The Forgotten Muslims

In all the talk of the France riots, it occurs to me that it's only men we see rioting. This brings me back to an issue typically ignored by the media, particularly the French media (although it seems to have been getting more exposure lately), the fate of muslim women in European society. This long article by Marie Brenner in Vanity Fair last year illustrates the darker side fairly well.

I'm no expert, and I haven't been in Paris long enough to become one, but anecdotally, it seems to me that young French muslim women are more eager to integrate into French society than their brothers. For many muslim girls, the freedom afforded to non-muslim women in French culture is very appealing. But frequently, as Brenner's article makes clear, that freedom remains elusive.

Islamic extremism may be pretty rare in France, but conservative cultural attitudes regarding muslim women seem pretty commonplace in muslim communities. It seems to me that if French society truly wants to preach equality and understanding to its muslim citizens, it needs to start enforcing the rights not only of job applicants to a fair hearing, but of muslim girls to live free lives not just by muslim standards, but by French standards. That will mean making forced marriages illegal, for example. It would also mean interfering in the family affairs of conservative muslims, and I don't think Chirac and co have the guts, especially not now.

But either French social norms must apply equally to all, or be condemned as hypocritical. I think, sadly, we can see which is more likely.