‘Freedom candidate’ begins presidency bid behind veil

KENZA DRIDER’S posters for the French presidential race are ready to go, months before the official campaign begins.

The “freedom candidate” is pictured standing in front of a line of police — a forbidden veil hiding her face.

Drider declared her candidacy yesterday, the same day a French court fined two women who refuse to remove their veils.

All three are among a group of women mounting an attack on the law that has banned the garments from the streets of France since April.

They are bent on proving that the ban contravenes fundamental rights and that women who hide their faces stand for freedom, not submission.

“When a woman wants to maintain her freedom, she must be bold,” Drider said.

President Nicolas Sarkozy strongly disagrees, and says the veil imprisons women. Polls show that most French people support the ban, which authorities estimate affects fewer than 2,000 women.

Drider declared her candidacy in Meaux, the city east of Paris run by top conservative lawmaker and Sarkozy ally Jean-Francois Cope, who championed the ban, and the place where the two women who appeared in court yesterday were arrested.

She said: “I have the ambition today to serve all women who are the object of stigmatisation or social, economic or political discrimination.

“It is important that we show that we are here, we are French citizens and that we, as well, can bring solutions to French citizens.”

Drider needs 500 of France’s 36,000 mayors to back her candidacy if she is to make the ballot paper for the presidential election next year.

The two women were fined €120 and €80 in court. They want to push their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

“We cannot accept that women be punished because they are openly practising their religious convictions. We are demanding the application of European rights,” said one of the women, Hind Ahmas.