Moroccan-Spanish Author Sparks Controversy Over Politician’s Hijab at Campaign Event

"Thank you, Ada Colau, Mónica García, Mónica Oltra and Yolanda Díaz, for having integrated the symbol of our oppression into your ranks. This is proof that Spanish women are not women and our freedom can wait. It is also proof that our feminism is relegated to second place and that we can continue to be locked up in the prisons of Islam and Islamism." This is how Najat El Hachmi reacted on November 15 on her Instagram account to Fatima Hamed’s wearing of the hijab during a political event. "Wearing the hijab at an event like this legitimizes its use as well as all the rules imposed on Muslim women in terms of dress," she affirms.

The publication sparked an avalanche of reactions on social media. Some Internet users have claimed the freedom given to every Muslim woman to wear the veil. "But what they are defending is the freedom we have to submit, to enslave ourselves. There is no freedom in which Muslim women choose to wear the veil. To say that there is no oppression against us is to side with those who discriminate against us. Yes, the veil is discriminatory. It is not a question of pointing the finger or persecuting women who wear the veil, but of challenging their introduction into representative bodies," denounces El Hachmi.

"How many girls are forced to wear makeup and high heels, how many girls are told that if they don’t wear high heels they won’t love them because they are not good women? This is a demagogic argument, which confuses an aesthetic pressure with a prison whose main symbol is this scarf," the writer was outraged, regretting that her reaction was not understood by the political class. "It hurts me very much that we are so alone in this struggle. Many of us have had to overcome very painful situations, and we hoped to find support in policies supposedly in favor of equality," she laments.

El Hachmi also notes that the wearing of the hijab, far from decreasing, is increasing. "When I was a child, in my town, married women wore a scarf that revealed part of their hair, which is no longer the case today. My grandmothers didn’t even wear it: they just wore a scarf," the writer confides, admitting that she also wore the veil at the age of 12 when she came into contact with a fundamentalist family. "Putting on the hijab is very easy; taking it off, very difficult," she assures.

The rise of integralism in Europe is one of the writer’s concerns. "I think we can’t continue to act as if it didn’t exist: it’s there, and it has a very important influence on the younger generation... It is much more difficult for a woman with a hijab to progress in European society," supports El Hachmi. And she adds: "Many girls tell me that my books help them, that they feel that someone is telling their story. [...] I sometimes consider limiting myself to writing, because in literature, I feel free. I feel the need to lend a hand to those who are still living in this situation. I can’t do much for them except write."