AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Remarks by Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the French National Assembly, regarding the presence of hijabi girls inside the parliament have drawn criticism from several lawmakers.
In a post on X, Braun-Pivet wrote, “At the very heart of the hemicycle of the National Assembly, where the 2004 law on secularism in schools was adopted, it is unacceptable to me that children can sit in the visitors’ gallery wearing overt religious symbols.”
Her comments came after the director of Frontiers Media published a photo showing several hijabi girls inside the parliament. Braun-Pivet stressed that she had asked everyone to exercise “the utmost vigilance” to prevent such incidents from happening again.
Aymeric Caron, a lawmaker from the left-wing France Unbowed party, condemned the remarks as “Islamophobic” and said that the President of the Assembly had “added an imaginary law” to the legal framework, showing disrespect for citizens’ rights.
Thomas Portes, another member of the same party, asserted that Braun-Pivet’s comments effectively “endorsed the racist dissemination” of an image by a far-right media outlet.
Antoine Léaument, also from the left-wing bloc, pointed out that no law in France prohibits wearing a headscarf inside the National Assembly, adding, “In the French Republic, Islamophobia must not be promoted; what must be protected are public and individual freedoms.”
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