Hijab Ban Debate Resurfaces in French Universities
“This is political pandering to the electorate that might vote for the (far-right) National Front,” John Bowen, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, who specializes in the study of Islam, told France 24 on Monday, February 16.
Debates surrounding the Islamic veil appeared in France after a series of recent incidents in universities.
Earlier this month, a professor at the Paris XIII university said that he did not support “religious symbols in public places”, referring to a young woman wearing a hijab in his class.
Another professor at the Sorbonne asked a student if she would continue wearing “that thing” in class, indicating the young woman’s headscarf.
The president of the Sorbonne later apologized for the professor’s comments.
The debates developed to include politicians seeking to garner more supporters in looming elections.
In a recent speech at the Sorbonne, French President François Hollande called for a “secular teaching of religion” and said that France’s official secularism, or laïcité, “does not mean forgetting religion, or indeed being in conflict with religion”.
Moreover, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party, the UMP (Union for a Popular Movement), gave statements last week to support more restrictive measures on religious symbols in French public spaces, including an outright ban on veils in universities.
This would be in addition to the ban already in place at public primary and secondary schools.
The comments came amid increasing support for Marine le Pen’s far-right National Front party, which uses the slogan “The French Come First”.
In Sarkozy’s UMP, Lydia Guirous, who is responsible for secular affairs at the UMP and author of the book “God is great and so is the Republic” (“Allah est Grand et la République aussi”), said in a press release that, “Secularism doesn’t have to stop at the university doors.”
Source: OnIslam.net
