When Marième Tamata-
Varin was encouraged
in 2014 to run for mayor
of the village of Yèbles,
her two children were
bullied and she was
subjected to racist and
anti-Muslim insults—
the first time in her life,
says the Mauritanian
immigrant, that she
had felt labeled “other.”
But she won, becom-
ing France’s first black
Muslim woman mayor.
From town hall cham-
bers dignified by a
bust of Marianne, the
symbolic figure evok-
ing republican France,
Tamata-Varin creatively
raised money, including
a crowdfunding cam-
paign, for a new school
building and other
civic improvements.
FRANCE
MADAME
MAYOR
58 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC