Paris: French minister Laurence Rossignol has come
under racism row after comparing women who wear ‘Burqas’ to ‘negroes’ who
supported slavery in the US.
Laurence Rossignol made the comments to RMC radio and
BFM TV during an interview, igniting accusations of racism on Wednesday across
social media as a petition was launched calling on the minister to resign. In
just a few hours, the petition gathered more than 10,000 signatures. Rossignol
said her use of the word was a “slip of the tongue” and admitted she should not
have said it but insisted she stood by the point she was trying to make.
During the interview, Rossignol was over the decision
by fashion companies including Marks & Spencer, H&M and Dolce
& Gabbana to produce and promote fashion aimed at Muslims such as the
‘Burkini’, as well as ‘Abayas’ and ‘Hijabs’. The 58-year-old minister criticized
the fashion labels, saying the clothing was not “socially responsible” and
“from a certain point of view, promotes the shutting away of women’s bodies”.
When the interviewer suggested that certain women made
the decision of their own free will to cover themselves, Rossignol replied: “Of
course, they are women who make the choice … there were also … American negroes
who were in favor of slavery.”
Rossignol later said: “Negro is a pejorative word that
should not be used except to evoke slavery with reference to the abolitionist
work by Montesquieu. There was, therefore, no provocation on my part nor any
desire to shock. It’s a word I would not use in any other circumstance.”
France has the largest Muslim minority in Europe and
some of the continent's most restrictive laws about expressions of faith in
public. The veil was banned in 2011.
