The French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said he favours a ban on Islamic headscarves in universities, but stopped short of proposing a change in the law.
In a lengthy interview with the centre-left newspaper Libération, Mr Valls was asked whether he would like to see the 12-year-old ban on headscarves in French state schools extended to university campuses.
He replied: “We should do it, but there are rules in the (French) constitution which make such a ban difficult.”
Government and university authorities should therefore be “absolutely inflexible” in applying other rules which enforce the “secular” character of higher education, the prime minister said.
Mr Valls’ comments were interpreted by some commentators as a move towards a headscarf ban in French universities. Government sources said his words had been misread and that there was no question of legislation on this issue.
The Prime Minister’s comments were nonetheless disowned by other ministers in his centre-left government – and approved by figures on the hard right of French politics.
The education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a Muslim and a close friend of the Prime Minister, said she was “against any legal ban” on headscarves or other religious symbols at state universities. “We are dealing with adults here,” she said.
Mr Valls was wrong to say that the French constitution would prevent such a ban. The obstacle lies in the country’s educational code, which guarantees university students “full liberty of information and expression on political, economic, social and cultural issues”.
The wearing of the Islamic headscarf – and any other religious symbol such as the crucifix or the Jewish kippa – was banned in state schools in France 12 years ago. The ban was justified as a defence of a 1905 law which insists that all state institutions in France are secular.
