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France bans religious displays in school

LordOpie

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30219-2004Feb10.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1145206,00.html
France now proposes to take its secularism a step further. Under legislation that yesterday passed its first stage in the French parliament, the government is seeking to ban the wearing of hijabs, or headscarves, by Muslim women attending state schools. Supporters of the ban say this is consistent with France's history of secular education. They point to the legislation's ban on other overt religious symbols, including Jewish skullcaps and crucifixes, as evidence of fairness. And they defend the ban on the grounds that it liberates women from the enforced veil of Islam.
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I've been following this issue for a while now, just a little bit. One thing that strikes me as interesting is that I've heard virtually no complaints from french jews... any jew who wears a yarmulke would not be happy about not being allowed to wear it. That'd be like you not being allowed to bike in town.

And christians, well, they can still wear their cross, but not large ones, so that ain't a big deal for them.

Granted, this policy appears targeted at muslims, but I still thought I'd hear more than a squeak from other religious groups.

And as the islamic thread that we had a few days ago shows, we don't know a whole bunch about their religion, so I really question something i read somewhere about this policy "freeing muslim girls from the restriction of having to have to wear their head dress." I would think that most of them want to wear it. My limited knowledge and experience in this area is from the jewish observant community... every young person I met was extremely comfortable with how they dressed and acted. I bet a young man would feel naked without his yarmulke on.

So, if you know something about the veil, educate me. Why should young women want to be freed from wearing it?



And this is totally messed up...
French leaders say they hope the measure will quell debate over head scarves that has divided France since 1989, when two girls were expelled from their school in Creil, outside Paris, for wearing head coverings. Scores more have been expelled since then.
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WHAT? Whaaaaaa whaaaat what? The new policy is there to support an old policy that didn't necessarily make sense in the first place? Here's an idea, if you didn't suspend the girls in the first place, ya wouldn't have had the problem to begin with :dead:
 
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