Having just turned 19, and without ever once having promoted hatred, a high school pupil has become a symbol of the French Republic's “failure” and of the “victory of Islamism”, all because of her veil - or rather, her hoodie and hat. The controversy that has surrounded Maurice-Ravel high school in Paris is symptomatic of the over-the-top media coverage of the debate about the wearing of the traditional abaya dress and headscarves in schools. It also highlights the major problems faced by teaching staff who become caught up in issues of the length of a dress and the thickness of a headband, and who struggle to peacefully apply the 2004 French law which bans the wearing of religious symbols in school.
This latest affair began on February 28th this year. According to her account and those of the witnesses to whom Mediapart has spoken, at around 3pm that day the young woman in question was leaving the high school. As was her habit when inside the school the vocational diploma student was wearing a hoodie rather than a headscarf, which is banned by law in schools.
As she slipped on an underscarf, before putting on the headscarf which was around her shoulders, the school principal stopped her. “He grabbed her arm. Several of us intervened, he shouldn't have touched her like that,” says one female pupil present at the time.
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The student concerned and some witnesses saw this gesture as a blow, while the headteacher himself says that he simply “touched” her. One student who witnessed the incident in the school foyer was herself wearing an unattached headscarf, while alongside her another pupil 'Sassou' – not her real name – was sporting a headband. They were also reminded about correct school wear by the exasperated principal.
These two young women only really knew the student concerned by sight. But Sassou reached out and took her hand. “She was shaking,” Sassou recalls. Pupils who filmed the scenes of disturbance that followed the altercation posted the images on X and Snapchat. A number of pupils later staged a blockade of the school and death threats were made against the principal on social media.
“Some youths called for his resignation, someone threatened to cut off his head,” says Francis Lec, the headteacher's lawyer. “This type of comment led extremists to travel several hundred kilometres to take out Samuel Paty [editor's note, a school teacher beheaded near his school] in 2020. Fortunately it didn't have the same effect here, but it started the same way.”
Sweeping statements
According to the lawyer, the school principal has made no fewer than six legal complaints, for “threats”, “defamation” and “intimidation”. So far only two individuals, one from the Paris region and one from Normandy, have been identified. The former will stand trial in Paris on April 23rd while the latter was acquitted on March 15th.
But this story took a new twist when, on March 26th, the principal announced that he was resigning, five months before he was due to retire. “Dear colleagues, I have decided in the end to quit my position as principal this evening, for my security and that of the school,” he wrote. His words quickly did the rounds of social media, provoking anger from many people who sought to outdo each other in their reaction, with words such as “capitulation”, “failure” and “collapse” being bandied around.
The following day France's prime minister Gabriel Attal announced that the government was taking legal action against the student for “defamation”. According to his version of events, it was the student who was responsible for events getting out of hand by wearing a hat, and then accusing the headteacher of having hit her. Speaking on Europe 1 radio Gabriel Attal even made the teenage pupil into a something of a symbol, associating her case with “attempts at Islamist entryism in school establishments”. These were sweeping statements but a very useful way of trying to convince the education community of his support.
According to the headteacher's lawyer Francis Lec it was his client who had in fact sought to depose this particular complaint but it had “not been registered by the police department”. The lawyer continued: “When the prime minister met [the principal] he explained the situation to him and Gabriel Attal thought it was right that the state also make the complaint.” Speaking on RTL radio later, education minister Nicole Belloubet took the same stance, despite such legal action being unprecedented. “We're deposing a complaint because that's our role. Our role is to protect headteachers, to be there for them,” she declared, before announcing the following day the creation of a “mobile school force” during an official visit to Bordeaux in south-west France.
This was fairly meagre consolation for teachers as well as being disproportionate in respect of a student who has been thrown to the wolves by a minister in front of the whole country. “She made no threats, she didn't post anything on social media but she's the only one to have been punished so far,” notes one teacher at Maurice-Ravel high school, who regrets how events have got out of hand.
An uneasy atmosphere
On the evening of March 29th staff at the school met and agreed not to talk to the media because of the atmosphere, and to fine-tune a statement in the days to come. “The teachers want things to be calm,” says Ketty Valcke, co-secretary of the SNES-FSU trade union in Paris. “It's a very peaceful high school. Secularism doesn't pose any particular problem in this establishment. This shouldn't have been anything more than an internal incident.”
That view is shared by a teacher at the school who prefers to remain anonymous. “This affair came at the same time as the hacking of messages on the ENT [editor's note, the digital workspace used by French schools and to which all students have access]. The atmosphere isn't calm. Things are getting all jumbled up,” she says. “And the political hijacking of it that we've witnessed makes one very afraid.”
Last week teachers at the school had wanted to go on strike in support of the principal, but many of them later rowed back from this to avoid this action being wrongly interpreted and “manipulated again”, says Ketty Valcke.
Support for the student
The SNPDEN-UNSA trade union, the main body representing school principals, which has joined the former Maurice-Ravel headteacher as a civil party in his legal actions, broke its silence last week to voice their full support for him. Its co-national secretary Audrey Chanonat told Mediapart that they want to see more written rules to reduce the role and scope for individual discretion on the part of teachers when it comes to assessing the acceptability of outfits and religious symbols under the 2004 legislation.
“We ask that school heads are not left on the front line to decide. I am not competent to say that such or such an accessory is religious clothing,” says the union representative. “The more texts there are, the more it will defuse tense situations.”
Last week pupils, both Muslim and non-Muslim, came together at the entrance to the high school to show their full solidarity with the “discreet” young student whom they barely know. One after another they highlighted how the media had taken the headteacher's side and the “shocking” political hijacking of the issue. They said they felt “insulted” and attacked what they called an “Islamophobic frenzy”.
“Since Gabriel Attal banned the abaya in schools in September, the atmosphere has changed. The girls are policed and get it in the neck,” complains 'Lisa' – not her real name. Her friend 'Camille' – also not her real name – says she would have preferred education minister Nicole Beloubet, who visited the school on March 5th, to have taken more interest in the “mouldy ceilings, rats and dilapidated walls”.
As for the student who has become a hostage in a debate much bigger than this internal controversy, she has stopped her studies and found work. At Maurice-Ravel some now refer to her as the “veiled one”. This young woman, who has never gone on social media and who herself criticised the death threats when speaking to the website Bondy Blog on March 2nd, no longer wants to talk about this matter. No more interviews, no more school. “When the veiled one saw that she wasn't being listened to she left,” says one pupil at Maurice-Ravel. “And she cut all ties.”
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- The original French version of this report can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter