(Reuters) Laboratory technician Sara Zemmahi was running to be a local councillor backed by President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party until last month when it withdrew its support. Her transgression: wearing her hijab in a campaign poster.
The 26-year-old and the three other candidates who had been on the same ticket are now running as independents in the southern city of Montpellier under the slogan “Different but united for you.”
The affair erupted after the far-right seized upon the image as proof Macron was weak on protecting France’s secular values, and propelled Zemmahi into a national row over identity.
“We’re not giving up,” Zemmahi said, still wearing her hijab as she distributed campaign fliers in La Mosson, a low-income Montpellier district that is home to generations of Muslim immigrants from France’s former north African colonies.
