Ana Pak is an Iranian secular feminist who works with refugees arriving in France from Iran, Afghanistan and Syria. Pak grew up during Khomeini’s rule. “The word Islamophobic comes from 1979 when [Ayatollah] Khomeini came to power and women went to the streets and marched to be free of the veil,” she says. “Khomeini and the Islamists obliged them to wear the veil, and that’s when they started calling these women Islamophobic.”
Pak was forced to leave Iran for France, having been arrested several times for campaigning against theocracy in Iran. Having escaped prison, she expected to be able to continue her anti-Islam activism in the democratic, secular country of her exile. “I was shocked to find that the French Left was capitulating to the Islamists, and that I was soon labelled as Islamophobic for resisting its doctrine. I have never stopped working against or fighting Islamists, in Iran first of all, and then in France. In Iran I was involved with the Left, but the Left has lost its raison d’être. Now the Left use the same words that the Islamists have used in their own campaign.”
Pak was dismayed by the reaction of some French citizens to the Charlie Hebdo attacks. “Immediately following the attacks at Charlie Hebdo I went in the evening with some feminist friends to the Place de la République, where we assembled to support the people who were killed. Two of my friends had banners with typical feminist slogans, like ‘No to the veil’ and ‘No extremism’, but the French people that were already there asked them to remove them because they could cause offence.
“After the Hebdo killings, a common reaction was to blame the journalists who ‘dared’ to criticise Islam, saying they were guilty of blasphemy. Now Islamists are killing those who drink wine and who go to concerts. Tomorrow it will be people who march in the streets. Islamists are taking power in France, and what they want once they are in power is to achieve absolute submission.”
Those who use the history of French colonialism to justify the massacres are misguided, she says. “Islamists have taken power in Iran against Iranians, in Syria against the Christians, in France against those who go out and drink wine. So the people who blame colonialism are wrong.”
Clara Carbunar is part of the World March of Women (WMW) France. She works with young women in Europe, some of whom are Muslim, as well as with multi-ethnic communities in France. “I was really mad after the terrorist attacks in Paris last January. Who was targeted? Journalists and Jewish people,” says Carbunar. “The Left gathered around the demand to end Islamophobia, following the attacks. There was a national march, but what was organised was a protest against Islamophobia without mentioning anti-Semitism. The two questions that divide feminists are lesbian and gay rights on one hand, and anti-Semitism on the other.”
One of organisations she attacks is the Party of Indigenous People of the Republic (PIR). Established in 2010, PIR campaigns against “Eurocentrism, Islamophobia, anti-black racism and Zionism”. “PIR have influenced the Left on Islam,” says Carbunar. “They announced a march against racism, and this was not a feminist demand at first. It was women who led the march, but nothing in their demands was about sexism. It was only about Islamophobia and racism. They define racism as against black people, Muslims and Roma, forgetting the Jews, who have been targeted a lot in France these last years. Obviously this is a major point of debate.”
Pak was forced to leave Iran for France, having been arrested several times for campaigning against theocracy in Iran. Having escaped prison, she expected to be able to continue her anti-Islam activism in the democratic, secular country of her exile. “I was shocked to find that the French Left was capitulating to the Islamists, and that I was soon labelled as Islamophobic for resisting its doctrine. I have never stopped working against or fighting Islamists, in Iran first of all, and then in France. In Iran I was involved with the Left, but the Left has lost its raison d’être. Now the Left use the same words that the Islamists have used in their own campaign.”
Pak was dismayed by the reaction of some French citizens to the Charlie Hebdo attacks. “Immediately following the attacks at Charlie Hebdo I went in the evening with some feminist friends to the Place de la République, where we assembled to support the people who were killed. Two of my friends had banners with typical feminist slogans, like ‘No to the veil’ and ‘No extremism’, but the French people that were already there asked them to remove them because they could cause offence.
“After the Hebdo killings, a common reaction was to blame the journalists who ‘dared’ to criticise Islam, saying they were guilty of blasphemy. Now Islamists are killing those who drink wine and who go to concerts. Tomorrow it will be people who march in the streets. Islamists are taking power in France, and what they want once they are in power is to achieve absolute submission.”
Those who use the history of French colonialism to justify the massacres are misguided, she says. “Islamists have taken power in Iran against Iranians, in Syria against the Christians, in France against those who go out and drink wine. So the people who blame colonialism are wrong.”
Clara Carbunar is part of the World March of Women (WMW) France. She works with young women in Europe, some of whom are Muslim, as well as with multi-ethnic communities in France. “I was really mad after the terrorist attacks in Paris last January. Who was targeted? Journalists and Jewish people,” says Carbunar. “The Left gathered around the demand to end Islamophobia, following the attacks. There was a national march, but what was organised was a protest against Islamophobia without mentioning anti-Semitism. The two questions that divide feminists are lesbian and gay rights on one hand, and anti-Semitism on the other.”
One of organisations she attacks is the Party of Indigenous People of the Republic (PIR). Established in 2010, PIR campaigns against “Eurocentrism, Islamophobia, anti-black racism and Zionism”. “PIR have influenced the Left on Islam,” says Carbunar. “They announced a march against racism, and this was not a feminist demand at first. It was women who led the march, but nothing in their demands was about sexism. It was only about Islamophobia and racism. They define racism as against black people, Muslims and Roma, forgetting the Jews, who have been targeted a lot in France these last years. Obviously this is a major point of debate.”
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