French cabinet approves headscarf law

"The French cabinet approved a controversial bill to ban the Islamic headscarf from schools, opening the way for its passage through parliament and adoption by the start of the next school year.
Stating that in schools 'the wearing of signs or clothes which conspicuously display a pupil's religious affiliation is prohibited,' the bill will be presented next Tuesday to the National Assembly, parliament's lower house, which will cast its first vote on February 10."

I originally agreed with this bill, the so-called "headscarf ban", but since then I've changed my mind. It's not that the idea isn't good -- because I would like to see veils banned in school. (Headscarf is a truly stupid translation.)

And the idea of religious freedom is bogus in this case: it's a question of dress code. When I think back at the rigid dress code of my school years in Victoria, Texas! No shorts for anyone, no short skirts for the girls (except, of course, the cheerleaders). No beards, no mustaches, no long sideburns. No plunging necklines. The list of "nos" was pretty long.

Can you imagine allowing headscarves in these conditions? I dunno, maybe they do in Victoria these days since there is a Mosque in town. But I can't imagine anyone doing it because he/she would be the subject of so much directed anger.

So now back to France where Muslim girls run around in headscarves all of the time. I've even seen "women" wearing Burkas in the supermarket. (You know the burkas, like a shroud completely covering the head and shoulders and you don't even see the eyes of the women wearing them.) The separatism of these symbols is so strong that it is truly shocking. To the same extent, the kippa is shocking when you put it into a secular environment. What if everyone left these "symbols" at home and came to school to be, like, you know, sorta, kinda like, you know, together? Can you imagine it?

But the return tournures of the bill have left me less optimistic about its utility. Luc Ferry has been going on about "If earrings or colors or other signs become religious symbols, we'll outlaw them, too." Plus, old Luc wants to give a lot of lattitude to schools on choosing their symbols, which puts the schools in the same quandry that they are now: having to make local decisions and defend them in front of local parents.