Hey, Vogue France: Your double standard for headscarves is not fashionable, it's Islamophobic

Vogue France has recently been under fire for an Instagram caption that praises a non-Muslim wealthy white woman for wearing a headscarf when Muslim women, especially in France, are discriminated against for wearing headscarves — hijabs — for religious reasons. 

The Instagram caption read “Yes to the headscarf!," accompanying a series of photos of Hollywood’s latest “it” couple, Julia Fox and Kanye West. 

Although the caption has since been changed to remove any mention of Fox’s headwear, social media users are pointing to the hypocrisy and danger of a French magazine praising a non-Muslim woman for wearing a headscarf and remaining decidedly silent as Muslim women are having their autonomy taken from them.  

France has notoriously expressed paranoia about the hijab. Most recently, on Jan. 19 the French Senate voted in favor of amending a proposed law that bans wearing hijabs in sports competitions. The amendment, proposed by the right-wing group Les Républicains, was adopted with 160 votes in favor and 143 against. 

The amendment bans “the wearing of the veil in sports competitions,” citing safety concerns. The ban was opposed by the French government, and a compromise must be reached between the Senate and the lower house before this is made law. 

It's unclear whether the ban will be implemented in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, according to Al Jazeera.  

Last April, as part of a conservative “anti-Separatism bill,” the French Senate voted to ban minors under 18 from wearing the hijab in public. A Twitter user at the time said, “Age to consent to sex in France: 15, Age to consent to hijab: 18, Let that sink in. It isn't a law against the hijab. It's a law against Islam.” 

It isn’t about secularism or “women’s rights,” but the threat of the Muslim “other.” France’s recent obsession with the veil is part of a historical project of domination called Orientalism. 

Furthermore, many post-colonial theorists have explored the ways that women are considered markers of empire and are thus culturally and physically dominated by imperial powers.

Psychiatrist Frantz Fanon wrote about the ways that France’s obsession with unveiling Algerian women became a justification for France — central to its “civilizing mission” — in his book “A Dying Colonialism.”  

He wrote, “If we want to destroy the structure of Algerian society, its capacity for resistance, we must first of all conquer the women; we must go and find them behind the veil where they hide themselves and in the houses where the men keep them out of sight.”  

In her book “Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest,” Anne McClintock wrote: “Controlling women’s sexuality, exalting maternity and breeding a virile race of empire-builders was widely perceived as the paramount means for controlling the health and wealth of the male imperial body."

Muslim women globally have been oppressed for expressing their faith in quote-unquote Western nations. Unfortunately, Vogue France’s caption isn't just some blunder, but a deliberate tool of erasure and domination. 

Support the Muslims in your life who choose to wear the hijab as an expression of their faith –– not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because all of our struggles are interlocked, and one of us won't see justice unless we all do.