French Lawmaker Defends Veil-Wearing in Emotional Speech About His Mother

"I say it in the most honest way possible: my mom wears the veil. She also took us on school outings. She doesn’t wear the veil for proselytism as I’ve heard, but she wears it out of culture. She grew up almost in Morocco," the deputy recounts. He goes on to say that in France, his mother always wore the veil when accompanying him to school. "She was sometimes even a little ashamed to go back to school with the veil. But she did it because we were her children and she was our mother."

For the deputy, these debates on the subject make his heart bleed: "When I hear all that I hear, it hurts my heart a little. I tell myself that without wanting to, you insult this category of the French population who feel offended in what is most intimate in them."

On social networks, Internet users appreciated the speech of this LREM deputy. According to David Guiraud, the deputy M’jid El Guerrab delivered a dignified and courageous speech in front of his colleagues in the National Assembly who debated the "separatism" bill. According to him, the Franco-Moroccan elected official "spoke with emotion in yet another debate in the hemicycle concerning the wearing of the veil. He shared an intimate discourse on the education he benefited from from his mother "who wears the veil".