Dalila Benameur has worn a tightly bound white scarf around her head since she ardently began practicing Islam eight years ago. She pins it under her chin, not a wisp of hair showing.
But that very distinctive symbol of Islam–the scarf, or hijab–covering the hair threatened to thwart her efforts to renew her French passport.
Benameur is of Algerian descent and alleges that last week an official at the French consulate in Chicago asked her to remove the scarf for a passport mugshot. She refused, citing religious grounds. When she refused a request to at least show a portion of her hair and ear, Benameur says French officials refused to renew her passport.
The 32-year-old Palos Hills resident, who was born and raised in France, is here on a work visa, teaching at an Islamic school in Bridgeview. Without a new passport she can’t return back home, and she says Islamic guidelines require her to cover her hair for the sake of modesty.
“It’s my basic human right to be able to choose and practice my religion and still keep my citizenship,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been forced to choose between citizenship and religion.”
On Wednesday, however, responding to the Tribune, Jean-Rene Gehan, the French consul general in Chicago, chided his staff for perhaps being a little too hasty in their refusal.
He wants to meet with Benameur this week and says she probably won’t be required to show her hair as long as the scarf is pulled back far enough to make the shape of her face visible.
“It’s really not a question of religion from our point of view,” Gehan said. “It’s a question of being able to identify the person by the photograph.”
But religious discrimination was the first thing that came to Benameur’s mind when she was refused a passport renewal without showing her hair.
This debate that played out locally echoes a growing conflict in France as many Muslims from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia say they are the targets of racial and religious discrimination.
Algerians and French share a particularly troubled history. After colonizing Algeria for 132 years, France finally granted the country its independence in 1962.
In 1957, Benameur’s father moved from Algeria to France and raised his family in a suburb of Paris. As a girl, Benameur didn’t wear a scarf. But after learning about her religion, she started covering her hair at the age of 24.
What she found was that the laws in France have not granted strong protections for those who wear Islamic attire. Last year France’s highest court reaffirmed a ban on Muslim students’ wearing of hijabs in public schools. Here, French laws prevail over French passport matters, officials said.
Benameur said she plans to meet with the consul general Thursday.
“I’m hoping that they will tell me that my religious beliefs do not conflict with my duties as a French citizen,” she said.
