old Franco-Moroccan is a former math teacher. Peace be upon you, young people! He is going to preach the good word today, it is Imam Abu Omar. A star who attracts hundreds of followers every Friday. Latecomers sit on the sidewalk in front of the mosque. Like every week, young people come convert here, about twenty per month on average. This is the case of this young woman in a gray veil, This 24-year-old Frenchwoman and saleswoman in a shoe store. Her name is Christelle for a few more minutes. Then she will call herself Shyness. Well I'll be there and you will be there, I'll bring you a microphone, okay? And we're going to talk at a distance. OK ? From the large prayer room reserved for men, the imam goes lead the conversion through interposed loudspeakers and microphones. Because in a mosque, men and women do not mix. In Islam, conversion takes no more than a minute. Just recite the profession of faith. I certify... That there is no God... May Allah. I certify... That Muhammad... Is his Prophet. What are the reasons that pushed you to embrace Islam? So, in fact, since I was little, I always believed in God, But having no religious education, in fact, at home, I had to do my own research and so far, All the questions I could ask myself about God, there is only Islam where I had my answers in fact. Like Christelle, the majority of converts grew up in working-class neighborhoods. When you read it, you have to have clean hands. Do not take it in the toilet or in the shower... The Muslim religion is dominant there. This is how, in her quest for an ideal, she discovered the Koran. So I got the Koran first, that's all you have to do, not do. Everything is written in it, in fact. Have you already read it? Yes, three times, yes. Once I have finished, I read it again and so on. Welcome among your brothers and sisters. You just have to know one thing is that the best of us here, In this mosque, it's not the imam, it's nobody. There is someone who is hidden, he only God knows him. OK ? He's the best of us, maybe let it be the one who is badly dressed. It may be that it is the one that we see that it is quite simple. This is the best in our creator. So that means with us, there is no clergy, It means I'm no better than you. I'll tell you one thing you're better off than me because you have just entered Islam, All your sins are forgiven, it is as if you have just been born. It is as if you have just been born. Even on this solemn day, nothing in Islam obliges Christelle to come to the mosque covered from head to toe. By the way, what exactly does the Koran say? about women's clothing? Here is what is written. Tell the believing women to show only the outside of their finery and that they pull back their veil on their chest. It's all about interpretation. Wear a decent dress for some, a headscarf for the others. Those who choose to cover themselves entirely do not say that it is the Koran which obliges them to do so, But that they want to follow the example of the Prophet's wives. At the time, the wives of Muhammad were the the only ones to dress like this as a sign of respectability. Similarly, Salafist men dress in the image of the prophet with the beard, the white tunic and the skullcap. So why do new Muslims go so far in their practice of Islam? Samir Amghar is a sociologist. He immersed himself several months in Salafist circles to prepare his thesis. He interviewed dozens of female converts for understand their motivations for wearing the full veil. From the moment one converts to Islam, there is somewhere a lack of legitimacy, Because we are not from a Muslim family. So, somewhere, the fact of becoming Salafi, Allows the converting individual to make up for lost time and to be somewhere more Muslim than the original Muslim. You have respectability, you become a notable in the neighborhood. Back with Aurélie, this young Frenchwoman from 20 years old now dressed like a Saudi. Aurélie grew up in a family recomposed in the suburbs of Paris. With her, we return to the place of her conversion, two years ago at the Mosque of Paris, where a moderate Islam is practiced. Because at the beginning, Aurélie did not wear the full veil. It's only been a few weeks since she decided to dress like this, Out of conviction, but also to escape the gaze of men. I was very happy to be able to go out with my niqab. I didn't care so much. I was fulfilled, I felt good, I felt liberated, I really felt in tune with myself. For me, it was really a protection. Because for me, a woman's face is her beauty, And it is also a temptation for men. A woman's face, that's what will say, If she is beautiful or if finally she does not please him. So that means that in the street, when I was walking and a man could see my face and say to himself: "This woman, she is beautiful." Well that means that since I have was the temptation and that he was tempted, We were paid the same. We had so many sins. Her husband, a 25-year-old Muslim, did not wish to be filmed, But he does not share his wife's convictions on the veil. Because he knows it in many public places, the women covered in this way are not welcome. Mid-October at the Rhône prefecture, in Lyon. We find there André Gerin, the PC deputy who gave the alert on the integral veil. Four months after the creation of its commission of inquiry, auditions continue throughout France. And Lyon is one of the cities of France where the phenomenon is most visible. Here, everyone feels concerned. - Annick Teyssèdre, the principal of the college ****. - Anyway, thank you for being here. The deputy notably summoned local elected officials. Facing him is the mayor of Meyzieu, a town of 30,000 inhabitants of the Lyon suburbs. I'll give you the floor right away so that you can give a your point of view, your feeling and your experience. Over the past ten years, he has not met only four fully veiled women. But each time, it posed difficulties. You know, we had the problem, the Mayors, at some weddings where the bride was arriving, You couldn't recognize his face. I myself had to deal with a problem, A day when a woman came with the burqa and wanted to go home at the Meyzieu swimming pool accompanied by her young children. So we explained to him that it was not possible because there was an administrative regulation, Which forbade, in Meyzieu, to enter a swimming pool other than in a bathing suit. It's always cases that I have settled in the code of republican principles, Someone who wanted an ID, we gave him her identity card only when she removed the veil. It was obviously a provocation. There is a place where it gets stuck a lot more, it's in the hospital, As told to the committee, it's two doctors and this midwife. It's not so much the burqa that's a problem for us. It is the whole procession of phenomena that accompanies it, Essentially in the public hospital, it is refusal to be taken care of by a man, And at night, in the delivery room, you can't not guarantee them that there will only be women, For sharp ultrasounds, for an extraction by a forceps or a cesarean section at night, there is no choice of sex. When one is fully veiled, many activities day-to-day become a problem, Like taking care of yourself or even working. This is the case of Aurélie, who had to give up finding a job. Difficult indeed, with such an outfit to get hired. So she took her destiny hand on the market of Mantes-la-Jolie. This is where she comes to provide herself with fabrics to make a living out of it. She makes Islamic tunics, home, which it then sells on the Internet. Excuse me. 1€? You can feel the texture well, even with your gloves on, do you mind? Now I used to, I used to touch and so I pretty much still see the fabric, What material is it, if it's elastic enough or not, if it is quite light or rather thick, And so actually, now it's fine, even with the gloves, I manage to touch the fabrics. Originally, Aurélie did not intend to become a seamstress. The girl did two years of law. But between the lawyer's robe and the Islamic veil, her decision was quickly made. There are women, they will decide to make a career and they will be able to support a family. And that's good, it's their choice. Me, I'm happy at home. I am fulfilled at home with my husband and maybe with my children later, And be able to take care of them, see them grow up, take them to school, Do their homework with them, make them to eat. For me, that's the purpose of my life. With this work, Aurélie manages to earn between 400 and 800€ per month. Wearing the full veil is not only put on an unusual outfit, It also means accepting an extremely restrictive way of life. In the Salafist movement, everything is even perfectly codified in books. As this book shows that we are obtained in a specialized bookshop. It is written by Saudi authors and is aimed at women. All the daily gestures are there dictated by religious references. On the question of perfume, for example. "It is not permitted because it could intoxicate men." About wearing a bra. "A deception on illicit appearance only permitted for the relief of pain." About listening to music. "Listening to songs accompanied by music is unlawful." Because any entertainment would distance the Muslim from his practice. And there is like that a whole litany on marriage, clothes, medical care or even on divorce. In short, a real straitjacket, a life between authorizations and prohibitions. Aurélie got used to it. Today, she banished from her library all her romance novels that could give him emotions. Because emotion in Salafism is a sin. Intimate male-female relationships it's not something you're going to read, Precisely, it is something intimate, which remains between the man and the woman. It's not going to be read by others or even watched by others. On television, she limits herself to watching the news. Because the message of entertainment and advertising would be an attack on good morals. But in fact, I often watch cartoons, like Walt Disney, like that, Walt Disney, Pocahontas. It's a love story between a woman and a man, though? Yes, but it's a cartoon, plus it's classics. The old ones, they are really good because really, it remains a little bit into magic, fairy tales, all that, It's really... Precisely, since it's already for children, There aren't really any things that are shocking or anything. But even in today's cartoons, sometimes I find it a little shocking. What is a little shocking for example? Like Titeuf, he talks about the penis, stuff like that... Me, personally, I would not like my kids can watch something like that. On the clothing side, Aurélie has the obligation to make herself beautiful for her husband. She can therefore afford certain coquetry under the veil. But his choices are limited. Not question for example of wearing heels. It is not recommended because we cheat on our height. With heels, we cheat, we make look bigger than you really are. So basically, it's like we're twisting how we were made. It's like the fact that we shouldn't pluck our eyebrows, it's so as not to distort the way we are made. Aurélie seems happy, it must be said that she chose this way of life. But how do we live under the veil when it is imposed? Back under the golds of the Rhône prefecture, where the parliamentary commission of inquiry sits. It is the turn of these activists to intervene. They defend women's rights in sensitive neighborhoods. In front of parliamentarians, they will act as spokespersons of those other veiled women who can never express themselves. But within the framework of the fundamentals of a society. I simply wanted to tell you that the young girls expect a lot from you, Mr President, gentlemen. And many of this parliamentary committee, the few young girls who dare to speak to me and who wear the full veil, Live it like a sequestration, real and that they undergo it as an extreme evil of living. Many even think about suicide, but one of them told me last year, If I commit suicide and I miss myself, the consequences will be even more dramatic. So I don't have long speeches to make to you, In any case simply to tell you that indeed there are girls in great pain, Not just in so-called sensitive neighborhoods but everywhere. And this suffering that represents for some women the wearing of the full veil, One of them agreed to talk to us about it. Who would have thought that this rather sexy woman lived under a full veil three years ago. Marie, 30, came out with pleasure of her closets, skirts and high heels. All the ingredients of an assumed femininity. This French mother of Catholic origin has came across Islam by chance while reading, ten years ago. And it was love at first sight. Until then, its life had been chaotic, alcohol, drugs, rape... Then Mary marries a convert and decides on her own to wear the full veil under which she finds refuge. The veil, I put it on because I wanted to hide myself. I put it on to protect myself. So. What are you protecting from? Of men, of men's eyes, of violence of men, of men's desire, Of the instinct of possession of the man on the woman. And finally, I locked myself away to free myself from that. Why were you so afraid of men, of men's eyes? Too many attacks. And then I certainly think, maybe it's hard at this point... How to say, to understand my femininity. What was it like to be a woman? What did that entail? How as a woman should I behave? Mary is going to wear the veil and above all bow to the dogmas of Salafism. But all these constraints end up weighing him down. I was always in a feeling of guilt, of not doing enough, not doing it well enough, Not thinking right, not feeling what was needed. That's just it. Even my feelings were guilt-ridden. After eight years, Marie suffocates, intellectually and even physically imprisoned under her veil, More and more difficult to bear. It's still very uncomfortable to wear a sailing all the time. There, in summer, it is hot. In addition, I immediately started to put on big sails, big fabric that slipped, That had to be put back all the time, that had to be tightened completely for it to hold, So I put safety pins which, downright, got under my skin. Always the hair cover, the large veil and then the shapeless djellaba underneath so... Without makeup, eyebrows not plucked. Finally, really... So here it is, after a while, frankly, I couldn't bear to look at myself in the mirror anymore. Now divorced, Marie tries with her three children to rebuild this lost French identity, Muslim but woman above all. For Aurélie, there is no question of giving up this veil. She would experience it as a failure. So to motivate herself on a daily basis, she reads her bedside books on Islam every day, which she has meticulously annotated. Trust in God, love of God, patience, repentance. Me, it's already happened to me to have drops of faith, we speak to God personally, He is asked: "Help me, help me to strengthen my faith." But it happens, it does happen. To better practice her religion, the young woman is ready for anything, Even to go and live in Saudi Arabia, the country of veiled women. There are so many things that are done for women Muslims that here, in France, we could not do. For example, in Saudi Arabia, I have a sister who went there, who told me, she said to me: "There are private beaches", There are private beaches where the sisters Are bathing. There are malls, They are specialized, the sisters can do all their shopping is really only for women. But you realize it's still a diet oppressive enough, Saudi Arabia? It is a difficult country. We don't have that image because for us, it's liberating. While waiting to realize his Saudi dream, Aurélie has just signed up for Arabic lessons. And if one day, a law of the French Republic forbids her to wear her full veil, She will choose not to leave her home.