Mallory Schneuwly Purdie: "in Switzerland, the majority of women wearing the full veil do so voluntarily"

On March 7, the Swiss will vote on the initiative entitled "Yes to the ban on hiding the face", generally summarized as the anti-burqa initiative.This text comes from the Egerkingen committee, close to the UDC, which was also behind the initiative against the minarets accepted in 2010 by 57.5% of voters.Islam and women are at the heart of this debate that goes beyond the usual political cleavages.Interview with Mallory Schneuwly Pordie, assistant master and lecturer at the Swiss Center Islam and Society of the University of Friborg.

Time: Tamedia's first survey indicates that this so-called anti-burqa initiative would be accepted by more than 63% of voters, does such a result surprise you?

Mallory Schneuwly Pordie: No.No way.It will be a tidal wave in his favor.It is a very identity initiative and different political edges are reclaimed: the UDC against immigration, against Islam, against the Islamization of Switzerland;The secular left against the return of religious signs in public space, and the feminists who intend to continue their struggle for the emancipation of women.All these elements are identity markers found in this initiative, they are legitimate, but the full veil is a false target.

Read also: a Romand Committee to banish the burqa

You consider that this initiative goes on, why?

It testifies to a non-knowledge of the question of the full veil.In Afghanistan, in certain Pakistani regions or in the Middle East, the full veil is a custom dress.It is obvious that this veil can be experienced as a constraint, as imprisonment, as a mobile prison ... terms taken up by feminists opposed to burqa.

But in the West, in Switzerland, in France or in Belgium, the situation is completely different.Most women who wear this full veil are Westernals converted or girls from Muslim families, who have not had religious education and who, at some point, have chosen, sometimes against the advice of theirparents, to return to Islam.

If we do not make this differentiation, we miss the motivations that bring women to us to wear the full veil.

In his book, behind the niqab, the French sociologist Agnès de Féo shows that, since the ban on the full veil in France, there has been a significant increase in the number of women who carry it.From the moment the veil became a political object, a prohibited object, it gained in oppositional power compared to what these women denounce.

If this initiative passes, you think that the number of women who wear burqa or niqab in Switzerland will increase?

This was the case in France.To see if the phenomenon will be identical in Switzerland where Salafism is gaining popularity today.

So women who wear burqa in Switzerland do it voluntarily?

In a recent study, my colleague Andreas Tunger-Zanetti estimates that between 20 and 30 women wear the full veil in Switzerland.We must be careful with what we are talking about.Burqa is a heavy, heavy integral garment with a grid in front of the eyes and which is traditionally worn by the Pachtounes who live in Afghanistan and in some regions of Pakistan.As for the niqab and the Sitar, these are black clothes with full sail.The niqab reveals the eyes, while, for the Sitar, is added a finer veil that covers the whole of the face, including the eyes.

It is important to distinguish.Burqa is an ethnic veil, you never see it in Switzerland.The women I met here who wore the niqab or the Sitar all revolved around the Swiss Islamic central council.

And so, to return to the question, these people do so voluntarily?

Yes.The majority of them do it clearly voluntarily.The motivations are diverse, but you really have to read the wearing of this garment in the very identity current context.Everyone tries to demonstrate, to perform their identities in public space in various ways.You should not only see the wearing of the full veil as a refusal of Western society.

In certain Salafist circles, the West is perceived as deviant, corrupt, too focused on sex or flesh, it is then a conscious choice to cover itself to favor being on appearance.The physical envelope disappears in favor of piety.

But inside Muslim communities, it is also a sign of opposition.By deciding to veil themselves entirely, these women show Muslim women, who do not veil or wear a hijab, that their piety is purer;that they really respect the commandments of God;That they prepare their future life in paradise by covering themselves, by brushing here in this earthly life to reach paradise where they will have honey flowers.They also send a sign to Muslim men: "I have this piety, I want a man who has a piety at the height of mine, so I am not accessible to any man."

Wearing the full veil is therefore a very strong signal to the Muslim community itself.And we forget it completely when we talk about the full veil in Europe.

Your analysis is in contradiction with that of feminists, some of which are clearly opposed to this veil.Do you understand their position?

Yes, I understand it.From a western perspective of feminism, it is a backward return of more than a hundred years.The liberation of the woman and the woman's body was made by emancipating herself from the man, but also of the Church.Christianity dictated all standards, YC.clothing.And so for these feminists, see a woman covering her body for religious reasons is a backtrack.Again, for those who live here, there is a misunderstanding of their trajectories.

On the other hand, feminists are in the right one for women who live under burqas or niqabs in Afghanistan or in the Gulf countries.They themselves talk about prisons and would not like to wear them anymore.The fight to try to release other women, I defend it, but at the same time it is not the same fight as for the women of which we speak in the context of the vote.They are resolutely Western and inscribe their piety in fundamentalist forms.

But if the initiative was accepted, it would be a clear signal for women forced to wear the full veil in their country.

You overestimate the perception of the message.The interpretation will be: Muslims are still discriminated against in Switzerland and not: the Swiss are alongside Muslim women who fight for their release.

Also read: Etienne Piguet: "The Burqa initiative can generate a conglomerate of diffuse fears"

Shouldn't the real debate have focused on the veil, for example: can young girls go to the veiled school?

I really hope to prevent us from being debated because I would like all the veiled young girls to continue to go to school.If they are excluded from school, they are enclosed in a vision of the world, while if they go to veiled school, they will take lessons in philosophy, science.They will be with 25 other students who do not think like them.

If they are forced to remove the veil, there is the risk that parents will leave them from school and they will no longer even have the opportunity to develop critical tools that would allow them to shape their own position on the veil.

I also want to emphasize that today it is not a return to the veil we are witnessing.It’s a new veil.An urban veil, a young veil that is Youtubé.It is also an accessory of their femininity and their Islamity.This is not the traditional veil, even if it still exists.

Is the veil modern, but isn't meaning the same?

The meaning will be plural.For some, it is a sign of spirituality, for others a command of God to which they respond, for others, a family constraint.For a few, it's downright a feminist sign: "I decide to reclaim my body, I suggest what I want."

So it's a good thing that the veil is not a debate in Switzerland ...

Yes.But if we meet a young girl who is forced by a father, a brother or a husband to wear the veil, whether it is integral or not, it is important that we have the legal tools to defend these women.It is essential for me that we can defend those who want to wear it as much as those who do not want to wear it.

To read again the opinion of a defender of the initiative: Burqa, Constitution and Federalism