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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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31st December 2003

Press Release: France – New Secular Taliban State in Europe
IHRC condemns French Muslim wedding ban

IHRC condemns the latest step in the secular Talibanization of France. It has emerged that French mayor, Jacques Martin has banned the Islamically prescribed headscarf, from civil weddings.

By prohibiting Muslim women from wearing the religiously prescribed headscarf during a civil wedding, the ban denies them the fundamental right to marry, as laid out in numerous international treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Martin’s ban suggests that the violation of Muslim women’s rights in France is systematic and much broader than the much publicised school headscarf ban. In another case last week, a bank branch in Paris refused to admit a Muslim customer who was wearing the headscarf. Chairman of IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh said:

“This ban gives an excuse to Islamophobes all over the world to come out of the woodwork and legitimise attacks on Muslims in the name of freedom. The French government has undoubtedly become the secular Taliban state of Europe, denying Muslim girls the right to education and work and now the right to marry.

“IHRC has feared this for a very long time and now those fears have come to realisation. We have been receiving case after case of gender based discrimination against Muslim women by French authorities – everything from being denied passports and work permits to the new decrees that will see Muslim women potentially forced to be examined by a male doctor, even if she objects.”

For more information please contact (+44) 20 8904 4222 or (+44) 7958 60 74 75 or info@ihrc.org.

Islamic Human Rights Commission
PO Box 598
Wembley
HA9 7XH
United Kingdom

Telephone (+44) 20 8904 4222
Fax (+44) 20 8904 5183
Email: info@ihrc.org
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