The bandana episode has compounded doubts in the political world over legislation that has drawn criticism abroad and begun to backfire at home, to the embarrassment of President Chirac, its main promoter.

The Government struggled to disown the remarks to parliament by Luc Ferry, the minister, who is a philosopher and political neophyte, as he tried to explain the logic behind the outlawing of “conspicuously manifested” religious symbols.

Beards might come under the ban because Muslim boys might use them as a religious statement and girls might try to circumvent the law by using bandanas to cover their heads, he suggested.

M Ferry also cited the need to ban large crosses, which he said were used by followers of the Syro-Chaldean Church, a handful of whose members live in a north Paris suburb.France’s 7,000-strong Sikh community was told that its boys could keep their turbans provided that they were “invisible”. This was interpreted to mean hair nets. The Government neglected to take account of the Sikhs when it prepared its law.

The French Sikhs appealed to the Government yesterday to rethink the ban on conspicuous headdress. “The Sikhs of France want to draw your attention to the injustice which this law on secularity is going to create,” the Gurdwara Singh Saba association, the main Sikh body, said.

The Socialist Opposition, which supports a ban on the hijab, or head-covering, in the classroom, compared M Ferry to Tartuffe, the hero of Molière’s comedy whose name is synonymous with hypocritical humbug. “We need a clear text. This Tartufferie is shocking and it is proof that the Government is in a state of complete confusion,” Jean Glavany, a former Socialist Cabinet Minister, said. Opinion surveys show that 70 per cent of the public support a ban on headscarves in schools and a small majority of people of Muslim background are also in favour.

The imminent ban has given a platform to Muslim radicals. This may be driving voters into the arms of Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the antiimmigrant National Front, who is standing for a regional presidency in March.

Marine Le Pen, his daughter and political deputy, said that demonstrations last weekend led by fundamentalist preachers were a recruiting drive for the Front. Such views are fuelling doubts among members of M Chirac’s Union for a Popular Majority on the wisdom of a ban. Alain Madelin, a senior MP, said the Bill would “play into the hands of the Front”.

MPs are being allowed an open vote, but with Socialist support for the ban, there is little doubt that the law will enter force in schools in the autumn. However, the fallout could prove to be serious. Many moderate members of France’s six million-strong community of Muslim origin fear that the ban will stigmatise them and boost militants causing trouble in immigrantdominated housing estates.

These are the very people whose influence the Government was seeking to counter by reinforcing France’s long-standing prohibition of religious practices in state schools.

DRESS CODE FOR A SECULAR STATE

THE draft law bars from state schools “signs and clothes that conspicuously manifest the religious affiliation of the pupils”.

No items of dress are listed and interpretation will be left to teachers. Officials have cited three that are intended to be targeted: the hijab, the head and upper-body cover worn by some Muslim girls; the yarmulke, or Jewish skull cap; and large Christian crosses. Small symbols such as Stars of David, crucifixes or Muslim insignia worn as jewellery, would be tolerated. The Government has no objection to Sikh turbans provided that they are not conspicuous. Sikhs say a hair net is unacceptable.

DEBATE

Are the French proposals a step too far?
Send your e-mails to debate@thetimes.co.uk

Explore World News

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Afghanistan: A country locked in a spiral of doom
• Liberal challenges prohibitionist Islam
• Flying yacht in battle to crack 50-knot barrier