The French government has banned the sale of a book aimed at Muslim teenage girls, asserting that it promotes gender-based prejudice against women and fuels hostility towards the West.
France’s Interior Ministry issued a prohibition order on February 23, banning the sale of Moi, la jeune Musulmane (Me, the Young Muslim Girl ) to minors, while also prohibiting its display in public locations, shops, or kiosks, and advertising it through posters, flyers, or media broadcasts.
Quietly, @Fnac [a French retailer] sells books by #islamist fanatics calling for the murder of homosexuals, Jews, and Christians.
The 25-page hardcover book by Salafist author Ahmad Ibn Moubarak Ibn Qadhlan Al Mazru’i, published by Ibn Badis, features characters without facial details, including a cover image in which the facial traits of two smiling girls in hijabs have been largely removed.
Online Muslim outlets, which continue to sell Moi, la jeune Musulmane, claim that it is an “educational” book “designed to help young Muslim women better understand and appreciate the foundations of their Islamic faith” and “a perfect introduction to the basics of Islam.”
Book May Cause Physical, Mental, Moral Harm
However, the French ban ruled that certain passages of the book are “likely to harm the physical, mental, or moral development of children and young people,” by among other things, inhibiting the ability of its readers to think critically and interact with larger French society.
The prohibition order cited anti-Western statements from the book, including: “I do not imitate Westerners in their beliefs, their worship, their clothing, their customs, their festivals and their behavior” and “Consequently, I do not listen to Western slogans aimed at tarnishing the image of the Muslim woman.”
Sexist teachings in the book include statements like: “Therefore, I do not imitate them [men] in their way of walking, dressing, speaking, and behaving because the Prophet cursed women who act like men,” and “I do not travel without a mahram, and I do not mix with men whom I am permitted to marry.”
The book presents the home as a “paradise,” exhorting girls to leave their homes “only when necessary” and with the “permission” of their parents. Girls are also told to beware of men: “I do not beautify my voice in front of them, and I do not speak to them except when necessary.”
The Commission for the Supervision and Control of Publications Intended for Children and Adolescents (CSCPJ) revealed that the publisher had responded to its concerns, acknowledging that “passages [are] likely to be understood ambiguously” and are likely to give rise to an “interpretation that may be perceived as stigmatizing or discriminatory.”
“This book perfectly illustrates what I call Sharia-compatibilization: not a violent imposition, but a gentle normalization of Islamist norms among young people, presented as a guide to faith,” Dr. Florence Bergeaud-Blackler, head of the European Centre for Research and Information on the Muslim Brotherhood, told Focus on Western Islamism.
“The decision to ban it under the 1949 law is welcome, but it is belated: this type of book has been circulating in Muslim bookstores for years,” the anthropologist explained. “The publisher’s response (offering an ‘explanatory foreword’) reveals the usual strategy of concealment: the content isn’t removed, its appearance is softened.”
Bergeaud-Blackler, who has authored several books on Islamism in France, including the recent Jihad through the Market, asked how the government would tackle “the thousands of copies already distributed and the thousands of other comparable titles that are not yet subject to any control.”
Un livre #islamiste destiné aux enfants, où les personnages n'ont pas de visage, vient d'être interdit de vente mineurs.
— Naëm Bestandji (@NaemBestandji) February 24, 2026
"certains passages de l'ouvrage « Moi, la jeune Musulmane » sont susceptibles de nuire à l'épanouissement physique, mental ou moral de l'enfance et de la… pic.twitter.com/7cbxXdMy7M
Islamist Books Proliferate in French Bookstores
Writing on X, Naëm Bestandji, author of The Shroud of Feminism: Cuddling Islamism in the Face of the Veil, warned: “This kind of book is proliferating in Islamist bookshops and their online stores. In the children’s book category, they have even become the norm.”
In June 2025, Le Journal du Dimanche reported on “the alarming success of radical Islam in French bookstores,” warning that “bookstore shelves are overflowing with strict books advocating rules of life that sometimes contradict the laws of the Republic.”
Last month, Nicolas Dragon, Deputy of the National Assembly— France’s lower house of parliament—questioned the Minister of Culture regarding the distribution of several Islamic books containing passages explicitly calling for violence, murder, jihad, or containing anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and homophobic remarks.
Dragon noted that books like Abu Bakr al-Jaza’iri’s The Way of the Muslim, Ibn al-Qayyim’s Sins and Healing, and Imam Malik ibn Anas’s Al-Muwatta were even being promoted through the state-funded Culture Pass program, launched in May 2021 to promote young people’s access to the arts and culture.
Carine Chaix, president of the Association for the Transmission and Defense of France’s Cultural Heritage and the Association for the Protection of Children, has filed two complaints with the Paris public prosecutor’s office, concerning the books Al-Muwatta, Sins and Healing, and The Muslim’s Path.
According to Chaix, the books contain statements like: “The Messiah will kill the Jews and the Christians,” “The execution (of the passive homosexual) is better for him than the fact that he is sodomized,” “We must find the highest building in the city, and throw the homosexual on its head, then stone him,” “There is no legal punishment for sodomizing an animal or coitus with a dead woman,” and “all Muslims [should] equip themselves with all kinds of military weapons.”
Parliamentarian Julien Odoul complained on X that even the French retailer Fnac “is selling books by Islamist fanatics calling for the murder of homosexuals, Jews, and Christians.”
Following the ban order, Amazon.fr pulled the sale of Moi, la jeune Musulmane from its online store, but continues to sell the book Sins and Healing.
“This particularly serious content has led to several reports being filed with the public prosecutor to examine possible legal action against publishers, distributors, and retailers,” Dragon observed. “Despite this, these books remain accessible in some supermarkets, where they were removed and then put back on sale, as well as in bookstores and mosques.”
