France's divisive emblem
Ben Hall | Saturday, 14 June 2008
It is tough being a symbol, especially in a country where symbols are forensically analysed. Rachida Dati, France's justice minister, found that out early this month.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of Ms Dati last year had been seen as a brilliant symbolic move. After appealing to far-right voters by promising to crack down on immigration, he made Ms Dati the first figure of Muslim origin to hold senior ministerial office in a country that has more than 5.0m Muslims but not a single Muslim MP. She is young, female and of North African origin, with striking good looks, and her promotion sent a message of unity. She is also a kindred spirit - like him, an offspring of immigrants with an authoritarian streak, irreverent style and a taste for the high life(including an endless line in chic Dior dresses).
However, the symbolism of her Muslim heritage clashed with political substance earlier this month as Ms Dati found herself at the centre of a political storm over a bizarre legal case involving a marriage between a Muslim couple that was annulled because the woman had lied about being a virgin. The ruling triggered a furore because religion is supposed to have no place in the French state and because it raised sensitive questions about whether a secular tradition was bending to pressure from France's Muslim community.
Rather than join the chorus of condemnation, Ms Dati's first reaction was to defend the decision, only later to order an appeal under pressure from Mr Sarkozy. Her abrupt U-turn turned a row over secularism into one about her competence. Yet the case also highlighted an unusually personal back-story: Ms Dati herself had a semi-arranged marriage in 1992 annulled, although she has revealed little about the circumstances.
Charged with incompetence by opposition Socialists, Ms Dati returned fire, accusing them of keeping Muslims in poor estates while pretending to help. "I escaped from your policy failures," she told them.
Ms Dati grew up in a housing estate in eastern France. She was born in 1965 in Burgundy into a poor family, the second of 12 children of a strict Moroccan father, a bricklayer, and an illiterate Algerian mother. Educated at a Catholic school and a state lyc
President Nicolas Sarkozy's appointment of Ms Dati last year had been seen as a brilliant symbolic move. After appealing to far-right voters by promising to crack down on immigration, he made Ms Dati the first figure of Muslim origin to hold senior ministerial office in a country that has more than 5.0m Muslims but not a single Muslim MP. She is young, female and of North African origin, with striking good looks, and her promotion sent a message of unity. She is also a kindred spirit - like him, an offspring of immigrants with an authoritarian streak, irreverent style and a taste for the high life(including an endless line in chic Dior dresses).
However, the symbolism of her Muslim heritage clashed with political substance earlier this month as Ms Dati found herself at the centre of a political storm over a bizarre legal case involving a marriage between a Muslim couple that was annulled because the woman had lied about being a virgin. The ruling triggered a furore because religion is supposed to have no place in the French state and because it raised sensitive questions about whether a secular tradition was bending to pressure from France's Muslim community.
Rather than join the chorus of condemnation, Ms Dati's first reaction was to defend the decision, only later to order an appeal under pressure from Mr Sarkozy. Her abrupt U-turn turned a row over secularism into one about her competence. Yet the case also highlighted an unusually personal back-story: Ms Dati herself had a semi-arranged marriage in 1992 annulled, although she has revealed little about the circumstances.
Charged with incompetence by opposition Socialists, Ms Dati returned fire, accusing them of keeping Muslims in poor estates while pretending to help. "I escaped from your policy failures," she told them.
Ms Dati grew up in a housing estate in eastern France. She was born in 1965 in Burgundy into a poor family, the second of 12 children of a strict Moroccan father, a bricklayer, and an illiterate Algerian mother. Educated at a Catholic school and a state lyc