Irish Network for Middle Eastern and North African Studies

  By Sahar Ahmed Lorie Shaull CC BY-SA 2.0 In October 2021, the Council of Europe released posters as part of a campaign against anti-Muslim discrimination. Slogans across the posters ranged from ‘Beauty is in diversity as freedom is in hijab’ to ‘My headscarf, My choice’, along with pictures of women - some wearing a headscarf, some not. But promptly following the publicity of these posters, there was loud opposition to them, most notably from  France .   Many French politicians condemned the campaign for promoting the wearing of the  hijab , arguing that the  hijab  did not represent freedom. Sarah El-Haïry, France’s Youth Minister, said during an interview on  French TV , that the campaign clashed with the secular values of France. The criticism was swift and powerful - enough for the Council of Europe to delete its tweets about the campaign and to take the posters down. Posters, which were part of an anti-hate speech campaign led by the inclusion a...