Helsinki Federation
Assails French Move to Ban
Religious Symbols
(excerpted from "Zenit," February 11,
2004)
The International
Helsinki
Federation for Human Rights
has spoken out against the French
legislation
that
aims to ban the Muslim head scarf in public schools,
saying it
violates international conventions.
On Tuesday, the National
Assembly
voted 494-36 for the
bill that would prohibit the wearing of
"ostensible"
religious symbols in public schools.
The ruling
Union for
a Popular Movement and the
Socialist Party voted in favor of the
measure,
which
will go to the Senate next month.
This proposal "violates
the
international conventions
on the rights of man and the international
norms
that
France has committed herself to respect," Helsinki
Federation
President Aaron Rhodes said the day before
the vote.
As early as
Dec.
17, the Helsinki Federation (IHF)
published a statement saying that it
"believes that
such a ban would bring the French state in
collision
with
international human rights standards on freedom
of religion because
wearing
religious clothing can be
an inherent part of manifestation of one's
religion."
"It is not at the discretion of a state to
determine
which
manifestations are legitimate as long as they do
not violate other
people's
basic human rights or do
not endanger public safety, health or morals,
as
defined by international law," the
statement
clarified.
"At
issue is specifically the question on how to best
integrate Muslims
into
French society and take a firm
stand against the alleged increasing
militancy
among
the French Muslim community," the statement
continued.
"The IHF
believes, however, that adopting legislation
to ban head scarves in
public
institutions would not
be an adequate measure to promote integration
and
to
combat Islamic militancy but might, indeed, contra-
productively
result
in increased alienation and
marginalization of Muslims living in
France," it
said.
The IHF statement added: "Moreover, while proponents
of a
headscarf ban insist that wearing a headscarf is
simply a
fundamentalist
symbol of the subservience of
Muslim women and a sign of the oppression
they
face,
for many Muslim women wearing a headscarf is a deeply
personal
choice and a sign of their religious
conviction and has nothing to do
with
Islamic
fundamentalism.
"A head scarf ban would automatically
but
mistakenly
stigmatize all Muslim women wearing the head scarf
as
fundamentalists."
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