Re: Is the current ban in French schools ACTUALLY banning all other religions' symbols including Sikh head turbans, Jewish kippot as well or not?
Of course the ban applies to ALL religious signs. However, as I said in one of the links I brought to your notice, only CONSPICUOUS signs are forbidden and that's actually the detail the Devil's been hidden behind all along: most Muslim girls are still allowed to wear a small scarf that wraps their hair but leave their brow, chin and shoulders free... Now, as far as the Sikhs are concerned, no satisfying stopgap solution could be offered --Sikhs really are the pig in the middle... collateral patsies. But France's Sikh minority amounts to only a few thousands so... who cares?
As for other religions, including Christians and Jews, the practice of wearing a religious token has become outmoded so to speak... Most French Jews and Christians are secularized and didn't complain about the "headscarf law". But then, we must keep in mind that the ban applies only to PUBLIC schools --each religion recognized by the French government is entitled to set up and organize its own schools. All private schools are required to is to abide by the official program in math, history, etc. For that matter, I heard on the radio this morning that there's currently a sharp rise in enrolment for Jewish schools --even though the extra cost is 350 euros/month... One interviewed Jewish parent explained that it was not easy for a kid whose name is Cohen to get along in a public school that mixes all kinds of "monkeys" together...
Finally, I'd say that it doesn't take a doctor in sociology to figure out that the need to display one's persuasion ostentatiously is INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO one's degree of success in French society at large. I mean, that's basically why you've heard nothing from the Jewish corner: Jewish youths know that, once they've secured the proper degrees, credentials, skills,... the sky's the limit to their ambitions. No job, profession, trade, civil service, whatever is barred to them. Hey, even the Catholic Archbishop of Paris --Mgr Cardinal J-M Lustiger-- is of Jewish extraction! Yet, quite the opposite is true for Muslim/Arab youths and that's why, rather than skirting the issue (of their ethnicity), Muslim girls turn it into a lightning rod --they defy the French Thunderer!
Gus |
