In a secular state, the Stasi Report points out, the individual has both rights and responsibilities. While one is protected and treated equally within the system, one must also ensure that the neutrality of public space is respected. In addition, while one is free to identify with a particular religious expression, one must embrace a unified, national identity and be loyal first and foremost to the state. "The secular system of today is challenged to forge the unit while respecting diversity.... It must find a way of encouraging people who do not share the same convictions to coexist, instead of juxtaposing them in a mosaic of communities closed in on themselves and mutually exclusive" (Stasi Report).
The Report calls the neutrality of public space a "protection for the individual," allowing one to choose (or not) one's own spiritual path, free from outside pressure. The school environment, in particular, should be a haven from the politics and pressures of the outer world, allowing each child to "build themselves and reach independent judgment."
The Report acknowledges that many Muslim girls wear headscarves by choice, out of their own conviction of faith. However, the report also criticizes that many girls are forced (sometimes by threats of violence) to follow family or community tradition. Supporters of the ban seek to protect all youth from this type of coercion.
In his address on December 17th, President Chirac emphasized the importance of national unity, tolerance, and common values. Conspicuous religious symbols, which allows one's religious affiliation to be immediately recognized, is a source of division rather than unity.
Opponents of the proposed hijab ban point out that equality and tolerance are not promoted by merely erasing differences. Rather, exposing children to diversity, and modeling tolerance, are the basis of a free and just society.Critics point out that this law would likely have the opposite effect on assimilation than intended. Forbidding girls from wearing hijab at public schools may cause families to choose private education as an option, further isolating them from the state system.
Critics also point out ignorant and prejudicial remarks made by those in support of the law. The Stasi Report acknowledges that many Muslim girls wear hijab by choice, but then repeatedly remarks that girls are often forced to veil against their will. "School space must remain for them a place of freedom and emancipation." The Report also expresses concern about other alleged "Islamic" practices, such as genital mutilation, forced marriage, and the like. The Report went so far as to claim that wearing a headscarf "is an attack on the principles and values which the school must teach, in particular equality between men and women." The tone of such statements, critics argue, show that it is not the headscarf, but Islam itself that is the target to be removed from French public life.
The Stasi Report cites certain values of a secular society: that the state should "abstain from any interference in the spiritual or religious realm;" that the state should neither "insist nor contrain." Forbidding a Muslim from observing the basic laws of modesty in her faith, is a constraint. French law guarantees the free exercise of religion, and allows for restrictions only "in the interests of law and order." To contend that a schoolgirl wearing a headscarf threatens the country's "social system and political order," as the Stasi Report would have one believe, is ludicrous. One cannot claim to respect differences while at the same time deny basic freedoms to a large portion of the population.
