A muslim woman too orthodox for france

When Faiza Silmi applied for French citizenship she was worried that her fluent French was not quite perfective enough or that her Moroccan upbringing would pose a job.

"I would never have imagined that they would turn me down because of what I choose to wear," Silmi said, her hazel eyes look out of the narrow slit in her niqab, an Islamic facial veil that is among three flow layers of turquoise, blue and black that cover her body from head to toe.

But last month, French Republic's highest administrative court upheld a determination to deny Silmi, 32, citizenship on the land that her "group" practice of Islam was incompatible with French values like equality of the sexes.

It was the first time that a French court had judged somebody's capacity to be assimilated into French Republic based on buck private religious pattern, taking laïcité - the state's strict concept of secularism - from the populace sphere into the home.

The case has sharpened the focus on the delicate balance betwixt the tradition of Republican secularism and the freedom of faith guaranteed under the French Constitution - and how that balance might be shift. It comes four years after a law ban religious garb in populace schools was reinforced. And it comes only weeks after a court in Lille annulled a matrimony on petition of a Moslem husband whose wife had lied about being a virgin. (The authorities subsequently demanded a reappraisal of the court determination.)

So far, citizenship has only been denied on religious grounds in French Republic when applier were believed to be close to fundamentalist grouping.

The opinion has received almost unequivocal support across the political spectrum, including among many Moslem. Fadela Amara, the French minister for urban matter, called Silmi's niqab "a prison" and a "straitjacket."

"It is not a religious insignia but the insignia of a totalitarian political project that promotes inequality between the sexes and is totally lacking in democracy," said Amara, herself a practicing Muslim of Algerian descent.

François Hollande, the leader of the opposition Socialist Party, called the ruling "a good application of the law," while Jacques Myard, the conservative lawmaker elected in the constituency where Silmi lives, demanded that face-covering veils be outlawed.

In an interview, Silmi told of her shock and embarrassment when she found herself unexpectedly in the public eye. Since July 12, when Le Monde first reported the court decision, her story has been endlessly dissected on newspaper front pages and in late-night television talk shows.

"They say I am under my husband's command and that I am a recluse," Silmi said during an hourlong conversation in her apartment in La Verrière, a small town 30 minutes southwest of Paris. At home, when there are no men present, she lifts her facial veil and exposes a smiling, heart-shaped face.

"They say I wear the niqab because my husband told me so," she said. "I want to tell them: It is my choice. I take care of my children and I leave the house when I please. I have my own car. I do the shopping on my own. Yes, I am a practicing Muslim, I am orthodox. But is that not my right?"

Silmi declined to have her photograph taken, saying that both she and her husband were uncomfortable with the idea.

Silmi married Karim, a French national of Moroccan descent, eight years ago and moved to France with him. Their four children, three boys and a girl, aged from 2 to 7, were all born in France. In 2004, Silmi applied for French citizenship, "because I wanted to have the same nationality as my husband and my children." But her request was denied a year later because of "insufficient assimilation" into France.

She appealed, invoking the right to religious freedom. But on June 25 the Council of State, the judicial institution with final say on disputes between individuals and the public administration, upheld the ruling.

"She has adopted a radical practice of her religion, incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes," said the ruling.

Emmanuelle Prada-Bordenave, the government commissioner who reported to the Council of State, said Simli's interviews with social services revealed that "she lives in total submission to her male relatives. She seems to find this normal and the idea of challenging it has never crossed her mind."

But everything is not as Western cliché might have it in the Silmi household. As she recounts her story, it is her husband who serves a steaming pot of mint tea and chocolate cookies. Silmi herself collected this interviewer from the rail station in her car. She does not wear her facial veil while driving and says that she also lifts it when she picks up her children at the local public school.