A Paris school principal’s decision to resign after receiving online death threats over an incident involving a Muslim schoolgirl’s headscarf has sparked national outrage this week in France.
Camera crews descended on the school and the government said it planned to sue the student, accusing her of making false accusations – the latest flashpoint in a debate over French secularism and the treatment of the country’s Muslim minority.
Officials say the incident occurred on February 28 at Lycée Maurice-Ravel when the school’s principal asked three students to remove their headscarves on school grounds. Two of the students complied, but the third refused, sparking a “fight,” according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Since 2004, middle and high school students in France have been banned from wearing “ostentatious” symbols that have a clear religious meaning, such as a Catholic cross, a Jewish skullcap or a Muslim headscarf.
Full details of the altercation are unclear. But the incident quickly drew national attention in France, where the perceived encroachment of Islam in the public school system is a highly sensitive issue.
The country remains deeply scarred by the killing of two teachers by Islamic extremists in recent years.
The student told investigators the principal pushed her and hit her on the arm, but the Paris prosecutor’s office said a lawsuit she had filed accusing the principal of assault had been dropped due to a lack of evidence. The principal filed a separate lawsuit accusing the student of intimidating a public official, prosecutors said.
The government and politicians across the spectrum defended the mastermind and disputed the allegations of violence made against him.
French officials have not publicly identified the principal or the student. The regional education authority for Paris said the student left the school shortly after the incident.
The controversy began to attract more national attention last week after the director decided to resign. In a message to school staff shared with French media, he said he decided to leave because of concerns for his personal safety and the safety of the school itself.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said the threats against the principal were “unacceptable” and announced Wednesday that the government would file a legal complaint against the student, accusing her of trying to “intimidate” the principal by making false accusations of violence against him. leading to a wave of online death threats.
“Laïcité is constantly being tested,” Mr. Attal told national television on Wednesday about the case, referring to the French version of secularism, which guarantees freedom of conscience but also the strict neutrality of the state and certain public spaces. .
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into the death threats and “cyber harassment” the director faced. Three people have already been arrested and one of them will go on trial next month, the prosecutor’s office announced.
Mr Attal, who met with the director on Wednesday, said the director had been scheduled to retire in June but had decided to resign earlier because of the threats. The prime minister added that the state would be unwavering in its support to “all those who are on the front lines of these attacks against the people”.
In his previous post as education minister, Mr Attal had spearheaded a school ban on the abaya, a loose, full-length robe worn by some Muslim women.
Nicole Belloubet, Mr Attal’s successor at the ministry, visited the school in early March to express her support for the principal and assured lawmakers this week that he had received full legal and moral assistance. Police officers were also deployed in front of the school as a precautionary measure after the incident, he said.
In a video released by the Collective for Countering Islamophobia in Europe – a Belgium-based activist group formed after a similar one in France was dismantled by the government – the student said the fight happened as she was leaving school.
Speaking with her face blurred to hide her identity, the student said she had started to cover her head with a hat as she prepared to put on her headscarf when the principal shouted at her to take it off.
Before she could comply, she said, the principal “pushed me violently” and “struck me hard on the arm” and then tried to drag her into his office until another student intervened, she said.
The Association to Combat Islamophobia in Europe condemned the threats against the headmaster but accused the French government of “fostering a climate of conflict within schools, pitting teachers, students and families against each other”.
“We want to reiterate our commitment to combating all forms of harassment and discrimination, especially against Muslim students, who are under undue pressure in the current climate,” the group said in a statement.
For many in France, the case echoed the chain reaction that led to the killing of Samuel Paty in 2020. The history teacher was beheaded in a northwestern Paris suburb by an Islamist assailant after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to his students in an attempt to depict the freedom of speech.
Mr Paty was murdered less than two weeks after a female student lied about attending his class and made false accusations against him – sparking a spiral of online rumors that eventually put the killer on the trail.
The killing last year of Dominique Bernard, a French literature teacher who was stabbed to death at a high school in northern France by a radicalized former student, put the country on edge.
In an interview on French television on Thursday, Mickaëlle Paty, Mr Paty’s sister, praised the government’s swift response to the incident at the Lycée Maurice-Ravel. But Ms Pati, who wants the government to be held accountable for failing to protect her brother, said there was still a “lack of awareness” of the threats facing teachers.
A French Senate report published this month found there has been a worrying rise in insults, threats and physical violence against teachers in recent years and urged the government to increase security and schools and make it easier for staff to report worrying incidents to the ministry Education.
A lone camera crew was still outside the school Thursday, but the mood was calm. Several students said they had not witnessed the incident themselves, but were surprised by the national attention it had received and the rumors it had spawned.
“The rules are the rules, we all signed them at the beginning of the year: it says the headscarf is prohibited inside the school,” said Yacine Kone, 16. But, she added, the principal “must not put his hand on a student, even if it’s just to touch her.”
Ralph Modisa, 15, said the principal had a good reputation among students. “People are very upset about nothing,” he added.
Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.
