In early 2004, the government of France adopted a law prohibiting from public schools any clothing which would clearly indicate the religious affiliation of a pupil. While John R. Bowen (1) states that the law was "worded in a religion-neutral way, everyone understood the law to be aimed at keeping Muslim girls from wearing headscarves in schools." As the law was being debated in public hearings, media coverage of the issue indicated that there were grave dangers to French society and its tradition of secularism presented by Islamic radicalism, a trend toward consumerism, and the oppression of women in poor suburbs. Bowen (1) commented that while some Muslims "objected that the proposed law would violate their right to express religious beliefs and many observers doubted that a law banning scarves would seriously address the severe problems of integration in French society," the Stasi Commission and the French parliament which considered the law, voted with virtual unanimity for it and the measure was passed by large majorities in the National Assembly and the Senate, going into effect in September 2004 (Bowen, 1).
The impact of this legislation was both immediate and significant. Bernhard Schmid (1) stated that for almost two decades, the French government had struggled to articulate a policy on the wearing of clothing or other outward symbols identifying the religious affiliation of its country's students. The headscarf worn by Muslim girls may well have been the focus of the new law, but it was meant to impact upon members of other religious groups as well. By extension, the French law would exclude the wearing of yarmulkes by Jews, turbans by Sikhs, and large Christian crosses by Christians.
At the same time, Choudhury (2) notes that it is Muslim girls who are most likely to suffer the major impact of this law. Feminists and women's groups in France sharply disagreed over whether the ban was a vindication or vio...