“They call me Muslim” was a 30-minute documentary film which was produced in 2004, after the French Republic started instituting laws against women in France wearing Hijab (veil or a headscarf) –of course, this headdress is usually worn by Muslim women around the world, and it’s a symbol of Muslim women’s identity in may cases. However, this documentary seems to be revolving around Hijab or the veil. It attempts to do a comparative case of Hijab in the French Republic and the Islamic Republic of Iran in the mid-2000’s (~2005). I am not sure what was the message this documentary intended to convey, but it could be easily mistaken and misrepresented. The French Republic, under the disguise of secularism, targets Muslim women and ban them from wearing the Veil in Public places- particularly in public schools. And, the documentary interviews some French Women affected by this law- who felt as their government was attacking their core of their identity- and their resistance to this law. Also, the documentary included some French officials claiming that the law was meant to protect the Muslim-French women from oppression and to protect the French Republic’s founding philosophy- “secularism and separation of church and state”.
Then in the other half of the documentary revolve around an Iranian woman, who grew up in the United States, who is targeted by laws regarding women’s attire by the Iranian Theocracy. The documentary portrays her creative methods of dissenting against the requirement to wear a veil/Hijab in public places. By juxtaposing these two cases in a 27 min video, without giving adequate context this documentary could be taken as the story or the two sides of the story of Hijab; thus, the documentary was presenting two sides of the same coin. But the only common thread in this documentary was women’s oppression – in the French Republic and in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Not the Hijab. Also, the modern nation states that were presented here seems to be portrayed as equally guilty. I want to take a step back and consider the fact that the French Republic presents itself as a secular democracy whereas the Islamic Republic of Iran is a Theocracy. Women’s oppression in Iran is clear, visible and voiced in international arenas. However, the despotic and the oppressive nature of French Republic is neither clear, to many, nor visible and never voiced in the international arena. Couple of the women interviewed in the first half of the documentary mentioned that in the public schools there was no laws restricting wearing of crosses or Yakama- in the very secular French Republic- in fact, one girl pointed out, the public school buildings had Christmas trees decorated for the celebration of Christmas. Thus, arise the question what secular democracy, then French president Jacques Chirac, bloviate about? Neither this a unique problem for France nor this is uncommon in the “secular liberal democracies”. In almost all cases, where there is a form of government that legitimizes itself through the “people” or to be even more accurate, through a “majority opinion”, what does secularism mean? But, ultimately if this documentary’s objective was to portray the oppression of women by the state, it could have juxtaposed Iranian case with the women’s reproductive rights in the U.S or French case with some other example of women’s oppression. But doing this comparison, this documentary did not get to the heart of the issue surrounding Hijab neither in France nor in Iran.
I want to take a step back and consider the fact that the French Republic presents itself as a secular democracy whereas the Islamic Republic of Iran is a Theocracy. Women’s oppression in Iran is clear, visible and voiced in international arenas. However, the despotic and the oppressive nature of French Republic is neither clear, to many, nor visible and never voiced in the international arena. A couple of the women interviewed in the first half of the documentary mentioned that in the public schools, there were no laws restricting wearing a Cross or a Yakama- in the very secular French Republic- in fact, one girl pointed out, the public school buildings had Christmas trees decorated for the celebration of Christmas. Thus, arise the question what secular democracy, then French president Jacques Chirac, bloviate about? Neither this is a unique problem in France nor is this uncommon in other “secular liberal democracies”. In almost all cases, where there is a form of government that legitimizes itself through the “people” or to be even more accurate, through a “majority opinion”, what does secularism mean? But, ultimately if this documentary’s objective was to portray the oppression of women by the state, it could have juxtaposed Iranian case with the women’s reproductive rights in the U.S or French case with some other example of women’s oppression. But doing this comparison, this documentary did not get to the heart of the issue surrounding Hijab neither in France nor in Iran.
