French extreme Left condones headscarf

In local elections slated for March the far-Left French New Anticapitalistic Party (NPA) is presenting a young woman who wears the headscarf. That's hardly toeing the party line, writes the daily Le Monde: "The paradox doesn't stem from the fact that a young 22-year-old woman sees no contradiction between covering her head for God and militating against sexism in a party of Trotskyist inspiration. After all, some members of the [far right] Front National are black or of Arab origin. Such is human nature. Conflicting affinities can coexist within a single breast. This is doubtless a cause for rejoicing. But what to make of the coherency of the political convictions of [NPA leader] Olivier Besancenot? On the one hand anti-sexist and a staunch adversary of Christian fundamentalist anti-abortionists, he is deeply moved by reactionary religion when it wears a headscarf."

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