Montreal to shed city hall welcome sign that includes woman wearing hijab

A welcome sign in the lobby of Montreal's newly renovated city hall depicting a woman wearing a headscarf will be removed in the name of secularism, Montreal's mayor says, following criticism that the image is offensive.

Valérie Plante said during a talk show that aired Sunday night that the drawing of a woman wearing what looks like a hijab, or Islamic headscarf, will be taken down because of the "discomfort" it causes but also because institutions must strive to be secular.

In the image, which is in the style of a pencil sketch, the woman is standing between two men — one who seems younger and is wearing a baseball cap and overcoat, and an older man with his hands crossed in front of him. "Welcome to Montreal City Hall!" is written in French above them.

"I think we can talk about diversity — the great cultural wealth of Montreal — while favouring secularism," Plante said on the Radio-Canada talk show Tout le monde en parle.

In the city's east end, another photo involving a hijab has also recently stoked controversy. The public library in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough used a photo with children — including a smiling girl wearing a hijab — to advertise a reading event for kids aged three to six.

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon has said both images show that religion is invading the public sphere.

Religion's supposed infiltration into public spaces has resurfaced in recent weeks after 11 teachers were suspended at a Montreal public elementary school over allegations of toxicity and creeping religious instruction.

New poster will be installed

The image at Montreal City Hall, which was still up on Monday, was revealed last June, after the building reopened following extensive renovations. Since then, there have been numerous calls for it to be taken down.

The Mouvement laïque québécois, which advocates for state secularism, said in July the image "offends the vast  majority of women and men of all religions or beliefs who want real and apparent secularism in their public institutions in the name of equality and freedom of conscience."

Pour les droits des femmes du Québec, a women's rights group, wrote to Plante during the summer, calling the image unacceptable, describing the hijab as a fundamentalist religious symbol and saying the decision to display it does not "pass the threshold of social acceptability and can only weaken social cohesion."

Mina Fakhravar, a board member of the Association of Iranian women of Montreal, was also bothered by the poster. 

"For many, especially Iranian women, who know firsthand what that symbol represents in terms of gender-based oppression, it was deeply insulting, it was a shock and frankly a disappointment," Fakhravar told CBC News on Monday. 

A group supporting Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab agrees the image was poorly designed, noting it doesn't accurately represent the diversity of Montrealers and their wardrobe choices, but said taking the sign down sends the wrong message.

"The impression we get is that we should be invisible. We're not part of the society, we're pushed to the margin of society. So this is denying our presence," Samaa Elibyari, co-chairperson for the Montreal chapter of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, told CBC News. 

"This is denying the fact that there are Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab, who choose to be recognized as Muslim."

Plante said the process to replace the image was already underway.

The mayor's office said Monday it had nothing further to add about Plante's appearance on the talk show, which came just days after she announced she wouldn't seek a third term in next year's elections.