Why are France’s headscarf rules causing controversy again?

A dispute at a Paris high school has ignited fresh tension around France’s headscarf rules.

The school’s headteacher received death threats on social media after a student said he assaulted her when she refused to remove her head covering.

When the student filed a complaint, the French government got involved.

Now, France’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said that the state is suing the student for making false accusations.

France’s rules around head coverings have caused controversy for years. While there’s not an outright ban, people are not allowed to wear obvious religious symbols in government buildings, including schools.

Some say the rules inhibit their religious freedoms, while others believe that it’s important to keep French society as secular as possible.

Tensions around religion in schools have intensified in recent years following the murders of two teachers by Islamic extremists.

Here’s what you need to know about France’s complicated relationship with head coverings.

What happened at the Paris school?

The alleged incident happened on February 28 at the Maurice Ravel Lycée in the 20th district of Paris, when a headteacher told three students to remove their head coverings inside the school premises.

French law means that religious head coverings like hijabs are not allowed in state-run schools.

Two of the students removed their head coverings, but the third did not comply.

She said that the headteacher then ‘violently hit her on the arm’.

Collective Against Islamophobia in Europe, a non-profit group based in Brussels, shared a video where the student described what happened.

However, when she filed a complaint against the school, her case was dismissed on the grounds that the offence was not sufficiently serious. Police officers found no evidence that the headteacher had hit the student.

When news of the incident began to circulate online, the school’s headteacher started to receive death threats.

Two people have been detained in relation to the threats. The education ministry said that they had no link with the school.

One of those detained, a 26-year-old from Paris, will be tried in April. If found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison or a €45,000 fine.

Then, last week, the headteacher resigned.

The headteacher, whose name has not been made public, said in an email: ‘I have finally taken the decision to quit my functions out of concern for my own safety and that of the establishment.’

‘I leave after seven years, rich and intense, spent at your side, and after 45 years in public education.’

How is the French government responding?

France’s Education Minister Nicole Belloubet visited the school earlier in the month to offer her support.

When investigators established that there was no evidence of an altercation, the government announced that it was suing the student for making false allegations.

French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said: ‘The state… will always stand with these officials, those who are on the frontline faced with these breaches of secularism, these attempts of Islamist entryism in our education establishments.’

Are French school teachers safe?

The Paris case comes after the murders of two teachers by extremists in recent years.

In 2020, teacher Samuel Paty, 47, was beheaded outside his school after showing students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on freedom of expression.

In October 2023, a teacher was killed in a knife attack in the northern French city of Arras.

According to witnesses, the attacker shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’, or ‘God is greater’ than all else.

French authorities have said that staff members at 30 schools in Paris have received death threats in recent weeks. On Wednesday, several schools in the capital closed following bomb threats from alleged Islamist extremists.

What are France’s head covering rules?

In 2004, France banned wearing any obvious symbols of religion is banned in French government buildings, including schools.

At the time, lawmakers said that the ban was in keeping with the constitutional principle of ‘laïcité’, which means that religion should be kept separate from civil society.

Then in 2010, France banned clothing that fully covered faces, including burqas and niqabs.

If worn in public spaces, the wearer could face a €150 fine.

However, head coverings like hijabs are allowed in public spaces.

The ban was controversial, and in 2018, the United Nations Human Rights Committee said that the niqab ban violated the human rights of Muslim women. However, the ban remains in place.

In September last year, the government announced that abayas, which are long dresses worn by Muslim women, would not be permitted in schools. 

‘Schools of the Republic are built on very strong values and principles, especially laïcité,’ Attal, who was Education Minister at the time, told a French television network.

‘For me, laïcité, when put in the framework of a school, is very clear: you enter a classroom and you must not be able to identify the religious identity of students just by looking at them,’ he added.

On the first day of the ban, nearly 300 girls defied the rule and turned up to their schools wearing abayas.

French politicians also voted to ban the hijab and other ‘conspicuous religious symbols’ in sports competitions.