Sandrine Rousseau's reaction to the arrest of an undressed student in Iran condemned from all sides

The ambiguity no longer passes. In reaction to the video widely relayed on social networks of an Iranian student arrested on Saturday in Tehran by the moral police – as a sign of protest against the obligation to wear the veil – a large part of the French political class welcomed the courage of this young woman. Notably the right and the National Rally (RN), who saw it as a strong symbol in the fight against Islamism. However, one comment broke this unanimity: that of the ecologist Sandrine Rousseau.

Although she expressed support “to Iranian women, to Afghan women, to all those who suffer oppression”, the member from Paris very clumsily exalted the free will of women, regardless of their unique situations: “Our body, and everything we put – or not – to clothe it, belongs to us.” Seen more than 4 million times on the social network in just a few hours, the comment received a barrage of criticism. Both from political and intellectual figures, who accuse the ecofeminist of putting on the same level the fight of Iranian women against the mullahs' regime since 2022 and that of women wishing to wear the veil in France.

As soon as the message was published, her Macronist colleague Aurore Bergé did not beat around the bush: “Shame, nausea”. “This young woman takes every risk to show us the path to freedom and emancipation. It deserves better than a capitulation to Islamism or small accommodations which are so many defeats. mocked the Renaissance MP from Yvelines. On the right side, Senator LR Valérie Boyer denounced a “infamous tweet” and a “feminism with variable political geometry”. “In no case an embellishment but the instrument of mysoginal oppression, of sexual apartheid”castigated the elected official from Bouches-du-Rhône.

“An abjection and a spit”

In parallel with the political sphere, several leaders from civil society and the media have also raised their voices. This is the case of the France Inter comedian Sophia Aram who denounced a “shame”or the former president of the secular movement “Printemps Républicain” Amine El Khatmi: “An abjection and a spit thrown in the face of all the women who, from Kabul to Tehran, risk their lives by standing up to their Islamist tormentors.”

Part of the cultural world was also agitated. Like the Franco-Iranian Marjane Satrapi, known for her comics Persepolis, who expressed anger on Instagram. “Everyone has the right to be stupid, but in this case it’s better to keep quiet”scathed this artist. Recalling that Sandrine Rousseau had been heavily booed two years ago, in the first Parisian rally after the arrest and death of the young Mahsa Amini for a poorly worn veil: “You spoke, and everyone booed you because a few days earlier, you had declared that the veil is the embellishment of women. Everywhere, you explained that you were booed because you are a woman. (…) If you were booed, it’s because you were stupid.”