Voile, port de la

   La Voile, as a issue in modern France, refers to the Muslim veil, or hijab. The question began to become an issue in the late 1980s and early 1990's, when increasing numbers of girls from Muslim families began turning up at school wearing Islamic headscarves. France's state education system is founded on strict principles of laïcité (secularism), but the 1904 law on laïcité did not address the question of the wearing of Islamic headscarves. Consequently, school principals were dealing with the issue on an ad hoc basis, and with contradictory jusgements, some tolerating the veil, others banning it from school. The situation became untenable, and in March 2004, Parliament passed a law banning the wearing of 'ostentation signs of religion' in schools, including Islamic veils, the Jewish kippa and large crosses. Since then, the controversy has died down, and there has been a sharp fall in the number of pupils trying to come to school wearing forbidden items.