[JURIST] The French branch of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association (AWSA) initiated proceedings Sunday against the participation of a ‘veiled’ candidate in the upcoming French regional elections, following the dismissal of its initial legal action. The candidate, Ilham Moussaid, represents the New Anticapitalist Party, a radical left-wing party, in the southeast region of France, known as the Paca region. The administrative court of Marseilles rejected a demand to ban Moussaid last week, holding that inasmuch as the authorities had not yet come to a decision there could not be a violation of fundamental freedoms at that stage. The AWSA, along with a taxpayer of the Paca region, have demanded that the administrative court of Marseilles annul that decision on the grounds that it represents a violation of fundamental freedoms, namely the prevalent value of secularity and the freedom of conscience. A hearing was set to take place on Tuesday.
The announcement of Moussaid’s candidacy earlier this month received nationwide media attention, given the recent proposal by a parliamentary commission to ban the burqa. Since 2004, French law has prohibited the wearing of a headscarf, along with other religious symbols, in schools, a ban that the parliamentary commission proposed to extend to all public institutions. In December 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unanimously ruled that there was no human rights violation when a French school expelled two Muslim students for refusing to remove their headscarves.