Quebec women's federation gets hate messages after support for hijab hashtag

Quebec's largest women's organization said it was the target of hateful comments on social media after announcing support for the hashtag MonVoileMonChoix, or My Hijab, My Choice.

The Fédération des femmes du Québec (FFQ) said it was inundated with hateful, Islamophobic messages. Some said the hashtag encourages women's oppression.

Amel Zaazaa, one of the people who launched the hashtag, said that after widespread support for MNA Catherine Dorion, who was criticized for wearing a hoodie to the National Assembly, she wanted to highlight a double-standard.

"We wanted to show that the fight against the Bill 21 is a feminist issue," said Zaazaa. "Since this law was put in place, several women have lost their jobs and even, some of them, are leaving the province."

After the FFQ posted its support for the hashtag, commenters criticized the initiative. One comment compared the hijab to "an abomination from brainless radicals." Another said that "nothing was more enslaving for a woman than to wear the veil."

Zaazaa said that the hijab is about inclusion and choice.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FFQ decried the comments it had received and said it was "a tiny reflection of what the Muslim women have experienced in their daily lives since the passage of [Bill 21]."

"Our role is not to meet the demands of people projecting a racist and Islamophobic vision of the struggle for feminism but to defend the right of all women," the FFQ wrote.

Zaazaa hopes that, in light of Dorion being denied access to the legislature, people also think of the Muslim women who will "never have access" to certain fields.

"There's a law that excludes them of all positions of power," she said. "It's not only sexist, it's also Islamophobic."

The law will go before the Court of Appeal, where Zaazaa hopes it will be deemed unconstitutional.