Europe

France women’s minister appears to support headscarves ban in universities

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تَتَّخِذُواْ بِطَانَةً مِّن دُونِكُمْ لاَ يَأْلُونَكُمْ خَبَالاً وَدُّواْ مَا عَنِتُّمْ قَدْ بَدَتِ الْبَغْضَاء مِنْ أَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَمَا تُخْفِي صُدُورُهُمْ أَكْبَرُ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا لَكُمُ الآيَاتِ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْقِلُونَ

“You who have iman! do not take any outside yourselves as intimates. They will do anything to harm you. They love what causes you distress. Hatred has appeared out of their mouths, but what their breasts hide is far worse. We have made the Signs clear to you if you use your intellect.”

(Ali-Imran: 118)


Guardian

Socialist Pascale Boistard says: ‘I’m not sure the headscarf is part of higher education’ and reignites debate – but college leaders are against any prohibition

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

France is embroiled in a fresh row over the state’s attitude to the Muslim headscarf after the socialist minister for women’s rights appeared to support banning students from wearing veils at French universities.

In a video for Le Figaro, Pascale Boistard was asked if she was against the wearing of the headscarf at university, and replied: “Yes.” Asked if the government should take formal measures on it, she said it was up to university presidents to talk to students about the issue, but added: “I’m not sure the headscarf is part of higher education.”

Her comments come as Nicolas Sarkozy, the right-wing former president seeking to run again in 2017, proposed a headscarf ban in universities amid opposition from certain figures within his UMP party. Earlier this month Éric Ciotti, a UMP MP, proposed a law to ban the headscarf from higher education, while opponents accused mainstream conservatives of trying to chase after voters from the far right.

University leaders themselves have expressed strong opposition to any ban, saying students should be able to do as they please. Several ministers in the socialist government distanced themselves from the comments by François Hollande’s women’s minister, saying it wasn’t a debate that should be started.

Woman wearing islamic clothing in Paris despite it being banned in public places. Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Woman wearing islamic clothing in Paris despite it being banned in public places. Photograph: Philippe Lissac/Photononstop/Corbis

The issue of Islamic head coverings has long been a highly contentious political issue in France, which has some of the hardest-hitting legislation on veils in Europe. In 2004 it banned girls from wearing veils in state schools, along with other religious symbols such as crosses or turbans. In 2011, Sarkozy controversially banned the niqab (a full-face Muslim veil) from all public places. State workers in the public service must by law be impartial and neutral, and so cannot show their religious belief with an outward symbol such as a headscarf.

The latest row comes as the government tries to calm tensions and deal with rising anti-semitism and islamophobia after January’s terrorist attacks, which began with a massacre at the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and ended with a bloody siege at a kosher supermarket.

I didn’t expect, in the post-Charlie [Hebdo] context, to have to deliver lectures faced with veiled students

Jean-Claude Radier, lecturer

Recently there have been several incidents in which individual university teachers singled out students wearing veils and refused to teach them. Earlier this month Jean-Claude Radier, a lawyer and visiting lecturer at Paris-XIII university, exclaimed upon seeing a veiled law student in the front row that after the Charlie Hebdo attacks he didn’t expect to have to teach a student in a head-covering. He was removed from his post.

In an interview with Le Figaro he was unrepentant, saying: “I explained that I was hostile to outward religious symbols and that I didn’t expect, in the post-Charlie context, to have to deliver lectures faced with veiled students.” In January, a barrister lecturing at a law school began asking a student wearing a headscarf if she would agree to take it off and walked out after the rest of the students expressed outrage. He is no longer teaching there. In September, a Sorbonne professor asked a veiled student if she was going to keep on wearing “that thing” in class. The head of the Sorbonne later apologised for the professor’s comments.

University presidents have been clear that discriminating against students in headscarves is illegal. “I don’t see in what name we would ban young women for expressing their religious convictions, including in universities,” Jean-Loup Salzmann, head of France’s conference of university presidents, told France Inter radio.

Elsa Ray, spokeswoman for the Collective against Islamophobia in France, said she found Boistard’s comments “surprising and very disappointing”. She said any ban on headscarves would be unconstitutional and against freedom of expression enshrined in law. She was surprised that “at a time of rising islamophobia, the only response of government, instead of protecting Muslim citizens, is to propose a measure that directly targets Muslims”.