TUNIS, 6 December 2003 — French President Jacques Chirac yesterday denounced Muslim headscarves on schoolgirls as offensive and expressed concern about Islamic fundamentalism as momentum built up in France to bar all religious symbols from public schools.
Speaking on a visit to Tunisia, Chirac said the strictly secular French state could not let pupils wear what he called “ostentatious signs of religious proselytism” and saw “something aggressive” in the wearing of traditional Muslim veils.
Chirac’s comments to pupils at the French lycee in Tunis sharpened the shrill headscarf debate in France, which has seen diffuse popular concerns about Islam, women’s rights and Muslim immigration develop into a broad movement to ban the veil.
More than 60 prominent French women, including actresses Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Beart and designer Sonia Rykiel, issued a petition yesterday, urging a ban on “this visible symbol of the submission of women”.
“We cannot accept ostentatious signs of religious proselytism, whatever they are and whatever the religion,” said Chirac, who is due to receive a special report on enforcing secularism next week in preparation for a possible ban.
“In our public schools, a veil has something aggressive about it which presents a problem of principle, even if only a small minority wears it.”
Critics say banning a bit of cloth ignores the root cause of problem, the failure to integrate France’s five million Muslims - mostly of North African origin - into French society. Muslim women and girls argue that banning them would infringe on their freedom of religion.
