With an overwhelming vote, France's Senate has assured that a law banning Islamic headscarves from public schools will be on the books for the new school year in September despite protests at home and abroad.
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin expressed official concern for the first time Wednesday over possible negative fallout over the law, telling senators that France must "try to reassure" detractors who consider it discriminatory.
However, massive approval hours later by the Senate, which voted 276 to 20 in favor of the legislation, provides the legitimacy President Jacques Chirac sought.
The vote came three weeks after the National Assembly, the lower chamber, overwhelmingly approved the bill in a 494 to 36 vote following a marathon debate.
Only a formality remains -- the president's signing the measure into law within the next 15 days. Chirac has said a law is needed to protect the constitutionally guaranteed principle of secularism, and to stop the spread of Islamic fundamentalism in France.
The law forbids religious apparel and signs that "conspicuously show" a student's religious affiliation. Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses would also be banned. However, authorities have made clear that it is aimed at removing Islamic headscarves from classrooms.
French leaders hope the law will quell debate over headscarves that has divided France since 1989, when two young girls were expelled from their school in Creil, outside Paris, for wearing the head coverings. Scores more have since been expelled.
However, there are fears that the law could do more harm that good. France's Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches are among those who have expressed that view.
The headscarf ban in public schools has drawn outrage from Muslims in France and abroad.
In the latest protests, some 6,000 students in Cairo demonstrated Monday at the Islamic Al-Azhar University, where the headscarf is compulsory for women. A day earlier, more than 2,000 Muslims, mainly veiled women, protested in Amman, Jordan.
An audiotape with a voice attributed to the top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri, aired Feb. 24 on the Arabic TV station Al-Arabiya, said the French measure "is another example of the Crusader's malice, which Westerns have against Muslims."
"It is clear that on the international level the question is not always understood," Raffarin said.
The measure "could be perceived as sectarian," he added. "We must not consider this to be a minor situation."
Raffarin insisted, however, that the law was needed to ensure respect for secularism and contain the spread of Muslim fundamentalism.
"We wanted to send a strong and rapid signal," the prime minister said.
Mostly Roman Catholic France has an estimated 5 million Muslims -- the largest Muslim population in Western Europe. French leaders have said that fundamentalism is on the rise within the Muslim population.
The legislation stipulates that "in schools, junior high schools and high schools, signs and dress that conspicuously show the religious affiliation of students are forbidden." It does not apply to students in private schools.
Sanctions for refusing to remove offending apparel will range from a warning to temporary suspension to expulsion.
How the law will be applied remains unclear. Instructions are to be distributed to schools around the nation. However, no one is yet certain whether Muslim girls wishing to cover their hair will be allowed to wear smaller apparel like bandannas -- or whether Sikh boys will permitted to keep their turbans.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS