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Muslim Women Describe Daily Struggle in Europe

PARIS – Struggle. That was the word many Muslim women used to describe their daily life in Europe, where attacks from both terrorists and right-wing politicians have put them between fire and frying pan.

“For years, we have had to put up with dirty looks and threatening remarks,” wrote Taslima Amar, 30, a teacher in Pantin, a suburb of Paris, The New York Times reported on Friday, September 2.

“I’ve been asked to go back home (even though I am home),” added Amar, who said she and her husband were looking to leave France.

Like thousands of Muslim women, Amar’s life is hugely affected by controversial issues popping up every now and then.

According to Muslim women, whose opinions were solicited by the Times, anti-Muslim bias had intensified after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015, and in Brussels, Paris and Nice more recently.

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The latest burkini ban in more than 30 French beach towns has only added to their troubles.

“The way people look at us has changed,” Halima Djalab Bouguerra, a 21-year-old student in Bourg-en-Bresse, France, wrote.

“Tongues have loosened. No one is afraid of telling a Muslim to ‘go back home’ anymore.”

Laurie Abouzeir, 32, said she was considering starting a business caring for children in her home in Toulouse, southern France, because that would allow her to wear a head scarf, frowned upon and even banned in some workplaces.

The situation was easier even to Muslim women who do not don the Islamic hijab.

“Even if we make every effort and try to be ‘integrated,’ we are constantly reminded that to be properly and completely integrated, we must give up our principles and our religion,” Mira Hassine, 27, Orléans, France.

“In our homes, at work, or among our friends, there is a kind of pressure. We don’t dare accept invitations from friends because we’re sick of having to say no to alcohol and to politely justify ourselves, walking on eggshells while making sure we don’t say anything that could be taken the wrong way.

“At work, there have been little jokes along the lines of ‘Did you help your cousins?’ after the terrorist attacks. And our families who curse the terrorists at mealtime are then insulted by these new laws,” Hassine, practicing Muslim who does not wear a veil and works as an administrator at a construction company, added.

Discrimination

Many Muslim students said they forced to live up with daily hate attacks.

“I am insulted, spat on (literally) every day in the subway, on the bus, at school. Yet I have never insulted or hit someone. No, I am just Muslim. I am seriously thinking of going to live elsewhere, where other people’s looks won’t make me cry every night in my bed,” Charlotte Monnier, 23, Toulouse, France.

“I am afraid of having to wear a yellow crescent on my clothes one day, like the Star of David for Jews not so long ago,” the architecture student added.

Work place was not also welcoming to many Muslim women.

Siam Ferhat-Basset, 29, Drancy, France, who holds a master degree, cannot find a proper job.

“Even though I have a master’s degree, I couldn’t find a job related to my studies. … I see no hope for our future, and like many others, I intend to go abroad,” the former receptionist said.

“My heart is 100 percent French, but it feels like I have to prove my ‘Frenchness,’ and with everything happening currently, I’m tired of justifying my identity.”

Linda Alem, a nurse at a dialysis center in Paris, said she is forced to remove her hijab at work.

“I am a nurse and I wear the veil. At work, it is impossible for me to wear my veil,” Alem, 27, said.

“I remove it upon arrival. Nothing on the head, no long sleeves, nothing that might cover me up to adhere to my way of living. … We are denied the possibility of going to the pool and now to the beach. What is the next step? Are we going to wear crescents to be recognized?”

Leaving her country for London, Saima Ashraf, 39, managed to achieve success as a Muslim woman donning hijab.

“I am a Muslim French woman. I live in London. As a Frenchwoman, I would never have achieved what I have in London while wearing the veil,” she said.

“I am a politician in local government, deputy leader of my borough, and I wear the scarf. If I were in France, forget about it.”

France is home to a Muslim community of nearly six million, the largest in Europe, according to Agence France Presse.