PARIS: France’s highest court on Wednesday upheld a ban on barristers wearing the hijab and other religious symbols in courtrooms in the north, a ruling that is the first of its kind and sets a precedent for the rest of the country.
The conspicuous display of religious symbols is an emotive subject in France and the court’s decision may stir a nationwide debate over so-called core Republican values of secularism and identity ahead of April’s presidential election.
The case was brought by Sarah Asmeta, a 30-year-old hijab-wearing French-Syrian lawyer, who challenged a rule set by the Bar Council of Lille that bans religious markers in its courtrooms on the grounds that it was discriminatory.
In its ruling, the Court of Cassation said the ban was “necessary and appropriate, on the one hand to preserve the independence of the lawyer and, on the other, to guarantee the right to a fair trial.”
Banning the wearing of religious symbols “does not constitute discrimination,” it added.
Asmeta told Reuters she was shocked and disappointed with the ruling.
“Why does covering my hair stop my client from the right to a free trial?” she told Reuters. “My clients are not children. If they choose me as their lawyer, with my veil, then it is their choice.”
There is no law that explicitly says Asmeta cannot wear her hijab, a headscarf worn by some Muslim women, in the courtroom.
In the months after she took an oath and entered law as a trainee barrister, the Lille Bar Council passed its own internal rule banning any signs of political, philosophical and religious conviction to be worn with the gown in court.
Asmeta challenged the Lille Bar Council’s rule, calling it targeted and discriminatory. She lost the case in an appeals court in 2020 and pushed the matter up to the Court of Cassation.
Religious symbols and clothing are banned for public servants in France due to its principle of “laïcité,” or secularism — the separation of religion from the state.
French lawmakers and politicians have in recent years sought to extend curbs on wearing the hijab to cover, for example, mothers who accompany their children on school trips and football players.
As a presidential election in April approaches, right-wing candidates have focused on identity issues.
Asmeta said she was contemplating taking her fight to the European Court of Human Rights.
The case has provoked a heated debate within the legal community.
More than three dozen lawyers from Paris, where the Bar Council has imposed a similar ban, on Monday penned an open letter calling for a nationwide rule against the head covering in courtrooms.
“We, lawyers, do not want a communitarian and obscurantist judiciary,” they wrote in the French publication Marianne.
Slim Ben Achour, a lawyer specializing in discrimination, disagreed and said such bans were hypocritical.
“It is not possible that we, lawyers, the defenders of rights, or at least that is how we sell ourselves, block Muslim women [from practicing],” he told Reuters.
Top French court upholds ban on barristers wearing hijab in Lille courtrooms
https://arab.news/getf9
Top French court upholds ban on barristers wearing hijab in Lille courtrooms
- The case was brought by Sarah Asmeta, a 30-year-old hijab-wearing French-Syrian lawyer
- She challenged a rule set by the Bar Council of Lille that bans religious markers in courtrooms on grounds that it was discriminatory
Junta leader Gen. Mamdi Doumbouya is declared winner of Guinea’s election, provisional results show
- Mamady Doumbouya took power in 2021 coup
CONAKRY, Guinea: Guinea coup leader Mamady Doumbouya has been elected president, according to provisional results announced on Tuesday, completing the return to civilian rule in the bauxite- and iron ore-rich West African nation.
The former special forces commander, thought to be in his early 40s, seized power in 2021, toppling then-President Alpha Conde, who had been in office since 2010. It was one in a series of nine coups that have reshaped politics in West and Central Africa since 2020.
The provisional results announced on Tuesday showed Doumbouya winning 86.72 percent of the December 28 vote, an absolute majority that allows him to avoid a runoff.
The Supreme Court has eight days to validate the results in the event of any challenge.
Doumbouya’s victory, which gives him a seven-year mandate, was widely expected. Conde and Cellou Dalein Diallo, Guinea’s longtime opposition leader, are in exile, which left Doumbouya to face a fragmented field of eight challengers.
Doumbouya reversed pledge not to run
The original post-coup charter in Guinea barred junta members from running in elections, but a constitution dropping those restrictions was passed in a September referendum.
Djenabou Toure, the country’s top election official who announced the results on Tuesday night, said turnout was 80,95 percent. However voter participation appeared tepid in the capital Conakry, and opposition politicians rejected a similarly high turnout figure for the September referendum.
Guinea holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves and the richest untapped iron ore deposit at Simandou, officially launched last month after years of delay.
Doumbouya has claimed credit for pushing the project forward and ensuring Guinea benefits from its output.
His government this year also revoked the license of Emirates Global Aluminium’s subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation following a refinery dispute, transferring the unit’s assets to a state-owned firm.
The turn toward resource nationalism — echoed in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger — has boosted his popularity, as has his relative youth in a country where the median age is about 19.
Political space restricted, UN says
Political debate has been muted under Doumbouya. Civil society groups accuse his government of banning protests, curbing press freedom and restricting opposition activity.
The campaign period was “severely restricted, marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said last week.
On Monday, opposition candidate Faya Lansana Millimono told a press conference the election was marred by “systematic fraudulent practices” and that observers were prevented from monitoring the voting and counting processes.
The government did not respond to a request for comment.
