PARIS: France&#39;s interior minister on Sunday said he opposed a proposal put before parliament to ban young girls wearing the Muslim headscarf, saying such a move risked being &quot;stigmatising&quot; for the minors.&nbsp;The issue of tightening legal limits on the wearing of the hijab in public is being raised with increasing insistence in France, where the far-right is growing in strength but which has one of Europe&#39;s biggest Muslim communities.&nbsp;Laurent Wauquiez, the head of the parliamentary faction of the traditional right-wing Republicans (LR) party, submitted a bill to the lower house National Assembly last week to ban the wearing of the veil by minors in public.&nbsp;This proposal &quot;is very stigmatising towards our Muslim compatriots who may feel hurt&quot;, Nunez, a former Paris police chief named as interior minister in October to succeed his hardline LR predecessor Bruno Retailleau, told BFMTV. &quot;I am not in favour of it in this way.&quot;&nbsp;A report by the LR in the upper house Senate has gone even further, suggesting banning Ramadan fasting for those under 16.&nbsp;Nunez said that authorities needed to be &quot;extremely careful&quot; and focus on targeting Islamists with an extreme interpretation of the religion who seek to impose &quot;religious law over the laws of the republic&quot;.&nbsp;But the issue is a subject of tension within President Emmanuel Macron&#39;s centre-right government, which is mindful that the far right has its best ever chance of winning the Elysee in the 2027 polls.&nbsp;Equality Minister Aurore Berge told CNews she backed a hijab ban for minors &quot;to protect children&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;I have no doubt that there is now a majority in the National Assembly and the Senate to vote for it,&quot; she said.&nbsp;Macron&#39;s centre-right Renaissance party, led by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, in May also proposed banning &quot;minors under 15 from wearing the veil in public spaces&quot;.&nbsp;Under current legislation in France, a secular state according to its constitution, civil servants, teachers and pupils cannot wear any obvious religious symbols such as a Christian cross, Jewish kippa, Sikh turban or Muslim hijab in government buildings, including public schools.

Europe

France’s interior minister opposed a proposed ban on minors wearing hijabs, calling it stigmatizing, while some officials support it to “protect children,” highlighting tensions within Macron’s centre-right government amid far-right political pressure.

Articles tagged with "Laurent Wauquiez"

French interior minister opposes 'stigmatising' hijab ban for minors

French interior minister opposes 'stigmatising' hijab ban for minors