France: 20 years after the 2004 law, religious symbols in public schools still in the news. This Friday, March 15, we commemorate the anniversary of a pillar of French secularism.
The law prohibits the wearing of signs or outfits ostensibly demonstrating religious affiliation in public school. Twenty years later, the question of educational secularism still remains relevant. The 2004 law dealt with religious attire. There was, and we saw it last year, with the increasingly massive appearance of the abaya. What we have to face more and more today is the contestation of teaching.