Agence France Presse
PARIS, 14 September 2004 — A Muslim policewoman in Paris has annoyed her superiors and stoked a national debate in France over Islamic head scarves after refusing to take off her own head covering on religious grounds, a police union said yesterday. The woman, a traffic officer identified only as Nora C., refused an order given Aug. 25 to take off a small headscarf that she wears under her uniform cap, the union said, confirming a report in a news magazine, L’Express.
She reiterated her stance the next day when she met another superior officer, whose hand she declined to shake, the union, Synergie, said. The union added that the woman, who is divorced with two children, was currently off work on medical leave.
The incident focused attention back on a controversial new law in France banning Islamic head scarves and other religious insignia in state schools in a bid to uphold the country’s strict secularity. Muslim groups in particular have protested against the measure, claiming it infringes upon their religious traditions.
It was not clear whether the policewoman was breaching uniform rules by insisting on keeping her headscarf, but the Synergie union asserted that her act was “unacceptable on principle” and threw “the neutrality of the state into question”.
Paris’s2 , 000traffic officers wear a distinctive blue-and-white uniform topped with a yellow and blue cap.
France meanwhile pursued its campaign to secure the release of two journalists held hostage in Iraq for more than three weeks, hoping for a quick resolution but also preparing for the long haul.
At the weekend, the Foreign Ministry recalled a special envoy sent to Baghdad last month to lead diplomatic efforts on the ground, but insisted yesterday that its strategy had not changed.
“Three weeks after the abduction of Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, the Foreign Ministry’s teams remain mobilized in order to achieve the release of the two French journalists,” said ministry spokesman Herve Ladsous.
But the recall of the top diplomat, Hubert Colin de Verdiere — who is due to take up his post as France’s ambassador to Algeria — showed that Paris was preparing for what could be a drawn-out hostage situation.
“No one is saying it, but it’s true that such a scenario has not been ruled out,” a French diplomat who asked not to be named said.
“Unfortunately, we have no information that allows us to predict how long the crisis will last, one way or the other,” the diplomat added.
Chesnot, who works for Radio France, Malbrunot, a correspondent for Le Figaro newspaper, and their Syrian driver were kidnapped on Aug. 20 by a shadowy group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.
The hostage-takers initially demanded that Paris rescind its ban on the wearing of Islamic head scarves and other “conspicuous” religious insignia in state schools, but the law went into effect on Sept. 2 as planned.
After an unprecedented wave of condemnations from the Arab and Muslim worlds, the group seemed set to release the men but for the last week there has been no news.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told Europe 1 radio that information obtained by Paris about the two journalists seemed to indicate that they were alive.
The minister said the situation had become extremely complicated due to increased fighting in and around Baghdad, noting that mortar rounds had hit the French Embassy in the Iraqi capital on Sunday.