France: Fasting during Ramadan soon to be banned for under 16s?

Forcing young people under the age of 16 to eat during Ramadan. This is the objective of the LR deputies who have initiated this bill, in a context marked by the rise of the far right in France. The text comes from twenty-nine senators of this party led by Bruno Retailleau and is based on a report aimed at combating "Islamist infiltration".

For LFI deputy Abdelkader Lahmar, the ban on fasting during Ramadan for under 16s is "the new obsession of LR elected officials". "The intention of the party is obvious: to criminalize Islam in France, step by step," he argues in a post published on Monday on X.

The LR deputies would be inspired by "the model of the ultra-totalitarian regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania, where the Sigurimi (the political police) tracked down the slightest religious sign to punish the believers," says Lahmar, who believes that "the LR leaders are sinking into an increasingly absurd and dangerous Islamophobic escalation".

The LR senators go further by proposing the banning of the veil for girls under 16, as well as for mothers accompanying school outings. The LRs forget that "their obsessions have very real effects: millions of Muslims are stigmatized, demonized, hurt and end up losing all confidence in a political debate that targets them on a daily basis," laments the deputy of La France insoumise.