The debate over the use of the Islamic veil inevitably leads me to a contradiction. I believe in the values that characterize the democratic states of the European Union. For me, one of those values is freedom. But an equally important one is secularism. Combining the defense of two values that often collide is the challenge we face. And it's a challenge that is no longer conceptual, but one that touches our everyday lives, because demographic changes have made religious diversity a street-level issue in Catalonia, directly affecting a portion of our fellow citizens.
If we emphasize freedom and pluralism, we must respect and guarantee the right to worship, the neutrality of public institutions, and the freedom to practice any religion, even in its external forms. No one may prohibit any citizen from practicing its precepts, provided that common norms, human rights, and public safety are respected. Imposed secularism is contrary to the basic values of our community, especially when it becomes an alibi for racism.
(Parenthesis: this principle of freedom, in a dual country like ours, should also allow dual nationality for Catalan citizens, as proposed by Junts pel Sí and the CUP before the 2017 repression.)
But if we emphasize secularism, we must ensure that no religious expression is used as an excuse to impose intolerant, humiliating, or incompatible attitudes with the social and cultural model in which we live, which is the fruit of the achievements of many generations and which we wish to share with newcomers. This means that religious freedom should not protect clitoridectomy, sermons that incite violence or hatred, arranged marriages, or the restriction of women's rights, to name just a few examples.
Is it a right or an imposition for girls to wear the veil to school? I'm sure many Muslim women will say it's a free choice, a proud way of showing their faith, and that they don't want to renounce it. But we all know to what extent this "free choice" is conditioned by family pressure and centuries of patriarchal tradition, which, despite the passage of time, remains in place among many Catalan Muslims.
Writer Najat El Hachmi, who since living in Catalonia has had to endure both local xenophobia and rejection from some of its residents for her decision not to wear the veil, believes it is necessary to ban the use of this item in schools to protect girls from the machismo inherent in Islam. And she laments that the left has left this battle in the hands of the opportunistic far right. I agree, but I admit I'm afraid of the consequences. If we open this can of worms, what will the extremists demand next? How will the fundamentalists react? Will we be closer to social or national cohesion, or further away? And getting down to the nitty-gritty, what will we do with the caps, the giant pendants with crucifixes, the T-shirts with political symbols...?
It would be best if common sense, not imposition, brought us closer to our goal. Reasoning and patience to create a new social consensus. But this is surely naive. Now, if the left were to lose its fear of saying that the veil is a product of sexist imposition—even though it has female MPs who freely wear it—Muslim women who want to throw the veil in the trash, to evade the authority of their fathers, their husbands, and men in general, would perhaps feel more protected. And more expeditious measures could be proposed later, in a more favorable context.
