In September 2003, the wearing of the Muslim veil at school shook French society for the first time. To the point that President Jacques Chirac asked a commission of twenty members – chaired by Bernard Stasi, mediator of the Republic – to look into the problem in complete independence, and to quickly submit a report to him on the necessity, or not, of legislate.

At the time, Dorothée Thénot filmed, for the parliamentary channel, the three months of debates and the 150 hearings which would be held in the Senate, behind closed doors. The freedom of tone of the speakers and the rendering of the journey of their reflection make it a rare source of information, not to be missed.

Brief reminder. The “scarf affair” arose in Creil (Oise) at the start of the 1989 school year, when three students wearing an Islamic veil were prohibited from entering the school. It experienced several aftershocks until the exclusion, at the start of the 2003 school year, of two veiled students from the Aubervilliers college (Seine-Saint-Denis).

“Arrival of communitarianism”

Bernard Stasi is assisted by Rémy Schwartz, general rapporteur. With them, the profiles are eclectic: philosophers and writers, such as Henri Pena-Ruiz, Gilles Kepel, Régis Debray – who appears rather elusive here; sociologist Alain Touraine; the high school principal of Dammarie-lès-Lys (Seine-et-Marne), Ghislaine Hudson, whose interventions will prove decisive, like those of Hanifa Cherifi, mediator for national education, particularly when she distinguishes the veil (hijab, meaning “to hide”) of the scarf (an ornament).

At the beginning of the film, the teaching staff demands clear rules, in front of an audience that is mostly reluctant to propose a new law. Testimonies from the field will change judgments. “I did not expect the unanimity of the deterioration of the social situation, which results in the arrival of communitarianism in all public services”, summarizes Rémy Schwartz, while equality between women and men is also going invite into the debate.

Archive images report the speeches of Dalil Boubakeur, then president of the French Council of Muslim Faith, and of politicians, divided on secularism beyond the right-left divide: François Bayrou, Jean-Louis Borloo, Pierre Mauroy, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean-Pierre Raffarin…

All points of view are listened to, from Saïda Kada, co-author with Dounia Bouzar of L’Une voilée, l’autre pas (Albin Michel, 2003), to Chahdortt Djavann (Bas les voiles!, Gallimard, 2003). The impartiality of the members is, however, questioned on one or two occasions. Likewise, media treatment. Two leaks infuriate Stasi commission members: Who is the mole?

The law banning conspicuous – and non-ostentatious – signs in French public schools, adopted in March 2004, now serves as the basis for the ban on the abaya and qamis.