Mariam (2016): on being a Muslim girl in France

Posted on : Sat, April 20, 2024 - 10:25:08

Author : Samarjit Chowdhury

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By Samarjit Chowdhury, MSOC (PG), SEM-2

Introduction

In the year 2023, the French Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, was quoted by the press, “When you walk into a classroom, you shouldn't be able to identify the pupils' religion just by looking at them." (Rfi, 2023) Following that comment, Attal vowed to bring a ban on the wearing of the abaya in public schools. This entailed extending the purview of the existing “laicite” laws that ban any form of religious clothing in state-funded primary and secondary-education institutes. It is an understatement that such statutes have given rise to heated and divisive discourse surrounding religious identity, religious freedom, women’s autonomy, and what it means to be a French citizen. Director Faiza Ambah’s short film “Mariam” (2016) produced by Bizibi Productions grapples with some of these questions and attempts to showcase the perspective of Muslim women, often pushed to the margins in the heated rhetoric surrounding this issue.