NPA stands hijab-wearing candidate

A candidate for a radical French anti-capitalist party in the forthcoming regional elections wears a headscarf as a token of her Islamic faith, something that has raised eyebrows in this rigidly secular society.

All the more so because the NPA (New Anti-capitalist Party), led by Trotskyist postman Olivier Besancenot, is a party that generates headlines for its extreme left wing position on issues including militant secularism.

Scarf-wearing Ilham Moussaid, a student and a party treasurer, is NPA candidate for the regional council of Vaucluse in southern France, Besancenot confirmed to French daily Le Figaro.

“A woman can be a feminist, can uphold secular values and wear a [Islamic] headscarf at the same time,” he told the newspaper.

France 24, 3 February 2010

Via Lenin’s Tomb