Author:
Publication: BBC News
Date: November 29, 2003
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3248614.stm
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin has announced plans that could in effect ban Muslim women from
wearing headscarves in public institutions.
Mr Raffarin told a meeting of his
governing UMP party on Friday that he plans to introduce a bill that would
be aimed at protecting women.
He did not directly refer to the
vexed issue of headscarves in schools.
Calls to ban them have increased
in recent years, amid signs of growing militancy among Muslims in France.
Muslim girls wearing headscarves
have been expelled from public schools - which have the authority to ban
"ostentatious signs of religion".
Expelled girls have denied that
they are proselytising, and say they should be free to wear what their
religion dictates.
However a motion approved by 90%
of UMP delegates at Friday's meeting near Paris called for a bill that
would "explicitly ban the ostentatious wearing of any political or religious
sign" in public schools.
In his address to the meeting, Mr
Raffarin said the bill was designed to defend secularism and protect "all
women from fundamentalist pressures".
"That is the main point. This is
not about religion, it's about lifting constraints on women."
Divisions
The issue has not only pitted France's
secular political establishment against many Muslims - it has also divided
the UMP itself.
The party's chairman, former Prime
Minister Alain Juppe, has called for a tough law on religious signs in
public schools.
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy
has long opposed such a law, arguing that any ban would increase, rather
than reduce, militancy among Muslims.
During Friday's debate he appeared
to have given some ground.
"If we can agree on a bill that
in one way or another said: We do not want ostentatious religious signs
in state schools, government offices or public hospitals - then I agree."
However analysts said it was unclear
how much Mr Juppe and Mr Sarkozy had been reconciled.
Mr Sarkozy also reaffirmed his opposition
to an explicit banning of all religious signs.
The office of the prime minister
told the daily Le Monde that Mr Raffarin was speaking as head of the parliamentary
majority, and that his address did not constitute a "government decision".
