No hijabs here two Arab women tend Paris bars

By Staff
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PARIS, May 4 (Reuters) Laila Ghlis sways her upper body and sings along to a Tunisian love song as she serves glasses of whisky-on-ice and bottled orange juice to her mainly Muslim customers in a Paris bar.

North African women in France, most of whom are Muslims, often find themselves in low-paid work and by choice or necessity, some break taboos as they walk a delicate path between Islamic tradition and modern French culture.

Ghlis does so by working with strange men and dealing in alcohol, both ''haram'' (forbidden) for pious Muslims.

''Because I know that alcohol is haram, I try to compensate for that by giving food to my frequent clients who are not very well-off. I give them food that I often prepare myself,'' Ghlis says, adding that she cooks snacks that go well with the alcohol, like fried potatoes or falafel.

In the green-lit bar, which has no sign outside and is known to its clients simply as Chez Laila, Ghlis rules the roost.

''When the bar manager is a man, drunken men would fight with him, but with me, it's not allowed,'' she says.

She is quick to stamp out any trouble. When her all-male clientele starts to cheer, she's also ready to leave the counter to dance with them.

France is home to about 6 million Muslims, Europe's largest community. Immigrants from former French colonies in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia came to France in large numbers in the 1950s and 1960s to work as labourers.

Nancy Venel, sociologist at l'Universite Lumiere Lyon-2, says about 25 per cent of Muslims - men and women - in France practice the visible rites of Islam, but the majority negotiate ways of reconciling their Muslim heritage with the practicalities of French life.

For a Muslim woman, Venel says: ''It involves negotiating between the two worlds, her Muslim upbringing and a French culture, that enables her to somehow find a coherent value system.'' ''EL ME'ALEMMA'' Ghlis, 44, came to France with her Algerian-French husband 20 years ago and worked as a bartender for 17 years. Her husband left her, and 18 months ago she was able to buy her bar in northern Paris.

''He used to drink a lot and went with women, then he abandoned me, so I took care of the children alone,'' she says.

Ghlis, today wearing a turquoise see-through blouse and black skirt, has two other women to help her run the bar -- her cousin Thuraya and her best friend Anissa, a Moroccan. They refer to her as ''El Me'alemma,'' or the boss.

Sometimes, Ghlis says, she has used physical force to end fights.

''They tell me to call my male cousin if there are any problems, but I prefer to solve my problems on my own.

''Once, a mischievous client hit another kind one who comes here a lot. I went nuts, so I held him (the mischievous one) up against the wall and hit him,'' she says, imitating a slap.

''He didn't hit me back and later kissed my forehead in apology and asked me to forgive him. If I were a male boss, the drunken man would have hit me back,'' she says.

Aicha Asmani uses different tactics in her bar.

Asmani was abandoned by her husband a couple of years after they had bought a bar in which they both worked. Now, alone, she runs Le Pont Tournant, a bar named after a rotating bridge linking the sides of Canal St. Martin in northeast Paris.

Born in Oran in western Algeria, she came to Paris with her brother 40 years ago.

About 1.5m tall with short, black hair that matches the colour of her T-shirt and stretch pants, Asmani moves onto the terrace to greet her customers, but is interrupted by a seemingly drunken man.

''There are lots of problems,'' she says, without expanding.

Asmani prefers diplomacy to force. ''When there are problems, I talk to clients very gently and softly. I talk, they (show) respect and leave,'' she says.

Flanked by a plaque in the form of Fatima's Hand, a protective symbol, on one side of the wall and shelves with bottles of whisky on the other, Asmani says running the bar was not an easy choice to make.

''It's Mektoub (written as destiny). It's my job, I got used to it,'' she says, mixing French and Algerian Arabic.

REUTERS SLD PM0852

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