France is preparing new laws to protect women from Islamic fundamentalism, the country’s prime minister announced.
“The legislative decision that we will choose will be good if it protects all women from all the constraints of fundamentalism,” Raffarin told his Union for a Presidential Majority party congress yesterday in the town of Villepinte, according to United Press International.
With nearly 10 percent of France’s population Muslim, the right of women to wear head-coverings in school and choose their own husbands has become a source of contentious debate.
President Jacques Chirac has established a commisson to examine the issue of head scarves. It is due to publish its conclusions Dec. 11.
Last month, the president gave strong indication he supports a ban when he told an audience in the northern town of Valenciennes secularism was “not negotiable,” according to Agence France-Presse.
“We cannot allow people to shelter behind a deviant idea of religious liberty in order to defy the laws of the republic or to threaten fundamental principles of a modern society such as sex equality and the dignity of woman,” he said.
Meanwhile, France is about to appoint its first Muslim prefect, according to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, UPI reported.
The position, similar to a U.S. state governor, dates to the Napoleon era.
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