While French civil servants were prohibited from wearing religious symbols, including headscarves, while on duty, the wearing of headscarves by students in public schools caused controversy in the country's agenda in the 1980s.
In October 1989, three secondary school students were expelled from school for refusing to remove their headscarves in class. This incident entered the literature as the "Creil headscarf incident".
On November 27, 1989, the Council of State ruled that it was not against secularism for students to carry symbols that reveal their religious affiliation.
With the law dated March 15, 2004, the headscarf ban began to be implemented for primary and secondary school students.
The veil was then completely banned in public spaces in 2010, with a fine of 150 euros for those who did not comply.
In France, in 2012, a circular banning headscarves for mothers accompanying school trips came into force.
The controversial circular was abolished in 2013 when the Council of State decided in favor of headscarved mothers.
France, which hosts the Olympic Games in 2024, imposed a headscarf ban on its athlete delegation.
The headscarf issue, which has been on the country's agenda for more than 30 years, has sparked new debates, this time with the proposal of far-rightists to extend the headscarf ban to the public sphere.
In France, where presidential elections will be held next year, officials of the far-right National Rally (RN) Party announced that if they win the elections, they will impose a headscarf ban in public spaces and impose fines on those who do not comply. The party plans to implement this ban through a referendum.
French media focused on Muslim identity in the 1980s
French editor Thomas Deltombe's book titled "Imaginary Islam: The construction of Islamophobia through the media in France, 1975-2005", in which he investigated how Islam was covered in the media in France in the 1970s and 2000s, was published in 2005.
Deltombe told the AA correspondent how the issue of headscarf and headscarf ban came to the fore in the French media.
Stating that Islam was not mentioned much in the French media until the 1970s after Algeria, a former French colony, gained independence in 1962, Deltombe said that the issue of "foreign employees", some of whom were from Muslim countries, came to the fore from the 1970s onwards.
Stating that the media was interested in these people, their culture and lifestyle, and that they conducted some interviews about Islam in France, Deltombe emphasized that there was a "radical change" in the 1980s, which can be considered the beginning of today's problems.
Thomas Deltombe points out that in the 1980s, the French media paid attention only to Muslim identities, rather than other identities of Muslims, and said, "I call this the 'Islamization of looks'." he said.
Deltombe evaluated that journalists, media managers and politicians at that time reduced Muslims to their "Muslim identity" only.
3 students who refused to remove their headscarves were expelled from school in 1989
Deltombe pointed out that in those years there were more interviews about wearing the headscarf on television and said:
"After Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses' incident, the chador (the chador incident worn in Iran) incident became a sort of obsession in the French media and politics at the beginning of 1989. A few months after the Rushdie incident, the media, and especially television, began broadcasting interviews about the 'chador incident' and the 'headscarves incident' at the top of their news programs for weeks."
Explaining that this incident is called the "Creil incident" today, Deltombe said that in October 1989, the French media focused on the wearing of headscarves by 3 female students attending Gabriel-Havez Secondary School in the city of Creil.
"This incident turned into a national issue, a national debate that lasted for months and started a 30-year process of debate over the display of Muslim religious symbols in the French public sphere." Deltombe underlined that this situation was related to the changes in the media and politics at that time.
Pointing out that private television channels were established in those years and sensational news topics aimed at satisfying racism in the country were investigated as a result of serious competition between channels, Deltombe said that the far right was on the rise in the country at that time and politicians accepted negotiations on French identity.
Deltombe stated that the issue of secularism was discussed more in public discussions during that period and said, "Many socialist officials portrayed wearing the headscarf as being against secularism. In summary, the dominant opinion on the left and the right was 'Wearing the headscarf in public schools is against secularism'." he said.
Deltombe said that the headscarf was not considered contrary to secularism in the legislation valid in France in the 1980s, and emphasized that the Council of State, with its decision in 1989, ruled that wearing religious symbols was not contrary to secularism.
Deltombe explained that the decision of the Council of State was negatively received by a section of left-wing and right-wing politicians, and that attempts were made to circumvent this decision in the following years.
Noting that the then Minister of Education, François Bayrou, issued a circular banning religious symbols in public schools in 1994, Deltombe said, "(The circular) did not contain the words 'Muslim' or 'headscarf' or any words related to the headscarf, but everyone understood very well what the message was. The aim was to ban the headscarf in public educational institutions in France." he said.
"This was a complete victory for anti-Muslim conservatives."
The French editor said that the attempts to circumvent the 1989 decision of the Council of State regarding the headscarf did not have the desired effect, but the wearing of headscarves in public schools was banned with the law dated 15 March 2004.
"(This law) was a complete victory for these anti-Muslim conservative factions, they succeeded in banning the headscarf and likewise stigmatizing young women who wear it." Deltombe said that all events in the world that are remotely or closely related to Islam are used in negotiations, especially by people who belong to racist ideologies, in order to stigmatize Muslims.
Deltombe pointed out that the Council of State, in its 1989 decision, stated that a person's behavior, not his clothes, could cause him to be expelled from school, and said, "However, the (2004) law changed this and thus, in a way, changed the nature of secularism." he said.
