Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Le Pen Says Yarmulke Ban Would Be Fair

French right-wing politician Marine Le Pen clarified her support of a ban on wearing kipahs in public.

Le Pen, leader of the National Front, told French television on Saturday that “Jewish skullcaps are obviously not a problem in our country,” but France has to “ban them in the name of equality,” Haaretz reported. A day earlier she was quoted in an interview with the French daily Le Monde that she supports a ban on wearing kipahs in public in addition to a ban on Muslim headscarves.

“What would people say if I’d only asked to ban Muslim clothing? They’d burn me as a Muslim hater,” Le Pen reportedly said, according to Haaretz. She added that she was “asking our Jewish compatriots to make this small effort, this little sacrifice probably” for the sake of equality.

“I’m sure a big part of them are ready to make that little sacrifice,” she said.

Le Pen’s anti-immigrant, anti-Islamist party, which was founded in the 1970s by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, long has supported a ban on Muslim headscarves, niqabs and burkas.

The National Front has established itself as France’s third-largest political party. In 2002, it advanced to the second round in the presidential elections, clinching 17 percent of the vote.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.