Marine Le Pen’s Meeting with Veiled Nuns Sparks Widespread Debate in France… Double Standards

A photo taken during Pope Leo XIV’s historic visit to France has sparked a renewed debate over the veil, religion and French secularism, after French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who has been convicted in corruption cases and is a potential candidate for the National Rally in the next French presidential election, was seen smiling alongside a Christian nun wearing the traditional head covering of nuns. The photo was published by National Rally European Parliament member Matthieu Valet on the platform “X”, accompanied by the caption: “The rebirth of beautiful France.”

The scene gained additional sensitivity because of its timing. The photo came only weeks after Le Pen reopened the issue of banning the Islamic veil in public spaces. At the end of August, she announced that, if she reached the Élysée Palace, she would seek to introduce through a referendum a law aimed at combating what she calls “Islamist ideologies,” including criminalizing the wearing of the Islamic veil in public places and imposing financial penalties on women who wear it.

Thus, for critics, the photo appeared to present a striking visual and political contradiction: the same type of religious head covering appears at the heart of a public event associated with the pope and is greeted with a smile by a political figure, while the same party is discussing imposing penalties on Muslim women who wear the veil in the street.

This comparison fueled social media discussions and developed into public accusations of “double standards” in the treatment of religious symbols.

Legally, however, there is an essential point that must be clarified. The Christian nun in the photo was not committing an offence under French law, just as a Muslim woman who wears a veil covering only her hair does not currently commit an offence simply by wearing it in the street.

Current French restrictions vary depending on the location, occupation and type of clothing. Le Pen’s proposed legislation, meanwhile, goes much further than existing law by targeting the Islamic veil in public spaces.

Notably, the controversy was not limited to the photo. On September 3, Christian and non-Muslim women appeared on social media wearing the veil symbolically in solidarity with Muslim women, in protest against the National Rally’s proposal. One participant said she was a Christian and was prepared to wear the veil “in support of her sisters,” while videos of other women covering their hair in a message of solidarity also circulated.

Some members of the police also entered the debate. French media reported criticism from police officer and unionist Rody Manna of the idea of assigning police officers to issue fines to veiled women, saying that the police had other, more important duties than dealing with this type of offence.

This came as Pope Leo XIV’s visit was becoming a major public and political event in France. Le Pen and Jordan Bardella attended the Mass celebrated by the pope at Place de la Concorde in Paris on September 26, amid a large political presence and a crowd estimated at around 800,000 people according to the Vatican.

Meanwhile, the National Rally sought to distinguish between the Christian religion and political Islam. The party’s vice-president, Sébastien Chenu, said that his party “fights Islamism, not a religion,” in response to a question about the pope’s position on secularism and keeping religion in the public sphere.

The pope himself said during his visit that “fair secularism” does not mean excluding religion from the public sphere, a statement that French media considered directly relevant to the debate over the veil, particularly because Le Pen’s proposal relies on the concept of secularism to justify banning the Islamic veil.

Thus, the image of Le Pen smiling alongside a head-covered nun has evolved from a simple snapshot during a papal visit into a new element in the French debate over the limits of secularism: should the criterion be the religious form itself, the identity of the person wearing it, or the political message that the clothing is presumed to convey? While supporters of the National Rally proposal argue that the Islamic veil can, in some cases, represent an expression of “Islamism,” critics argue that specifically targeting the Islamic veil, unlike other religious forms of dress, raises questions about equality in the application of the principle of secularism.