The controversy over religious symbols in France continues unabated. After the issue of banning Muslim headscarves in schools has exhausted itself in political debates and caused tensions in schools, it seems that the courtrooms are taking their turn.
A case arose for the enforcement of the relevant law, for which the French Prime Minister, Gabriel Atal, said he would take legal action.
A public school principal, Lycée Maurice-Ravel in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, has resigned for asking female students not to wear the Muslim headscarf in order to respect the law banning any visible religious symbol in public schools. One of the students, however, refused, ignored him and an argument ensued. She even addressed the media and filed a lawsuit for assault claiming that the director “violently hit her on the arm”. On Wednesday, March 27, it was dismissed and filed by the judge.
Instead, the high school principal’s lawsuit became the reason for an investigative investigation into the student’s role. It is being examined whether he committed an act of intimidation against a person participating in the execution of a public service mission, with the aim of exempting him from the rules governing this service.” The director, in fact, received threats against his life through social networks in posts made by a 26-year-old, but which is not related to the school. He was arrested, will be tried on April 23 in Paris, accused of threatening to kill the manager, who announced that he would “take early retirement”.
In his statements, the French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that the state will sue the girl for her false claims (that he beat her). “The state will always stand by these officials, those who are on the front lines facing these violations of secularism, these attempts by Islamists to dictate what will be done in our educational institutions,” he said.
Politicians from both the Right and the Left have expressed outrage that a teacher’s career was ended prematurely by an online hate campaign. The opposition accuses the government of backing down against extremist Islamist elements. Teachers’ unions express their concern about the repeated incidents in public schools. “We feel alone, there is silent anger,” complained Loic Gibbon, general secretary of the headteachers’ sector of the FO union.
France is closely monitoring violations against secularism in schools, as the national education system is seen as a central pillar of the French Republic. Last year there were reportedly 4,700 breaches – many of them involving abayas.
Threats from extremists Muslims
The threat of violence from Muslim extremists is being taken extremely seriously in French schools following the deadly attacks on two teachers. It is recalled that Samuel Paty was murdered in a suburb of Paris in 2020 and Dominique Bernard lost his life at the school where he taught in Arras five months ago. In October 2020 and that of 2023, two professors were murdered by young Islamists in France. In fact, Mikael Pati, sister of Samuel Pati who was beheaded by a young Chechen, recently announced that she will take legal action against the French state if the government does not acknowledge that it did not protect the murdered history professor.
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