ABSTRACT
Although French theories and anxieties about Islamic headscarves date back to colonial days, they took on added force in the late 1980s, when fears about international political Islam combined with the greater domestic visibility of Islam to produce new cries of alarm. Objections to public wearing of Islamic scarves were based on multiple claims: some expressed concern that boys would pressure girls to don scarves; others argued that the scarves had become signs of political Islam; still others claimed that the scarf stood for the oppression of women. The debate centered on the presence of such scarves in schools and produced a 2004 law banning conspicuous signs of religious affiliation from public schools. No longer were scarves (foulards) at issue, but rather the inexact term “the veil” (le voile).
