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by Olivier Besancenot
Le Figaro caricatured my words regarding the candidacy of Ilham Moussaïd, who is on our list in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional elections. After a serious and complex debate, the Vaucluse chapter of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) made a choice to include on its feminist, anti-capitalist, and internationalist lists an NPA member who believes in wearing a headscarf on account of her religious convictions.
Our party welcomes youth, the unemployed, the precarious, workers of all backgrounds who find their values reflected in the party. Faith is a matter of personal choice that does not create any obstacle to participation in our struggle so long as members sincerely share the secular, feminist, and anti-capitalist fundamental principles of our party.
I therefore simply said to Le Figaro: "Ilham is evidence that one can be a member of the NPA and wear a headscarf."
The NPA is a party that fights against any form of oppression and exclusion. A debate on liberation and the place of religion -- and all its forms of expression -- exists within the NPA, in view of its next congress.
3 February 2010
Ilham Moussaïd, NPA
Olivier Besancenot, NPA
The original article "Déclaration d'Olivier Besancenot. Rectificatif à propos d'un article du Figaro" was published on the Web site of the New Anti-Capitalist Party on 3 February 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi. See, also, Françoise David and Amir Khadir, "Secularism: For a Broad, Open, and Democratic Debate" (MRZine, 18 January 2010); Danièle Obono, "The Left and Racial Domination in France: An Interview with Sadri Khiari (MIR)" (MRZine, 6 January 2010); and Saïd Mekki, "The Decolonizing Struggle in France: An Interview with Houria Bouteldja" (MRZine, 28 October 2009).
