A 4 page argumentative paper which examines the issue of Muslim women’s rights to wear their veils in French public schools. Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Name of Research Paper File: TG15_TGveilfr.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
sisters were permanently expelled from the suburban Paris public school they attended for wearing hijabs, which are veils women must wear to cover their heads and faces as dictated by
Islamic religious customs (Lawday, 2003). Two months later, when French President Jacques Chirac proposed a law banning all Muslim women from wearing veils in French public schools, the French
Sikh community as well as the predominantly Islamic Middle East were united in outrage. This anger intensified to a fevered pitch on January 17, 2004, when this proposal was
passed, and will be enforced when the new school year commences in September. Surprisingly enough, however, most French citizens (69 percent) support this ban (Veil of Tears, 2004).
How could a country that expressed such eloquent opposition to the war with Iraq, thereby alienating itself from Western powers Great Britain and the United States, deny Muslim women one
of their most fundamental of human rights, that to freely practice their religion? To better understand Frances steadfast position on the matter, it might be best to turn back the
historical clock a bit. France has long believed that in order for their republic to be preserved, there must be a complete and unrelenting distinction between church and state.
There would be no religious exceptions, whatsoever, and this included the Catholic Church that, once upon a time, wielded a great deal of power in Western Europe. This
has remained an issue the French government continues to regard as non-negotiable. Perhaps it is time for an alarm to go off so that the French are awakened to
the fact that this is no longer The Middle Ages, but rather, the twenty-first century. Thanks to technological advancements, particularly in the areas of travel and telecommunications, the world