13 December 2013

France should allow headscarves, Arabic in schools: report to PM

.... Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who will chair a ministerial meeting next month on improving integration based partly on the report, told reporters there was no plan to drop the headscarf ban and distanced himself from the study.

"Just because I receive a report doesn't make it government policy," Ayrault said after the daily Le Figaro drew attention to the document, which was posted on the prime minister's official website last month.

Among the proposals presented by senior civil servant Thierry Tuot and a group of experts was to forbid authorities and the media to refer to people's nationality, religion or ethnicity, and the creation of a new offence of "racial harassment". [Reuters] Read more