BELGIUM – LEADING FRANCOPHONE WEEKLY REPUBLISHED AN ARTICLE DEFINING A YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR AS A ‘VEILED WOMAN’
Le Vif, the leading weekly magazine of francophone Belgium, republished an article titled 'Macron in Molenbeek' on its website. This article focuses on the roundtable attended by the Macrons, the queen and king of Belgium with various residents of the area. While most participants are identified by their profession, the article describes one as "a young veiled woman."
European Forum of Muslim Women (EFOMW), GTTO partner for francophone media in Belgium, wrote a formal complain to Le Vif’s editorial team. They asked why Le Vif decided to include references to the woman’s headscarf when it is clearly not relevant to her being a young entrepreneur? EFOMW argued that by describing her this wayLe Vifreinforced Islamophobic assumptions that a person is always defined by their religion and asked them to remove any reference to the veil.
The editor-in-chief of the magazine Vincent Genot replied to EFOMW the same day. He agreed that “the fact that this young woman is veiled, practically, offers no interest for our readers.” The reference to the veil has been removed from the article on Le Vif’s website. However, Vincent Genot explained that it remains online elsewhere because the article comes from the Belgian Press Agency, Belga, and had been republished by a number of online news resources.
