Kenza Drider’s posters for the French presidential race are ready to go, months before the official campaign begins. There she is, the “freedom candidate,” pictured standing in front of a line of police – a forbidden veil hiding her face. Drider declared her longshot candidacy on September 22, the same day that a French court fined two women who refused to remove their veils. All three are among a group of women mounting an attack on the law that has banned the garments from the streets of France since April, and prompted similar moves in other European countries. They are bent on proving that the ban contravenes fundamental rights and that women who hide their faces stand for freedom, not submission. “When a woman wants to maintain her freedom, she must be bold,” Drider was quoted as saying.
Drider declared her candidacy on September 22 in Meaux, the city east of Paris run by top conservative lawmaker and Sarkozy ally Jean-Francois Cope, who championed the ban. “I have the ambition today to serve all women who are the object of stigmatization or social, economic or political discrimination,” she said. “It is important that we show that we are here, we are French citizens and that we, as well, can bring solutions to French citizens.”