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Islamic headscarves should be banned in universities, says French prime minister | Islamic headscarves should be banned in universities, says French prime minister |
(35 minutes later) | |
The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said he favours a ban on Islamic headscarves in universities, but stopped short of proposing a change in the law. | |
In a lengthy interview with the centre-left newspaper Libération, Mr Valls was asked whether he would like to see the 12-year-old ban on headscarves in French state schools extended to university campuses. | |
He replied: “We should do it, but there are rules in the (French) constitution which make such a ban difficult.” | |
Government and university authorities should therefore be “absolutely inflexible” in applying other rules which enforce the “secular” character of higher education, the prime minister said. | |
Mr Valls’ comments were interpreted by some commentators as a move towards a headscarf ban in French universities. Government sources said his words had been misread and that there was no question of legislation on this issue. | |
The Prime Minister’s comments were nonetheless disowned by other ministers in his centre-left government – and approved by figures on the hard right of French politics. | The Prime Minister’s comments were nonetheless disowned by other ministers in his centre-left government – and approved by figures on the hard right of French politics. |
The education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a Muslim and a close friend of the Prime Minister, said she was “against any legal ban” on headscarves or other religious symbols at state universities. “We are dealing with adults here,” she said. | |
Mr Valls was wrong to say that the French constitution would prevent such a ban. The obstacle lies in the country’s educational code, which guarantees university students “full liberty of information and expression on political, economic, social and cultural issues”. | |
The wearing of the Islamic headscarf – and any other religious symbol such as the crucifix or the Jewish kippa – was banned in state schools in France 12 years ago. The ban was justified as a defence of a 1905 law which insists that all state institutions in France are secular. |
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