Open letter to France’s Minister, Ms Rossignol — You have insulted every woman who wears hijab!

Open letter to France’s minister for women’s rights.

Dear Ms Rossignol

In a recent interview, you compared us Muslim women, who wear the hijab, with ‘negroes who accepted slavery’.

What you said was so despicable that I really don’t know where to start. However, I’ll try.

Let’s start with who you are and what you do.

You’re the French Minister for Women’s Rights. The one thing that you should be doing is supporting the right’s of women who live in France. Empowering them, and giving them confidence to live in France as equal citizens. However, it became apparent that your job profile doesn’t extend to Muslim women.

We don’t wear the hijab because we like to be oppressed. That is insulting and factually incorrect. If you were good at your job, then you would have realised that most women wear a hijab out of choice.

Many women say that the hijab liberates them, as they are seen as a human being and not just a sexual desire for men. By wearing the hijab, we are not spending hours trying to look good for society, but we cover so that we can be valued as equals for our intellect. When a Muslim woman dresses modestly, she is telling society to deal with her mind and not with her body.

Most importantly we dress to please our Creator. We are not a slave of society, but a slave of the One who gave us life.

Christian nuns, also dress in a similar way to Muslim women for religious reasons. Would you say the same thing about nuns? Of course not, because that would be stupid. It is equally stupid to make a statement like that about Muslim women.

You apologised for offending black people by using the term ‘negro’, but refused to even acknowledge that have offended millions of Muslim women. You only apologised due to the negative public reaction that you received. The reality is that you are a product of the French political elite, and like so many of your Government colleagues, your racial tendencies cannot be hidden for long. Your disregard for black people and Muslim women is evident, and your insincere apology will never change that.

The fact is that you will never see women like me as equals. To you, we are nothing but savages, a people to demonise for your selfish political gains.

Your tone it patronising, and it is exactly this kind of rhetoric that leads to more degradation of our rights, and more attacks on Muslim women in the streets of Europe.

If you really care about women’s rights, you should be fighting for our rights to wear the hijab and niqab. However you will never do that because your bigotry.

This was nothing but hate speech.

Understand this clearly, there is nothing wrong with covering your hair. However there is everything wrong with demonising people because they believe in something different. Realise that it is our God given right to wear what we want, and we will never allow you to dictate what we can and cannot wear. Muslim women are stronger than you think, and we won’t stand for you bigotry and racism.

Yours sincerely,

Saira Iman (a Muslim woman who doesn’t need you to speak on my behalf).