‘Systemic discrimination’: Veiled women in France face mounting barriers to employment
Are you better protected against Islamophobia in France when, along with your veil, you wear a lawyer's robe, a nurse's coat or have the status of a journalist or a teacher?
For Slim Ben Achour, a lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal, the answer is no.
“Women with higher levels of education are more visible and therefore more victims of racism,” he told Middle East Eye.
A specialist in equality and non-discrimination issues, Ben Achour has defended several Muslim women, including fellow lawyers, who were prevented from working or stigmatised in the workplace because of their headscarves.
One of his recent cases involves a business lawyer, Youssra Marzouq, who was targeted by Islamophobic attacks after a television report in November 2025 in which she appeared wearing a headscarf.
“The Islamisation of France is under way,” Henda Ayari, a former Salafi who now describes herself as an anti-radicalisation activist, said on X.
“As a former veiled woman, I am uneasy about this symbol of oppression against women that is becoming commonplace in all professions in France,” she wrote, saying she feared the “ideology” that women wearing the hijab “spread by imposing their Islamic attire everywhere in society”.
A lawyer, Lara Fatimi, reposted Ayari's post, criticising the TV channel for interviewing an attorney wearing a hijab among the "32,000 lawyers" of the Paris Bar, seeing it as an "ideological shift" against which she calls for "unwavering resistance".
Following these statements, Marzouq filed a complaint for public insult and incitement to discrimination, accusing her detractors of presenting her as "a threat" and of misusing "secularism as a weapon to restrict Muslim women".
‘The very definition of racism’
“That a lawyer, a legal professional, is being attacked after simply giving an interview while wearing a headscarf in a perfectly legal setting shows that even professional and institutional integration is no shield,” Nicolas Cadene, a jurist and former general rapporteur of the Observatory of Secularism, an advisory body dissolved in 2021 by the government after being judged to be too lenient towards "Islamism", told MEE.
“These attacks don’t target behaviour or words; they target appearance. That’s the very definition of racism,” he added.
‘[Majdouline] had the courage to fight. But veiled women often prefer to give up’
– Malika, former school teacher
Defending Marzouq, the French Lawyers’ Union (SAF) pointed out that “no law prohibits a female lawyer wearing a headscarf, or any other distinctive symbol, from participating in media appearances outside of court proceedings as a legal professional”.
In court, on the other hand, female lawyers are required to remove their headscarves. The Council of State, the highest administrative jurisdiction, upheld this requirement in a decision issued in March 2025, following a request filed by the SAF against a 2023 decision of the National Bar Council prohibiting "the wearing of any distinctive sign other than the robe" for lawyers.
The court ruled that lawyers must be identified by their uniforms to guarantee equality before the law.
Several bar associations in France, such as those of Paris and Bordeaux, have amended their internal regulations to exclude veiled female lawyers from the courts.
Consequently, some Muslim lawyers have had to give up their profession. One case is Sara, a young lawyer prevented by the Lille bar association from appearing in court wearing her hijab in 2022 after its internal regulations were amended. The decision was upheld by the Court of Cassation.
The young French lawyer denounced the decision to MEE, seeing it as a sign of “Islamophobia” and one that prevents veiled Muslim women from entering the profession.
“In his conclusions, the prosecuting attorney notably stated that seeing me in a trial involving victims of terrorism could create discomfort. This implies that by wearing a veil, I might potentially support terrorist acts. It’s extremely violent,” she said.
“A lawyer’s independence is not based on their clothing and religious beliefs but is subject to other principles, such as their independence from their client, the freedom to choose their arguments, their independence from judges,” she added.
Codified discriminatory practices
For Ben Achour, this opposition to the veil is the expression of codified discriminatory practices.
“It shows how French society is legally structured to treat Muslim women differently when they wear the veil and prevent them from working,” he told MEE, adding that “French law mandates discrimination”.
The civil service, for example, prohibits its employees from wearing the veil.
If this is done in the name of secularism, which implies the neutrality of the state, some experts argue that this is an incorrect interpretation of the principle.
‘It shows how French society is legally structured to treat Muslim women differently when they wear the veil and prevent them from working’
– Slim Ben Achour, lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal
According to Mehmet Saygin, a jurist specialising in issues of secularism and religious freedom, the neutrality that public service providers must demonstrate does not concern their appearance but rather the service rendered, particularly because neutrality of appearance is a subjective notion and no appearance is objectively neutral.
Malika, a primary school teacher, believed she could reconcile this obligation with her religious beliefs by replacing her headscarf with a small cap covering only the top of her head.
“That was 10 years ago. At first, the school principal didn’t say anything. But I could see that he wasn’t very comfortable in my presence and spoke to me very little,” the teacher told MEE.
“Over the months, our relationship became strained. According to him, some parents were unhappy to see me with a cap constantly on my head and were afraid that I was indoctrinating their children.”
Malika eventually left her job and stayed at home.
In hospitals too, the wearing of a scrub cap by Muslim healthcare workers has become a source of controversy.
In December, the Paris Public Hospital (AP-HP) dismissed employees for wearing scrub caps, which their management considered a "religious symbol by use".
In guidelines on secularism published shortly before these dismissals, the AP-HP maintains that "wearing an operating room cap, outside of situations where it is required for the needs of the service, can constitute the expression of a religious affiliation and, therefore, professional misconduct".
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), a former representative body for Islam, issued a statement protesting against the hospital guidelines, asserting that they create a "double standard, based on physical appearance or the sounding of names".
"A nurse presumed to be Muslim could not wear a scrub cap – a standard, commonly used garment in hospital settings – without facing serious disciplinary action, while a colleague perceived as 'non-Muslim' could wear the same head covering without difficulty," the CFCM said.
After taking the matter to court, one of the nurses dismissed from the AP-HP, Majdouline, was able to return to her position. The Paris Administrative Court ruled that the sanction imposed on her was excessive. Yet, shortly after, the hospital sanctioned her again with an eight-month suspension.
“She had the courage to fight,” Malika commented. “But veiled women often prefer to give up.”
She, too, feels discouraged: two women close to her have already left their professions for the same reason. Her sister, an engineer trained in Algeria, was never able to find work because of her headscarf, while her sister-in-law left her job as a sales representative after the company she worked for was bought out.
“The new owner changed the company rules, adding a clause banning headscarves. My sister-in-law had no choice. She resigned and decided with my brother to move to the United Arab Emirates,” Malika told MEE.
‘Biased interpretation of secularism’
In France, wearing religious symbols in private sector companies is nevertheless permitted by law. But employers can prohibit certain types of clothing, such as headscarves.
“The 2016 labour law introduced the possibility for companies to include a neutrality requirement in their internal regulations,” Ben Achour told MEE.
Today, he added, even practising in liberal professions is not entirely accessible to Muslim women. Ben Achour mentioned, in addition to female lawyers in court, the difficulty veiled journalists face in obtaining professional press cards.
‘Discrimination can occur when the law is… extended far beyond its scope by actors who confuse legal obligation with social or political preference’
– Nicolas Cadene, formerly of the Observatory of Secularism
“For some time now, the organisation that issues these cards has been refusing photos in which journalists appear veiled,” Ben Achour said. In 2024, he defended Manel Fkihi, a freelance journalist whose card was refused by the Commission for the Professional Journalist Identity Card because she wore a headscarf.
That same year, the commission had amended its internal regulations, requiring applicants to comply with the standards for national identity card photos, which stipulate that individuals must appear with their heads uncovered. Several associations have joined forces to demand the cancellation of the new rule.
“Discrimination has reached a systemic level,” Ben Achour said.
"Everything is being done to ensure that there are no more headscarves in France and that women who wear them are excluded from the job market, even when they practise a liberal profession," he added.
In December 2025, France’s independent ombudsperson, the Defender of Rights, published a report on discrimination, highlighting an "over-representation of Muslim women wearing headscarves in complaints".
The report notes that Muslims, or those perceived as such, are three times more likely to report having experienced discrimination when seeking employment. And being a woman significantly increases the risk of discrimination, particularly in career progression.
Discrimination does not spare elected officials. While the law banning headscarves in the public sector only applies to civil servants, a court last March upheld the decision by the municipality of Chalon-sur-Saône, in central France, to extend the restriction to members of the city council by amending its internal regulations.
The judge ruled that a city council meeting constitutes "an administrative authority of the French Republic to which the principle of neutrality applies".
According to the magistrate, elected officials should therefore, by virtue of the principle of secularism enshrined in the general code of local authorities, refrain from wearing religious symbols during municipal council meetings.
However, for Cadene, the prohibition of the veil in this specific case stems from a "biased interpretation of the principle of secularism".
"Discrimination can occur when the law is misunderstood, deliberately misused or extended far beyond its scope by actors who confuse legal obligation with social or political preference," he told MEE.
According to the legal expert, the political debate surrounding the veil is particularly virulent in France.
“No other major European country sees recurring proposals to ban the veil in public spaces or in universities put forward by significant political forces,” he said.
“This polemical inflation – which stems from a confusion between law, morality, social conventions, a repressed colonial past, a lack of social diversity and political strategy – creates an environment where illegal discrimination thrives without always being punished, simply because the social norm seems to tolerate or even encourage it.”
Bruno Retailleau, former interior minister and candidate for the right-wing Republicans party in next year’s presidential elections, wants to extend the ban on the Muslim veil – which he describes as “a banner of radical Islam” – to include university, sporting competitions and school chaperones. The far-right National Rally defends the same position, sometimes in a theatrical manner.
Last week, Kevin Nader, a National Rally city councillor in Ivry-sur-Seine, near Paris, brought out a crucifix during a municipal council meeting to denounce another elected official wearing a headscarf.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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