France’s law prohibiting wearing items of clothing or signs expressing religious affiliation turns twenty years next year. This is an opportunity to look back at the law itself, and to consider its effects upon the French polity. The 2004 law enshrined an intransigent and narrow secularism, so insecure that it cannot accommodate the expression of differences.France’s law banning the wearing of items of clothing or symbols that express a religious affiliation in public schools has come back to haunt us once again with the latest controversy over abayas (and qamis, I'll return to this later). The law turns twenty next year. This is an opportunity to look back at the law itself, and to consider its effects on society and politics.One of the main functions of a law is to calm the social fabric by resolving the issues that cause tension and thus generate conflicts.
Authors
- Published in
- Denmark
