French Move against Headscarves Ridiculed as Missing the Point
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Dec 19, PARIS (IPS) - A law banning the Muslim headscarf and other religious symbols from French schools will only aggravate a sense of segregation, several teachers and social scientists say.
French President Jacques Chirac has announced that parliament will pass a law within the next few months banning students from wearing prominent religious symbols to school. Chirac said the law would ban "all noticeable religious symbols." He named specifically "the Muslim headscarf, big crucifixes and the Jewish kippa." The Sikh turban would also be banned. Three teachers unions said such a law would "stigmatize a part of the French population." Small religious signs such as a David star or a picture of the hand of Fatima (Prophet Muhammad's daughter) which cannot be seen an effort to proselytize would be permitted, Chirac said. "The proposed law doesn't help teachers confronting conflicts in schools," said Gerard Aschieri, leader of the United Unions Federation (FSU, after its French name). French legislation already guarantees the neutrality of the state towards religion, Aschieri said. "School must a laboratory of democracy, and not a place for prohibitions directed against one sector of society." The debate over the headscarf has been around for years. It arose first in 1989 when two girls wore them to school. The state council, equivalent to a constitution court, ruled then that girls could wear the headscarf so long as they did not try to convert others. The controversy came to a head in September this year after two girls were expelled from a public school for wearing Muslim headscarves and tunics to class. Several French intellectuals support the ban. "Since the revolution of 1789 France has defined itself as a centralized state where all citizens must respect equality, and relegate their ethnic origin or religious conviction to a private plane," Hélène Miard-Delacroix, professor of political science at the University of Sorbonne told IPS. "The French debate on state neutrality towards religion, on the unity of the republic, and on the rejection of ethnic identity of citizens is unique in the world," she added. "Our epoch is one of ethnic tribes, of identity clans, of creeds and beliefs," a group of professors wrote in Le Monde. "God has unfortunately come back. In France 2003, each community is withdrawing into itself." Attempts at integration of immigrants have failed, the group said. "The youth emerging from immigration has been waiting too long for our nation to fulfil their dreams of social emancipation, promotion by education and employment, and easy access to housing, culture, and leisure." Religion has "grabbed the chance to become an alternative," they said. "Disappointed hopes encourage dogmas and creeds. Religion is again the new opiate of our outskirts." Emile Poulat, researcher at the High School for Social Studies in Paris says debates on religious symbols in schools and other public buildings are nothing new. "A judicial ban has never helped overcome such conflicts," Poulat said.. "If a law forbidding the Muslim headscarf in schools is actually passed, it will soon become obsolete because youth creativity will find ways to circumvent it." This debate is like the controversy over mini-skirts more than 30 years ago, Poulat said. "That debate appears ridiculous now in our eyes. In a few years the present controversy will appear anachronistic too." In his argument to support the ban, Chirac said that "our battle for the values of the French republic is also that for women's rights and their equality with men." Some experts call this sudden discovery of women's rights through the debate on the headscarf dishonest. "In this debate we have learnt that men are concerned about women's rights, finally," said Nicole Savy, vice-president of the French League of Human Rights. Several Muslim leaders called on the Arab community to react "with wisdom" to the new law. "French laws are our laws," said Dalil Boubakeur, leader of the Muslim community in Paris. "Our community must face this new situation with serenity and calm." But many immigrants of Arab origin accuse the government of setting them aside. "The government cannot solve economic and social problems, but it's engaged in passing laws to ban headscarves," said a barman at a café popular among Algerian immigrants. |
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