Fanny Truchelut
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Yvette "Fanny" Truchelut is part owner of a bed-and-breakfast type of hostel in the department of Vosges, France. On August 11, 2006, Truchelut asked two female Muslim boarders to remove their headscarves in the public rooms of this hostel. (These were the large TV room and dining hall of the hostel.)
A lawsuit was initiated by Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between People (MRAP). Truchelut was sued for refusal to provide a good or a service:
- due to the origin, whether belonging to it or not belonging to it, of an ethnicity or a determined nationality (on grounds that two women were wearing the veil)
- due to one's belonging, or not belonging, to a determined race (on grounds that two women were wearing the veil)
- due to one's belonging, or not belonging, to a determined religion (on grounds that two women were wearing the veil)
Presidential candidate Philippe de Villiers offered free legal services to Fanny Truchelut. The trial began on October 2, 2007, and October 9 she was convicted, fined 5800 euros, and sentenced to four months of imprisonment. The case is on appeal.
In France, the case has been treated as symbolic of the "Islamization" of French society, the loss of control over private property, and new threats to the rights of women. In an open letter to President Sarkozy, Truchelut focuses on the rights of women. She argues that the islamic veil is a symbol of the oppression of women and that her own arrest is symbolic of a larger struggle in France.
