ISLAMOPHOBIA IS PUSHING FRENCH MUSLIM PROFESSIONAL WOMEN TO LEAVE FRANCE
By Nisa Efendioğlu
October 2023
Executive Summary
This report explores the experience of French Muslim professionals in relation to Islamophobia. To gather insights, the author conducted 20 in-depth interviews with Muslim women who have either left or plan to leave France to pursue their careers. The report concludes by presenting a list of recommendations based on the participants' expressed views during the interviews.
The key findings of the report are as follows:
- Muslim women in France, especially those who are visibly identifiable as Muslims, face substantial discrimination, leading to a deficiency in social acceptance. This often compels them to search for work opportunities beyond French borders.
- While the assertive policies restrict hijab-wearing women from working in the public sector entirely, these policies form a basis in the private sector for discriminating against the hijab and fortifying Islamophobia at the societal level. This results in the lack of acceptance of hijab-wearing in society, even though these women were born and raised in France, with high education and professional skills to contribute to the country. The hijab ban also ostracizes hijab-wearing women and girls in schools impacting their career progression and overall well-being negatively. Furthermore, hijab-wearing women are not allowed in educational settings as volunteers to share their skills and experience, despite their motivation to give back to French society. Prevention of participation in civil society activities is another area Muslim women feel unaccepted in the country.
- A substantial number of French Muslim professionals have already chosen to leave France and pursue their careers abroad, driven away by the degree of pervasiveness of Islamophobia in France. Others who remain in the country have to make difficult decisions, too: Some choose to remove their hijabs as a concession to societal pressure, while others opt out of the workforce altogether to avoid the discrimination they face.
Both the state policies and society’s discriminatory attitudes toward Muslims in France prevent unbiased interaction with the French Muslim community and individuals. The absence of solution-oriented policies regarding a community that makes up 10 percent of the population deepens the problem, especially for women.
Introduction
France is home to an estimated 7 million Muslims, making up about 10 percent of the country’s population. With the rise of Islamophobia in recent decades, the Muslim community – which is larger than the population of many European countries – is exposed to both social and institutional discrimination. While social acceptance of Muslims in the West remains a social issue in the current Islamophobic and xenophobic conjuncture, having assertive secular policies, the French government directly intervenes in the lives of people. The government aspires to form a society by claiming to free the government from the influence of religion. However, the secular policies that ban wearing “ostentatious” religious symbols in the public sphere stigmatize many religious French citizens, particularly hijab-wearing Muslim women.
In 2004, France prohibited religious symbols including hijabs in schools, and in 2010 it extended the ban to full-face veils in public. In a recent television interview, Education Minister Gabriel Attal further announced his decision to prohibit the wearing of abayas –loose modest dresses – in schools. “Upon entering a classroom, one should not be able to identify students' religious affiliations merely through their attire,” he stated. Olivier Véran, the government spokesperson, echoed this sentiment, labeling the abaya as “not just a religious garment, but also a political statement”.
The ban on hijab spreads to other fields of life. Athletes representing France would be barred from wearing headscarves during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris because of the French way of approaching secularism and religious symbols according to French Minister of Sport, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who highlighted the “representatives of our delegations, in our French teams, will not wear the headscarf”.
Implementation of such policies through institutions legitimizes Islamophobia across various public and private spheres and promotes negative attitudes and discrimination toward Muslims. Despite the UN declaring the face veil ban as a violation of human rights in 2018 calling for France to review its ban on full-face coverings, and criticizing the latest decision on the 2024 Olympics as discrimination against women, the government continues to justify these restrictions in the name of secularism.
These measures have fueled a continuing debate about Islamophobia in France, as they appear to disproportionately target Muslims. Islamophobia reports highlight that, to distract society from national issues, Muslims in France often become subjects of political arguments as a threat to secularism. Demonizing Muslims prevents voicing the serious problems Muslim French citizens face in the country. This situation raises critical questions about the balance between protecting secularism as a way to separate church and state and respecting religious freedom, particularly in relation to the Muslim population.
Given that one out of ten people in France is Muslim, the size is projected to increase in the upcoming years, and that younger generation Muslims remain loyal to their faith (91%) compared to members of other religions, it is necessary to take a closer look at the Muslim community in France to observe the consequences of current policies and to address issues effectively. Among many, the hijab ban in France deserves particular attention from multiple perspectives as it prevents Muslim women from accessing core institutions such as education and labor. As hijab is a visible Muslim attire for women only, discrimination against hijab is considered a form of gendered Islamophobia- that is, women experience Islamophobia differently than men. Therefore, approaching the issue from the women's rights and gender equality perspective is particularly important to understand where the hijab-wearing Muslim women are positioned in France in relation to the other women in the country.
France has a long history of promoting women’s empowerment; it passed the equal pay law in 1972, and another law on professional equality in 1983. In recent years, France indicated more progress in gender equality; the number of women political representatives almost doubled between 2010 and 2020, and businesses have three times as many women decision-makers as a decade ago – placing France as the third country in the EU for gender equality.In terms of labor force participation, the gender gap is among the lowest in France compared to all OECD countries. Despite having hospitable policies for women's empowerment and promoting their involvement in the labor market, this is not the case for Muslim women wearing hijab. As described by Crenshaw’s political intersectionality concept, the French system excludes Muslim females from the positive developments for women in the country. Ironically, in an environment encouraging women to participate in various aspects of life, being a woman with a Muslim identity becomes a disadvantage. and women wearing hijab experience discrimination because of their identities in the exact areas that women are encouraged to participate such as the labor market. Considering that 31 percent of the Muslim women in France reported that they wear hijab as of 2019, the number of women exposed to the hijab ban is already high, even without the Muslim women who unwillingly removed their hijab to comply with the hijab ban.
The research in this report focuses on Islamophobia directed towards educated and high-skilled hijab-wearing Muslim women in France. Through interviews with hijab-wearing French women who have either already left or are planning to leave France in order to preserve their professional lives, it aims to explore how the hijab ban in France affects their participation in the labor force in France, their experiences, and decisions to leave the country. It is argued in this study that the hijab ban in the country leads to institutional discrimination and induces Islamophobia at the societal level. The findings are expected to provide information and recommendations to policymakers and non-governmental organizations, as well as to contribute to the literature on discrimination in the axis of gender and Islamophobia.
French Hijab Ban as an Institutional Discrimination
In recent years, Islamophobia has been increasing across Europe and discriminatory and intimidating actions are becoming more prevalent. For Muslim women who wear hijab their visible religious identity becomes a target in various aspects of life, particularly in labor participation. While market punishment is real for Muslim women in many Western countries driven by social prejudice, in France, policies like the hijab ban institutionalize discrimination against Muslim women and play a justifying role in social exclusion.
Muslim women experience various forms of discrimination based on their religious attire in many Western societies. Studies show that religion plays a more significant role than race and ethnicity for employment in the UK where Muslim women were found to be the most disadvantaged,and the experiment in Germany that was conducted with three identical fictitious CVs for job applications showed that the CV with a Muslim name and a picture with a hijab was the least responded compared to those with a Muslim name and photo without hijab, and in comparison to the CV of the character with a German name and image.Another study in Germany reports that after experiencing discrimination in the past, 48 percent of Muslim women with hijab do not apply for jobs believing they do not have any chance, compared to 31 percent of Muslim men and 22 percent of Muslim women without hijab. In the US, hijab-wearing women have lower expectations of receiving a job than Muslim women without hijab, particularly for occupations with higher public contact and higher job status.
While the French Muslim women interviewed in this study also reported similar experiences in the labor market, compared to other countries, France is a unique case as it does not allow hijab-wearing women to work at any rank in public institutions at all, and the private sector is reluctant to hire these women by taking shelter behind the secularist discourse of the French government. Such policy-driven discrimination leads to systematic disenfranchisement against Muslim women in the French labor market. Furthermore, the French system forces Muslim female students at public schools to choose between two options; either to remove their hijab (and other loose clothing like abayas) to continue their education, or to give up schooling altogether and keeping their hijab on. Being stranded in such a dichotomy that is presented as mutually exclusive by the policies, hijab-wearing females are exposed to continuous psychological pressure and discouraged from pursuing education – which is precondition for professional and high-skilled labor.
Ramifications of the hijab ban for France
The ban at public institutions, and biases, prejudices and discrimination against hijab in private sector (and other social interactions such as training) compel many hijab-wearing women in France to remove their hijab or leave the labor market and civil society engagement (volunteer work, etc). Exclusion of the hijab-wearing women overlooks the professional skills these women have and their potential contribution to the labor force in France. In a broader sense, such discrimination creates a labor utilization issue in the country, which undermines the workers’ rights as well.
Marginalization of Muslims due to a concerning level of Islamophobia drives many Muslim professionals to seek better job opportunities abroad. To be able to practice their religion more freely was the main reason for two-thirds of the French Muslims abroad, the survey Esteves conducted with 1,074 Muslims who left France reveals. 70 percent of them also mentioned that they migrated to avoid discrimination and racism in the country. The findings in this report confirms the mentioned presence of discrimination against their religion and restrictions on religious practices, particularly from women’s perspective.
Along with that, taking education rights off the hands of those who desire to practice their religion is another discrimination that has long-term consequences, such as creating barriers for Muslim women to access skilled work and professional life, which increases the gender gap in labor as well.
As Muslims in France are of migrant-origins mostly due to the colonial history, education is also an essential component for the French-born generation to have social mobility. Implementing a hijab ban at schools directly alienates Muslim girls and represses Muslim boys who witness it. Educational attainment is an important indicator of migrant integration, and the EU encourages similar levels of education for both the natives and migrants in member countries.yet, such obstructive policies in France undermine the integration of migrants and their French-born descendants.
Methodology
This research is designed as semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 French Muslim women professionals who either left or are planning to leave France. In order to find such a specific profile of women – highly educated professional Muslim French women who left/leaving the country), a snowball sampling methodology is implemented, and personal referrals are used to create connections. Given the sensitivity of the topic, among 40 women who were contacted, half of them accepted to participate.
All participants are French citizens and belong to the second or third generation of Muslims in France. This implies that they were born and raised in France, native French speakers, and educated under French curriculums, indicating that they are not different from their fellow citizens in terms of their abilities. Participants are selected based on diverse professional backgrounds and ethnicity as the Muslim community in France is overwhelmingly composed of people with migrant origins from North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Turkiye. The deliberate selection of participants from varied backgrounds was done purposefully, as the research aims to capture a comprehensive understanding of the Muslim experience in general, rather than focusing solely on the experiences of individuals from a specific country of origin. French native converts compose only 1 percent of the Muslim population of France,the size was too low to find Muslim convert French women who intended to leave the country, therefore they were omitted.
All the research participants in this study are high educated; they have achieved at least a master’s degree in France, which places them at the 15 percent of the French population with a graduate degree. The interviews conducted with the participants included 12 questions. The questions posed to the interviewees aimed to elicit their experiences with Islamophobia in France, their perceptions of France and being French, as well as their reasons for leaving or considering leaving the country. These questions were intended to encourage the participants to express their perspectives on the relationship between France, Islamophobia, and their personal experiences. To facilitate later analysis, the interviews were recorded using a voice recorder. It is worth noting that all interviews were conducted in English.
We observe that many people were not willing to attend and showed strong hesitancy because of the oppressive system. Participation in this study was voluntary. Among those who agreed to participate, in some cases, the interviewer encountered challenges in initially encouraging the interviewees to speak openly. Many participants expressed hesitancy at first. However, they were reassured that their identities would be kept confidential if they preferred. As a result, pseudonyms are used to report the data for participants, ensuring their anonymity and privacy.
The aim of the report was twofold:
- To examine the nature and extent of Islamophobia directed towards Muslim women in France.
- To present a list of recommendations to combat Islamophobia based on the participants' expressed views during the interviews.
Findings
During the interviews conducted for this study, highly educated Muslim women consistently expressed that wearing the hijab was prohibited in the public sector in France, leaving them with only one option: the private sector.However, they noted an unwillingness among French companies to recruit visible Muslim women. Despite being educated in France and having a desire to contribute to their country, these women expressed frustration with the way they were treated.
Three common themes emerged from the interviews:
- Discrimination: The participants experienced discrimination based on their religious identity and hijab-wearing, which hindered their professional opportunities.
- Lack of societal acceptance: The participants expressed a sense of not being fully accepted by French society, which resulted in feelings of exclusion.
- Desire to leave France: The aforementioned challenges created a push factor for many participants to seek alternatives outside of France to pursue their professional lives in a more supportive environment.
Discrimination in daily life and job experience
Focusing on educated and skilled hijab-wearing Muslim French women in various professions, this study finds that hijab-wearing women experience discrimination based on their appearance regardless of their education, professional experience and skills, and country of origin. Despite the value attributed to gender equality, women empowerment, women's rights, and significant progress both in policy making and academia, women with hijab are dismissed from these discussions/. Furthermore, it is observed that the discourses of enlightenment and secularism are specifically used as tools to oppress Muslims in various aspects of social and professional life. Such discourses are used to justify this collective and institutionalized discrimination against Muslims. The examples included in this work explain the situation more clearly.
Amal, a 28-year-old entrepreneur in the Fintech industry, is among the numerous highly skilled Muslim professionals who no longer feel welcome in France and are choosing to take their talents elsewhere, where they feel more appreciated. She shares a personal experience of discrimination, stating: “Once, I volunteered at a business school to teach students about starting a business. However, the school director informed me that’ I couldn't speak to the students because of my hijab. They insisted that I remove my scarf, even though I clarified that I was not a student but a volunteer. I firmly stood my ground and refused to remove my hijab, stating that I would not compromise my religious identity. Unfortunately, they responded by saying that I couldn't participate if I didn't remove it.”
Amal's account highlights a specific incident of discrimination she faced while trying to contribute to the youth in France by sharing her skills and professional knowledge as a volunteer. Aside from her acceptance for such a position as she was qualified with her professional background, volunteering is a means of active citizenship that requires motivation and indicates dedication to supporting fellow French citizens free of charge. This anecdote emphasizes the challenges Muslim professionals encounter in France, where their religious attire becomes a barrier to their participation and contribution in various professional settings as well as in activities that they willingly engage in to give back to society.
Amran, a 23-year-old student who holds two master’s degrees, in International Affairs and Economic Intelligence, shares her experiences of discrimination, both in public spaces and in her professional life:
“In the streets, there have been instances where people would randomly shout at me, ‘Take your scarf off!!!’ I feel that since I started wearing the hijab, people have been less open to engaging in conversations with me. I have noticed a decline in job interview opportunities since I started wearing it.”
Amran also serves as a city councilor in Villenave d'Ornon, located near Bordeaux. She mentions that when she initially started her role, she did not wear the hijab. However, once she started wearing it, she was informed that she would be expected to remove it during municipal council meetings. Alternatively, she was told that it would be “better not to come at all.” Despite there being no legal prohibition, they simply do not want her to attend with her hijab. As a result, she chooses not to attend these meetings to avoid potential complications within the political field in Bordeaux.
Amran's account sheds light on the everyday instances of Islamophobia and discrimination faced by Muslim women in France. It indicates how choosing to wear the hijab can lead to the exclusion of women whose abilities and capacity had already been recognized both in public spaces and professional environments, despite there being no legal basis for such discrimination.
Furthermore, Amran’s comment above regarding her being exposed to derogatory comments on the street also draws a picture of the atmosphere in the country for Muslims. The secularist policy-led biases and prejudices give courage and confidence to Islamophobics to verbally attack Muslims in public, which creates a threat and raises security concerns. The indifference of law enforcement in the country against violations of the human rights of Muslims incites discriminatory behaviors toward them in various settings, including their everyday activities such as walking on the street.
Melika, a medical student in Romania who also holds a master’s degree in ergonomics emphasizes that discrimination against visible Muslims extends beyond the workplace and occurs even on the streets. She shares a personal experience from 2-3 years ago, where someone shouted at her, saying “France is for French citizens,” demonstrating that she was not recognized as a French citizen. Melika was waiting for a train at a station to go to Paris when this incident occurred. Initially, she was taken aback and unsure if the comment was directed towards her. However, she responded by asserting her French identity, and thankfully, the person eventually left the train station. Melika believes that Islamophobia in France is worsening with each passing year.
Additionally, Melika recounts another instance of discrimination she faced while working as a babysitter during her master's studies. On the second day of the job, the child's mother asked her to remove her hijab. The mother expressed concern about her child's education and interrogated Melika about the reasons behind her hijab and its significance.
These anecdotes shared by Melika illustrate the pervasive nature of Islamophobia in France, affecting individuals both in public spaces and private settings. The experiences highlight the challenges faced by visible Muslims, including verbal harassment, exclusion, and pressures to conform to societal norms in order to secure employment or maintain professional opportunities.
Tanir, a counselor and educational trainer, shares an experience of Islamophobia that she encountered on the streets of France. She recalls an incident where she was accompanied by her sisters-in-law, and a lady approached them and made derogatory comments, saying, “Shame on you! We are in the 21st century, and you're still wearing old women's dress.” Tanir and her sisters-in-law chose not to respond and assumed that the lady might have had mental issues.
This account illustrates the verbal harassment and derogatory remarks faced by visible Muslim women in public spaces in France. Tanir's decision not to engage in a confrontation reflects a common response among individuals facing such incidents, often opting to ignore the comments and move on.
Both Malika and Tanir’s experiences on the streets show that by normalizing discrimination against Muslims, the current policies play an inviting role for some members of French society who are biased against Muslims to see the right to interfere with Muslim women’s identities and ribaldly demand Muslim women remove their hijabs in casual settings as well.
Sarah, a 30-year-old professional, shares her experience of facing significant challenges while looking for a job in France. She highlights the discrimination she encountered and the stark contrast she observed between job opportunities in France and the United Kingdom:
“After completing my studies, I began applying for jobs in France. I was aware that it would be difficult, even for internships. In France, job applications include a photo on the CV, and I carried this deep-seated complex, knowing that I might not be accepted. When you have a Muslim name, you already anticipate having fewer chances. I spent three months searching (for jobs), but I never received any interview invitations. Finally, I was able to secure only one interview, and it was with a British company.”
Sarah expresses her shock and frustration at the lack of job opportunities she faced during the three-month period in France. However, she highlights the contrasting experience she had when she started applying for jobs in the United Kingdom, where the process was more straight forward, and she received interview opportunities.
Sarah's case reflects the difficulties faced by Muslim professionals in France, particularly when it comes to securing employment and the bias, they encounter during the job application process. While a Muslim name is already a disadvantage for job acceptance, having a photo with a hijab on their CVs further increases the possibility of rejection. The institutionalization of the hijab ban that promotes negative attitudes that are expressed blatantly towards hijab-wearing Muslim women in ordinary settings daunts many business owners or companies who are already reluctant to hire visible Muslims. It is likely that even those employers who do not have personal objections to women wearing hijab, their concern over their companies’ reputation and potential loss of customers – who would protest the company for hiring hijab-wearing women – might override their prioritization of competency for the open position. Eventually, many companies may avoid public pressure and reject applications in the first place to not deal with its potential consequences.
Sarah’s experience underscores the need for addressing discrimination and providing equal opportunities for individuals regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds. Despite the overall refrainment from Muslims in the West, compared to France, the UK does not have policy-driven discrimination. The anti-discriminatory policies in the UKnot only increase the employment opportunities that Muslim women can contribute with their skills but also aim to deflate the prejudice and tension in society by allowing people from diverse backgrounds to encounter and communicate with each other.
Lack of societal acceptance
The ‘otherness’ of the hijab-wearing women in the eyes of French society was reported by many participants. Even though they do not have any language proficiency problems like migrants, lived their entire lives in France, and obtained high educational degrees and skills – which are the desired qualifications from outsiders to be welcomed in a society – the hijab-wearing Muslim women are treated as aliens in the country. As strategies for coping with social unacceptance, the interviews with Muslim French women reveal different perspectives on their sense of French identity and the impact of discrimination on their feelings of belonging.
Amran, despite being a third-generation, born and raised in France with a Tunisian heritage, strongly identifies as French. However, she highlights that wearing the hijab leads people to assume she is an ‘outsider,’ and she often clarifies her Tunisian roots, yet she doesn't identify with it. She says:
“I am French as I was born here, both of my parents were also born in France. I have been to Tunisia only once as a visitor, so I feel 100% more French than Tunisian, but now that I am wearing the hijab people always assume I’m an Arab immigrant. So, I just tell them I’m Tunisian even though I don’t really feel like a real Tunisian girl, since I spent so little time there.”
As it has been generations since her ancestors migrated to France and eventually the Tunisian identity in her family faded away, she identifies herself with a single national identity: being French. Despite her case being a fitting example to please nationalist arguments about migrants–e.g. skepticism about migrants maintaining ties with their country of origin and demanding assimilation as a sign of loyalty to the host country – her religious appearance raises doubt about her ‘Frenchness’ in the eyes of some French people.
Sarah, a professional living in the UK, acknowledges that many Muslim women in France do feel French, having been born and raised there and considering France as their only home.
However, she emphasizes the problem lies in the lack of acceptance they face, preventing them from being recognized as fully French. Sarah expresses her own resistance towards accepting the values and mentality of those who reject her, leading her to not strongly desire to identify as French. She indicates that:
“Many Muslim women do feel French, they are born and raised in France, they only know France and they feel French, they are French, but they are not accepted as French. This is the real problem.” She adds “I don’t accept their values, they don’t accept me, I don’t accept them as well, that’s why I never felt about wanting to be French because I do not accept their mentality.” For Sarah, drawing a line between herself and those who do not consider Muslim women as French is a coping mechanism for being alienated, by defining Frenchness with the molding secularist values.
Melika, due to the discrimination she encounters in France, expresses that she does not feel French. She attributes this feeling to the fact that people do not allow them to fully embrace French citizenship based on their differences, including hijab, names, surnames, and cultural backgrounds. Melika perceives that acceptance is more prevalent in the UK and believes that the situation in France is worsening, with anti-Muslim sentiment and restrictive laws targeting hijab-wearing individuals. She states:
“I categorize myself as non-French, some of friends find it surprising and asks me why you feel like this, ‘you were born and grow up here,’ they say. I say so because people do not let us to be French citizens because of our differences, for example, because of the hijab, name, surname, and different culture, we are not feeling in my place or welcomed in France. They are not trying to accept us. I can see it is more accepted in the UK. I think it is getting worse, especially in France. They are not accepting Muslims. They always put laws to create situations where it is forbidden to wear to hijab for example parents going to accompany their child on their school visits, going to museums or things like that, you can see moms with hijab are not accepted.”
Tanir, a counselor and educational trainer, shares her struggles in finding opportunities, even for internships, in France while wearing the hijab. She mentions that in France, there is limited choice and lower salary options for hijab-wearing individuals. Tanir also expresses frustration with the limited opportunities to work with diverse communities and the pressure to conform to a singular model of ‘Frenchness,’ which does not align with her desire to be authentic and true to herself. She says:
“In France, if you want to work with hijab, you do not have a choice and you do not have the same salary. I am a trainer, and in France, as a hijabi, you can only work with the Muslim community, in Qatar, I teach many people from different background, including non-Muslims. The society is more open, people are welcomed with their backgrounds. In France, there is one model of French people. That is not me, I want to be myself. We have only one model in France.”
These reflections highlight the complex experiences and diverse perspectives of Muslim women in France, ranging from strong identification with French identity to feelings of exclusion and rejection due to discrimination. As described in a metaphor that pictures France as a father who does not recognize its Muslim citizens as his children,the participants develop different emotions toward their relationship with France. These identifications illustrate the challenges faced by these women in finding acceptance, equal opportunities, and the ability to express their individuality within French society. Furthermore, this identity problem is not only the hijab-wearing Muslim women’s problem, but it also affects the entire French society as it undermines social harmony by making certain members unwanted.
Desire to leave France
The interviews revealed a recurring theme of Muslim French women expressing their desire to leave France due to being restricted from accessing employment opportunities, a lack of appreciation for their qualifications, The institutional ban on hijabs and its internalization by French society leave hijab-wearing Muslim French women unemancipated, particularly preventing them from practicing their professions. Thus, with resentment, they contemplate moving to other countries to seek better prospects than France. The discrimination they experienced in France is a push factor rather than the presence of a single pulling country, as the variety of destination countries mentioned also confirms.
Amal, who is considering relocating to Turkiye or the United Arab Emirates, shares her thoughts on the matter:
“A lot of women experience this kind of situation. It is difficult because we don't understand why. We have studied here, we are intelligent, but just because of the scarf, they don't want us. They can't blame us for going to other countries, to export our competencies and find a better place to live.”
Amal acknowledges that some French citizens are unhappy with educated Muslim women leaving the country. However, she emphasizes that these women are not given opportunities in France, leaving them with no other choice but to search for employment abroad. She states,
“When French Muslims go abroad, such as Turkiye or the UAE, they are angry. But they do not give them good opportunities, and when they go abroad, they blame these women. They (French Muslims) reply that they received their education here in France but couldn't find any good opportunities in the country.”
She also adds that: “I am considering leaving France every day. Nowadays, it is normal to hear that ‘we don't want Muslims, we don't want mosques.’ It has become the norm. Living in France has become more difficult.”
Zainab, a Muslim woman with a master's degree in computer engineering, is among the professionals considering relocation to Turkiye, Tunisia, or the UK due to the perceived discrimination against hijab-wearing women in France. As she explains:
“Once I complete my internship, I need to secure a job. Even though I've started applying in Bordeaux, it's been challenging to even get responses for interviews. I can't help but feel it's because of my hijab, given my strong resume, excellent education, and valuable experiences. Therefore, I've started to explore job opportunities abroad.”
Similarly, Faiza, who decided to move away from France several years ago, now thrives in the UK. She expresses:
“Living in the UK has truly brought me contentment. France, no doubt, is a beautiful country with impressive social rights and advantages. Life is more affordable there. However, the acceptance and comfort I feel here in the UK outweigh these benefits. I keep asking myself - why should I bother to return to France when I won't feel as comfortable as I do here in the UK?”
Mairam highlights an important fact. She indicates that many French Muslim women take off their hijab in order to work or they do not work at all. She says:
“The French Muslim women either they took off their hijab, like my sister who is a pharmacist, or they look for alternatives like commerce, they do business etc. Or they don’t work. They just struggle trying. There are lots of women who are in the same situation, I know a lot of people who took off hijab because they could not find a work, because they found that the hijab made them feel less safe and made them pointed fingers at.”
Lina, biomedical engineer graduated from the university of Compiegne, is also one of the Muslim women who had to leave France in order to have better opportunities. She explains her situation by saying:
“I applied everywhere, in January 2021, everywhere in Europe. In France, they said they found someone with more experience, but I think it was just the hijab. With client relationship, they don’t want you with hijab in France. I was accepted in Germany, so I went to Germany. For me, leaving France was not a choice, it was the only possibility for me to work with hijab. Even if I would find a job in Canada, or Australia, I would go. The only thing was to work with hijab, so I said I would not restrict myself to a country where they don’t accept me. I would go where they accept me how I am.”
Melika left France 3 years ago. She considered to move to Turkiye to find a job there after her master's studies, but since her friends were studying in Romania, she also decided to go there to study medicine. Her family rejected her decision in the beginning, but after seeing her not being able to find a job in France, her mother let her go. About her opinions on going to France back again, she says:
“I am feeling more comfortable in Romania, I want to move to if I can, to an English-speaking country or in Turkiye. My mom wants me to go back to France, but I am one hundred percent sure, I will not go back. I will not be happy in France. What I know is that I won’t remove my hijab, I will try to find a place that will accept me with hijab.”
About leaving France, Hiba, an academic in Social Scientist, says:
“I was thinking of leaving France for many reasons, a job was one of them. I did not have kids at that time, but I was thinking about children’s education, if I have kids, I need to find a good atmosphere. I was married and first year of my marriage, I told my husband that we needed to leave France. Qatar was not famous at that time, so my husband and I looked for a job in Qatar for me. And I easily found a job in Qatar.”
Hiba says that under no conditions would she consider going back to France.
“In the future, my husband and I decided to live in Turkiye. Qatar is good but we are also missing European and Muslim culture. when I met my husband, we had a common decision, we liked Turkiye, so we bought a house there.”
Mariam, a software engineer and one of the Muslim professionals who left France for the United Kingdom, shares her experience. She explains that in France, she faced difficulties in finding work while wearing a hijab, which led her to make the decision to move to the UK six years ago. She notes that before she started wearing the hijab, people's reactions towards her were not as negative. However, everything changed once she began wearing it. She says:
“They don’t like Muslims and they always wait for sorry from Muslims. Before wearing a hijab, I didn’t see that much difference. But after wearing a hijab, so many things have changed. Discrimination at work made me excluded and affected my French identity. I was born and raised in France but because of discrimination that you face at home, you feel like an enemy of the state. So now, Britain is kind of a holy land to me. But I am considering moving to Istanbul one day.”
Abrar, a Mechanical Engineer from Toulouse, has not left France yet but she is looking for opportunities abroad. She states that:
“I do not feel French, my mentality is far from theirs. I am experiencing racist jokes in my country. I do not want to deal with racist behaviors, so I am planning to leave France. I am considering moving to the Middle East to build my professional career peacefully. It is best to leave France. This country has never shown a sign to be more tolerant or better said a sign of acceptance. If we ever have the chance to live a better life abroad, we will not miss it.”
The negative experiences of hijab-wearing Muslim women in France leave their hands tied, and the applicable options remain as removing the hijab, abdicating from the professional labor market, or leaving France for work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the findings of this report shed light on the experiences of French Muslim professionals and the pervasive issue of Islamophobia they encounter in various aspects of their lives. The interviews with Muslim women who have either left or plan to leave France revealed a consistent pattern of discrimination and limited opportunities, particularly for those who visibly display their Muslim identity. The study highlights the detrimental impact of Islamophobia on their social acceptance, overall well-being, and career progression.
The visibility of Muslim identity, whether through hijab or cultural displays, often serves as a catalyst for prejudice and discrimination. This, coupled with institutional policies, societal pressure, and negative attitudes towards Islam, creates a challenging environment for practicing their faith freely. The systemic prejudice and bias in the French job market further exacerbate the difficulties faced by Muslim professionals, with many qualified individuals being overlooked for employment opportunities due to their choice to wear a headscarf or their visible Muslim identity.
The consequences of these challenges are significant, leading a substantial number of French Muslim professionals to leave the country in search of better opportunities and acceptance elsewhere. This brain drain further highlights the urgent need to address and combat Islamophobia to retain diverse talent within France.
Based on the expressed views of the participants, the report concludes with a series of recommendations aimed at fostering inclusivity, combating discrimination, and promoting equal opportunities for all French citizens, regardless of their religious or cultural background. It is imperative for policymakers, employers, and society as a whole to actively work towards creating an environment that embraces diversity, respects religious freedom, and ensures fair treatment for all individuals, regardless of their faith or visible expressions of identity. Only through such efforts can France truly harness the potential and contributions of its diverse population and build a more inclusive society for everyone.
Recommendations
- There is an important responsibility for the civil society. The non-governmental organizations are recommended to be more pro-active in close monitoring the rights violations that are driven by Islamophobia. Compiling and reporting such incidents would contribute to determining the areas it is the most concentrated and allows observation of the patterns. Such monitoring activities would provide evidence to address the issues.
- Another recommendation for the NGOs is to further engage in studies to examine the root causes of the Islamophobic attitudes towards each sub-group such as hijab wearing Muslim women in public and professional settings. Such studies would help to understand the motivation behind the discriminatory acts in a more detailed way.
- NGOs should also consider arranging activities to raise awareness on how to respond when individuals experience discrimination or witness Islamophobic incidents, the legal frame such as their rights, and step-by-step guidance to take necessary actions to defend their rights.
- NGOs might also take the lead in educating employers about religious diversity, assist them with information on how to treat differences, and develop a basic understanding of Islam.
- It is recommended to the Muslim individuals to seek their rights and demand justice through the relevant channels in the cases of experiencing discrimination. Individuals also suggested here to encourage each other to stand up for themselves and for each other. Creating support groups in close networks would also help to openly talk about islamophobia and exchange knowledge and experience.
- Policymakers are recommended to develop policies that are inclusive of every member of the society where they allow members to feel appreciated and consider themselves as part of the society.
- The policymakers are also suggested to take prompt and effective actions against the violation of rights in all settings to discourage offenders from deliberately discriminating against Muslims for their faith.
- Recognition of Islamophobic attitudes as hate crimes is also another recommendation for policymakers for dissuasive enforcement against actions rooted in Islamophobia.
- Research on the reasons for the high-educated high-skilled French citizens to emigrate from France to understand the needs and expectations of the qualified labor force.
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