French Islamic Leader Apologizes for Remarks on Late King Hassan II’s Role in Headscarf Affair

Invoking an "involuntary ellipsis" and regretting this "misunderstanding", Bencheikh told the Atlasinfo website that the position "of King Hassan II was exemplary" in the resolution of this affair.

"Sincerely, at first I did not understand how my remarks were shocking, then after listening to the video now posted, I realized that I omitted to specify as I do in some of my conferences on this subject, that it was the girls’ father who claimed that it was the Commander of the Faithful who enjoined him to scrupulously follow what is in the Quran," said the president of the FIF, adding that "history records that the late King Hassan II did indeed play a crucial role in the resolution of this affair."

This headscarf affair dates back to October 1989. Of Moroccan origin, three young girls - Leila, Fatima and Samira - refused to remove their headscarves at the entrance of their Gabriel-Havez college in Creil. Faced with the media coverage of this affair, King Hassan II intervened through the Moroccan ambassador in France to have the three schoolgirls’ veils removed.

"Regarding this issue, indeed the majority of Moroccan women do not wear the veil. More and more. (...) The commandments of Islam concerning the wearing of the veil are defined in time and space (...) Moreover, the proof that when we asked the two Moroccan young girls, when I personally and as a father, through my ambassador, asked them to please stop this affair of which they are the origin without wanting to, they perfectly understood and their parents too," the sovereign had explained in the L’Heure de vérité program (excerpt from the video below).

Interview with King Hassan II and the intervention on the veil (from the 5th minute)